COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) – Millions of dollars are being earmarked to combat what the head of South Carolina’s prison system calls the biggest threat to public safety: cell phones smuggled behind bars.

Law enforcement has linked these phones to drug trafficking, ordered murders of prison guards, and even the deadliest prison riot in South Carolina history.

“It’s a matter of life and death. It affects prison security, it can destabilize prisons and it affects public safety,” said Bryan Stirling, director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections.

Nearly $11 million from the new state budget will implement a cell phone blocking program in several state prisons.

This allows illegal mobile phones used behind prison walls to be identified and switched off by the network operators within a few days.

“We can’t afford not to do it,” Stirling said.

The Department of Corrections’ allocation is not enough to provide the roughly $30 million Stirling wanted this year to roll out the program in all prisons simultaneously and then fund it on a regular basis.

“I think with the money they’ve given us we can reach about seven or eight prisons, and hopefully more will come next year,” Stirling said, adding that they hope to have the technology installed in the first group of prisons later this year.

Stirling has been asking the federal government for years to allow him to block cell phone signals in his prisons, but to no avail.

This cell phone blocking program is the compromise they have agreed to to solve the problem. The Department of Corrections said a pilot of the program at Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville was successful.

South Carolina is the first state in the country to use this type of tool, and Stirling said other states are taking notice.

“People come to South Carolina to see what we do,” he said. “We’ve gotten several states to come here. We’re the national leader in cell phone interception.”

This program is one of several measures the Department of Corrections is using to stop smuggling, including searches, scanners, drones and nets.

Stirling also said the most important measure to ensure safety in prisons is hiring more qualified guards, which will be his top budget priority next year.

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