NO PHONE ZONE: Contraband cellphones have plagued prison systems across the country for decades. Now, federal regulators are poised for the first time to let states jam mobile phone signals near detention facilities.

If the new rule passes a Federal Communications Commission vote later this month, one of its biggest impacts could be in Georgia. The AJC’s Danny Robbins and Carrie Teegarden have chronicled how the state’s troubled prison system has been besieged by violence as previously small-time crooks morphed into sophisticated crime lords behind bars. Cellphones have played a big part in their nefarious success.

An 88-year-old man was mistakenly assassinated in a hit called in by prisoners in 2021. And before that, an inmate used smuggled cellphones to scam $11 million from an elderly billionaire — money he then used to purchase gold coins to buy a mansion in Buckhead.

Still, the issue isn’t so cut and dried. Opponents worry the jamming technology might be too good, restricting legitimate cellphone use near prisons, such as 911 calls.

Those concerns haven’t been enough to dissuade Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican running for governor in 2026 who fully endorsed the plan after his previous lobbying of the Biden administration.

“Prisoners with contraband cell phones are ordering murders, and this has to stop now,” Carr said in a news release. “We’re thankful to finally have partners in the White House and the FCC who are willing to work with us to keep people safe.”