Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff is co-sponsoring a bill designed to crack down on contraband in the nation’s federal prisons.
Ossoff is partnering on the bill with Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Ia.). If passed, the measure would upgrade the charge for smuggling cellphones into federal prisons from a misdemeanor to a felony.
The bill is named for correctional officer Lieutenant Osvaldo Albarati. He was targeted by inmates and murdered at a detention center in Puerto Rico in 2013 in response to his continuous seizure of contraband phones. The inmate who placed a hit on him also did so using a contraband phone.
Th bill also directly impacts the state of Georgia. An investigation into the Atlanta federal prison revealed that 800 contraband cell phones were found during a 2021 sweep and used to run illegal activity in and out of the facility.
