Prison Telephone Service Provider

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Universal Telephone Service

Universal Service, Affordability, and Customer Protection for all Telecom Consumers
FCC
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Court Decisions & Papers
Legislative Intiatives
Articles & Reports
Families Boycotting State Prison Phone Service
Rates and Charges for Telephone Calls from Inmates

For many years, inmates of jails and correctional institutions had extremely limited telephone service to make collect telephone calls to a restricted list of specified friends and relatives. Typically there was occasional access to a specialized payphone.  Modern advances in technology resulted in automation and improved efficiency in accounting for inmate calls, monitoring and recording conversations for security and law enforcement purposes, restricting the list of numbers which any particular inmate may call, and preventing fraudulent or criminal schemes. Jail and prison administrators began to see telephone service as a reward for good behavior and as a source of revenue for their agencies.  Also, because most inmates sooner or later return to their communities, the maintenance of communication with family is seen as a generally positive influence for the inmate’s reintegration in the larger society after release.

Inmate telephone service is now a very competitive industry that advertises its services to institutional administrators.  Despite competition and reduced costs of service due to automation, the rates and charges that must be paid by persons receiving the calls from inmates are very high.  Much of the inmate population comes from low income families, and thus the high cost of telephone service is a significant burden to many families that would like to maintain regular contact through telephone conversations with an incarcerated spouse, child, sibling or friend, often at a distant prison. In many instances, the cost is so high that otherwise welcome calls must be blocked or refused; in other cases, persons with limited incomes endure significant financial hardship paying for calls they really cannot afford.

A major reason for the high rates for those who pay for the calls is that institutions select winning bids for inmate telephone service on the basis of the vendor’s promise to provide of commission revenue to the institution. Commissions from 20% to 60% are common. News reports have indicated that in New York, the state earns $20 million per year in commissions on telephone charges to recipients of calls from state prison inmates.

In reviewing the reasonableness of rates for calls from inmates, some regulators have allowed rates that are equal to or less than the most expensive operator assisted collect calls from payphones. Those rates, however, are inapplicable to the highly automated inmate telephone systems, and are often avoidable. Recipients of calls from inmates, however, have no alternative choice of telephone service provider.

Jurisdiction over the rates for telephone calls from inmates is split between federal and state jurisdictions. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in recent years has issued several orders dealing with inter-state aspects of charges to recipients of inmate telephone calls, but has declined to take action to reduce the charges.  Efforts to allow the long distance portion of the service be provided by the receiver’s chosen long distance provider (“Billed Party Preference”) failed to gain approval at the FCC in the mid-1990's. The FCC has indicated there is a greater role for state commissions in this area.  State public utility commissions may approve contract rates for local and intra-state call service.

To date, court litigation by persons paying the high rates have generally not succeeded.   Several legislatures have considered elimination or reduction of the commissions from inmate telephone service. The high cost of collect calls from inmates affects a significant  number of people who are now organizing to bring about change.

PULP is maintaining this webpage to cover news and legal developments on this issue.  For further information, contact PULP at info@pulp.tc

 http://www.pulp.tc/html/inmate_phones.html

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From ICS:

The ENFORCER - Inmate Call Processing Technology
The ENFORCER is ICSolutions' fully integrated, self-contained call processing unit.  All components for placing automated collect & prepaid calls, digital call recording, silent call monitoring, and data collection are contained within a single compact unit. State-of-the art hardware and web-based software are used to ensure optimum performance, maximum efficiency coupled with a user-friendly administrative interface.

The system’s flexible design supports inmate tracking through PIN, optional Biometric Identification and seamless integration with external Jail Management and Commissary systems.  Secure web-based software provides extensive networking options for painless remote access capabilities and expanded investigative tools.



ICSdeposits - Trust Account Deposit Processing
ICSolutions now offers a service which manages processing of trust/commissary account deposits through phone, lobby kiosk and internet-based payment processing.  Facilities can save valuable staff time by having ICSolutions handle the deposits into inmate trust accounts.  Family members pay a processing fee and benefit from the convenience of making a deposit via credit card, electronic check, Western Union or MoneyGram via telephone, internet or optional lobby kiosk.  Deposits can be posted within an hour of receipt of verified funds.


ICSletters
Jails spend countless hours processing letters addressed to inmates.  This process may include x-ray of contents, testing of the paper, preparation of mail rejection paperwork and review of contents for prohibited messages.  ICSdeposits offers an alternative which allows family members to communicate via a secure email process customized for correctional facility use.

There is no cost to the facility to implement this service, and no special equipment required.  ICSolutions will provide you with access to a secure web site to retrieve messages at your convenience.  Automated delivery via email is also available.







V2 - Video Visitation & Arraignment
ICSolutions offers a full array of video visitation technology and software.  Video visitation eliminates the risk of contraband transfer during visitation and reduces the need for visitation supervision.  This technology can also be used to enable remote visitation by family, clergy or legal counsel, to minimize the number of individuals making site visits.

The same technology may be used to enable video arraignment and other court appearances.  V2 saves the cost of inmate court transportation, reduces security risk and reduces staff time spent escorting detainees to court proceedings.  Multi-participant capabilities, digital signature capture and recording functions provide additional benefits for all parties


THIS TYPE OF SERVICE INCREASES EFFICIENCY FOR THE DOC AND INCREASES INMATE COMMUNICATION WITH THEIR FAMILY.  SOUNDS LIKE A WIN WIN

MORE DETAILS HERE:   http://www.icsolutions.com/index/prodserv.html