The Federal Bureau of Prisons last week tested a new way to prevent illegal cellphone use in prisons.

The bureau ran the first ever micro-jamming technology test at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia.

The test was to determine if micro-jamming could disable cell signals and prevent wireless communication by inmates using contraband cellphones in a housing unit.

“The technology was designed and deployed to block signals from contraband cellphones inside the prison, while ensuring that there was no interference with wireless signals used by the public outside the facility,” said US Attorney Sherri Lydon.

“It is incredibly promising to see the potential for technology to address contraband cellphones in prisons, which for years have threatened our corrections and law enforcement officers and our community.”

Contraband cellphones pose a significant safety threat to the general public, prison workers, and other inmates.

In partnership with the South Carolina Department of Corrections and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina has brought a number of cases against inmates using contraband phones and SCDC employees smuggling contraband into prisons.

The attorney’s office recently prosecuted inmates who used contraband phones to move large quantities of methamphetamine from California to South Carolina. Inmates also used the illegal cellphones to buy a mail bomb intended to kill an ex-wife and defraud members of the military of over $560,000.