Tom Cotton: Pass Law To Stop Contraband Cell Phones In Prisons

Congress should move to stop contraband cell phones in prison by jamming all phone signals within jailhouse walls, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., argues.

In commentary posted by Fox News on Sunday, Cotton wrote that contraband cell phones allow inmates to continue their crime sprees from behind bars, as convicted fraud felon Martin Shkreli proved by running an investment company from prison.

“It’s impossible to know how many cell phones are circulating within prison walls, but the number is easily in the thousands in my state alone,” Cotton wrote. “Arkansas correctional officers discovered 36 contraband cell phones in 2012; six years later, they discovered 1,637.”

And prisoners use the contraband to “circumvent official, monitored forms of communication and plot criminal activity,” he argued.

“Prison authorities have responded to the flood of contraband with new technology and methods, including cell phone-detecting devices and enhanced screenings,” he noted, but urged “tougher measures.”

“The most effective, proven method to stop contraband cell phones is to jam all phone signals within prison walls,” he declared, lamenting “flawed federal regulations” that prevent state prisons from doing so.

According to Cotton, his Cellphone Jamming Reform Act would fix the problem, and “ensure inmates’ contact with the outside world takes place on our terms, not theirs, limiting criminals’ opportunities to take advantage of law-abiding citizens.”

“We have the ability to make our communities safer right now, if the federal government will just get out of the way,” he declared.

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