The Federal Communications Commission hopes to grant federal and state prisons the right to jam mobile phones that have been smuggled in to inmates.

The commission has scheduled a vote this month to remove a restriction that keeps the prisons from such jamming. The inmates are not authorized to have the phones, which the commission said are being used to assist them in conducting criminal activity while behind bars.

US law prohibits the use - and even the sale or distribution - of any equipment that can jam authorized signals such as radio communication, police radar, GPS devices and cell phones. Jamming is forbidden under the Communications Act of 1934, which has been amended and updated since its original drafting.

The vote is scheduled for September 30th.