https://apnews.com/4283e6e823e040fcbf968f12189ffe10

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Next month, South Carolina prison officials will test equipment that can jam the signals of contraband cellphones used by inmates, but the state prison director said he needs more technology than that to keep prisons safe.

The jamming device will be tested at part of Lee Correctional Institution, where seven inmates died in a riot in April, and state Corrections Director Bryan Stirling on Thursday told committee of lawmakers reviewing spending on permanent projects he hopes to test the $565,000-a-year device in the whole prison by the end of the year in his effort to get an exemption to a federal law that prohibits blocking signals.