HOUSTON, Texas-The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is prepping equipment to jam wireless cell phones signals at facilities following the escape of an inmate from a maximum-security prison in Beaumont last month.
David Puckett, the inmate who escaped, smuggled a cell phone to plan his run from authorities and succeeded before being apprehended in Omaha, Nebraska. Officials say Puckett used the device to form a relationship with Mattice Mayo, who allegedly wired Puckett money to board a Greyhound bus in the Houston area. Puckett’s first stop after climbing through razor-wire was to find medical treatment for his wounds before obtaining his ride to Omaha. This was the second cell phone known by investigators that Puckett had obtained, with the first one found in his cell in 2009.
Mayo was placed in jail and is currently facing charges. Mayo’s mother, Tricia Moore, is claiming that her daughter never knew Puckett was incarcerated.
The jamming could potentially violate federal law, but it has the support of some lawmakers, including Texas State Sen. John Whitmire. The state senator said the federal law making it illegal to block cell signals needs a change.
“Think of the potential danger, they could be calling crime victims, they could be calling law enforcement, and also they could be calling gang members,” said Whitmire in an interview with Houston’s KHOU television news program.
Whitmire previously received calls from an inmate on Texas death row three years ago. “They could be having criminal enterprises running from inside the prisons because prison officials cannot keep the cell phones out of the prisons,” Whitmire concluded.
As cell phone use across the nation becomes more ubiquitous, the problem of keeping the devices out of prisons continues to increase. Almost 800 devices were confiscated in Texas prisons alone in 2010. State records obtained in California show a much deeper problem, with 8,675 cell phones raided from the state’s prison system in the same year, including one from Charles Manson. Another cell phone was confiscated from Manson earlier this year.
“Action to make cell phones ineffective within the correctional environment must be part of the solution,” said Brad Livingston, executive director of the TDCJ, in a statement from the department.
The TDCJ announced that it has begun installing a video surveillance system at the Stiles Unit where Puckett escaped, and that a more comprehensive statewide search for cell phones at prisons is underway. Livingston said that a demonstration of cell jamming technologies is also being planned at the Stiles Unit.
Opponents of the proposal claim that difficulties include the challenge to federal law, limiting the technology to a certain facility, and that it compromises the use of wireless devices for legitimate purposes and emergencies.
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