WASHINGTON -- Congress jumped into the battle over cellular phones being smuggled into prisons, debating new legislation that would allow jamming cellular signals behind bars, Local 2 Investigates reported Wednesday.

At a hearing before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison gathered new input on her bill that would make jamming cellular phone calls legal in prisons throughout the nation.

John Moriarty, Inspector General for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice testified that, "Investigations have revealed that inmates with Mexican drug cartel ties have been communicating through these illegal phones. The termination of the usefulness of these devices by permitting jamming within the confines of the prison is the most logical solution to ensure public safety."

Prison leaders from other states testified before the committee about inmates orchestrating assassinations, escapes, and riots by using cell phones that were smuggled into prison, often by corrupt corrections officers.

Local 2 Investigates began exposing the dangerous trend in Texas' 112 lockups early last year, prompting a statewide prison shakedown, and prompting hearings to be called by the Texas Legislature in Austin.

State Sen. John Whitmire answered several questions from the congressional committee about receiving threatening phone calls from a condemned inmate on Texas Death Row.

"I'm just really appealing for a common sense approach," he said. "Untie the hands of prison officials and let them use all available tools."

He said, "Short of jamming and a complete shutting down of those phone signals, I don't think we can remedy the problem."

Opponents of cell phone jamming also testified, mainly focusing on concerns that jamming cellular signals will unintentionally cripple the radio frequencies of nearby emergency responders such as firefighters and police.

"Jamming is not a panacea," said Steve Largent, president of the Cellular Technology Industry Association or The Wireless Association.

"Even with over-jamming a facility, there is no promise of complete success inside the facility. Though, harmful interference with legitimate users outside the facility is all but guaranteed, especially in urban areas," said Largent.

Texas prison officials countered that most of the 112 state lockups are in remote, rural areas.

The Wireless Association leader argued against the bill, saying other technology could address the problem.

One option is electronic call detection, which could lead prison officials directly to the source of a smuggled cell phone. The other option is managed access.

Largent said, "Managed access solutions allow commercial wireless network access only to specifically authorized users, while blocking others. This solution also ensures that controls apply only within a prison and not outside of it."

Largent said that jamming cellular phones in prisons abroad, such as in South America and India, have caused up to 200,000 legitimate customers to have their cellular service interrupted.

"That's the fear we have," he said.

Another opponent of jamming, Richard Mirgon of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials-International testified that the range of radio frequencies that handle cell phones, known as the 'spectrum' is not configured in a way that would protect nearby police or fire radios from being affected.

He said Nevada casinos have perfected the use of other technology, such as intercepting all cell phone calls inside a casino so that the calls are routed through a system that allows the casino to cash in on the airtime. Mirgon suggested that sort of technology would be more effective in fighting the prison smuggling problem.

Mirgon said, "Some very smart inmate in a prison who has a degree in engineering, or just plain creative, will devise some way such as extending the antenna on the cell phone to bypass the jamming."

But Moriarty, the top criminal investigator in Texas prisons, said other solutions are not enough.

"We have tried the use of some very sophisticated counter-measures and it has not been successful in the prison environment. We've looked at a lot of the methods that have been mentioned here today and found that, with as many facilities as we have, it's not a wise use of taxpayer dollars," said Moriarty.

He said the Texas Legislature has set aside $500,000 for the call detection equipment that was mentioned at Wednesday's hearing.

"It's just very difficult to utilize that detection equipment," said Moriarty.

Four full-time employees are devoted to moving the mobile detection equipment from prison to prison, but Moriarty said it's not effective because Texas is so huge and has so many prison units.

Hutchison announced new co-sponsors, hinting that her bill has growing support on Capitol Hill. She told the committee, "

When a single call can result in someone's death, we have an obligation. The states clearly have a responsibility, and Mr. Chairman, we do, too," said Hutchison.

She promised to work through the concerns of the wireless industry as the bill is modified in the future. She said her bill already requires each jamming device and each prison to go through a strenuous approval process with the Federal Communications Commission while also requiring measures to cut down on interference with other radio frequencies.