*Inmates at prisons across the U.S. were busted with cell phones during the nationwide test of emergency alert systems on Oct. 4.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and FCC conducted the tests to ensure the systems were effective at communicating warnings to the public, the Mirror reports. The EAS sent a test to hundreds of millions of radios, televisions, and cell phones. Both a test message and a loud alert sound were sent to mobile devices.
Prison guards were able to easily identify inmates with contraband cell phones when the alert noise rang out, TMZ reports.
The alert message said: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. The purpose is to maintain and improve alert and warning capabilities at the federal, state, local, tribal and territorial levels and to evaluate the nation’s public alert and warning capabilities. No action is required by the public.”
Two phones were confiscated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility and phones were found at FCI Coleman Low in Florida during the emergency test, TMZ reports.
Some prisoners were likely aware the alert was gonna happen and turned off their devices so they didn’t get confiscated.
In related news, the nationwide emergency alert test resulted in several Amish men being shunned after they were outed for having smartphones.
Some Amish communities prohibit technology of any kind, this includes phones and computers. According to ex-Amish TikToker Eli Yoder, “Several Amish men got shunned by the Amish Church for having smartphones in their pocket when the emergency alert system went off,” he said in an October 4 TikTok, Complex reports.
According to Yoder, “quite a few Amish men” have contacted him about obtaining cell phones.
“Whenever they request to have a phone, I’ll do everything I can to try to get them a phone,” he continued. “Not always can I do so, but in some circumstances I have been able to get them a phone.”
Yesterday, we conducted a nationwide emergency alert test in conjunction with the @FCC.
What happens next: https://t.co/T82Raf3jVh pic.twitter.com/3gG09GCsDW
— FEMA (@fema) October 5, 2023
Several of these men contacted Yoder after the alert test exposed them as cell phone owners.
“[They] said, ‘Hey, I’m gonna have to lay low for a while, I just got shunned,’” Yoders shared. “I said, ‘How’d that happen?’ They said, ‘Hey, that emergency alert that went off? Yeah, we had our phones on vibrate and it still went off.’”
He continued: “One guy said the elders were coming in his driveway and they were there to speak with him about something they heard about him, that he might have to get shunned. Right as that was going on, the alert went off and it was in his pocket. Now he’s getting shunned for both. Whatever they were after to shun him and also the cell phone.”
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