Commissioner Continues To Meet With The FCC

NASHVILLE – On Monday, April 30, 2018, Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Tony Parker and Chief Interdiction Officer Lee Dotson will be participating in a working group focused on combatting prison cell phone use.  The working group is comprised of eight state corrections department heads, supported by Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA), representation from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the CTIA.  Tomorrow’s meeting, which will be held in Washington, DC, is the product of the efforts of Commissioner Parker and several of his peers following meetings with the Federal Communications Commission and U.S. Congressional delegations, where action without delay was encouraged.

Commissioner Parker believes these meetings are definitely a step forward, “The fact that the CTIA has agreed to come to the table to work with us in pursuit of a viable, lasting, and cost-effective countermeasure to inmates’ use of wireless communication devices in prisons is key to moving this initiative forward.”

Another promising development is that the National Institute of Justice has recently closed a solicitation for project proposals focused on this same issue.  The Department is looking forward to seeing what countermeasures may be developed in conjunction with these proposals and are extremely encouraged with the multi-agency/discipline approach to developing a solution to this problem.