Congress·In Committee·H.R. 3353

Lieutenant Osvaldo Albarati Stopping Prison Contraband Act

Prison Safety: Higher Penalties for Smuggling Phones

May 13, 2025·View on Congress.gov·Read full text

This bill is one vehicle in a longer effort. See the full story across every version.View effort →

Next up: A house committeeNo action in 14 months

This bill is currently in the early stages of the legislative process and is being reviewed by the House Committee on the Judiciary. It is considered active, but no future hearings or votes have been scheduled yet. There is no companion bill listed for this legislation at this time.

Legislative Progress

House

Senate

President

Law

Unlikely to pass

While prison safety is often a bipartisan issue, most bills introduced in the House do not make it through the full legislative process without significant leadership backing.

How we got here

This bill’s path across every version that has carried it.

Reintroduced
Reintroduced from H.R. 10161 (118th), which died when its Congress ended.
H.R. 10161 (118th) →

Key Points

This bill increases the punishment for people who sneak cell phones into federal prisons. If this becomes law, someone caught providing a phone to an inmate could face up to two years in prison.
The goal is to stop inmates from using hidden phones to run criminal activities or threaten people from behind bars. Smuggled phones are considered a major safety risk for both prison guards and the public.
The head of the Bureau of Prisons must review all current rules about banned items like phones and drugs. They have one year to finish this review and update policies to make prisons safer for the people who work and live there.
This plan is named in honor of Osvaldo Albarati, a federal correctional officer who was killed in 2013. His death was linked to a hit ordered by inmates using a smuggled cell phone.

Impact Analysis

Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.

Milestones

2 milestones2 actions

May 13, 2025House

Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

May 13, 2025

Introduced in House

The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.

No votes or news coverage recorded for this bill yet.

Source Information

Document Type

Congressional Bill

Official Title

Lieutenant Osvaldo Albarati Stopping Prison Contraband Act

Bill NumberHR 3353

Congress119th Congress

ChamberHouse of Representatives

Latest ActionReferred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Data Sources

Congress.gov

Official legislative information

Read Full Bill Text

Sponsor

Cosponsors

(9)

D: 1R: 8

Analysis generated by AI. Always verify with official sources.