Experts clash over cell phone jamming at Senate hearing

In the debate over cell phone jamming in prisons, the skeptics have caution and reason on their side, but the advocates bring impressive horror stories. Take Texas State Senator John Whitmire, who testified at Wednesdays’ Senate Commerce and Science hearing on a bill to let prisons use jamming technology to block mobile phone use within their walls. At the event, he described how he received a phone call last year from Texas death row inmate Richard Tabler.

“Not being convinced or thinking it was even possible for [Tabler] to make such a call,” Whitmire explained, “he proved his identity by holding the phone so that I could hear the unforgettable sounds of a prison in the background, the clanging of steel doors and hollering of voices.” Over the course of a series of conversations, Tabler pressed Whitmire for various favors. Meanwhile he mentioned that he knew that Whitmire had two daughters, and also knew where they lived.

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