Texas Inmates To Get Phones Soon
Texas is preparing to provide inmates with telephone privileges for the first time. Texas is the last State to provide such a service.
The Texas Board of Criminal Justice on Wednesday approved rules governing use of telephones, and agency officials said they would draw up within a few days proposals for bids from companies hoping to land a contract to install and manage the phones in the nation’s second-largest corrections system …
“We’re following what we were told to do,” said Christina Melton Crain, chairman of the prison board. “During the last legislative session, the state leadership mandated that the board and agency put such a phone system in place. The implementation of these policies is the first step toward making this mandate a reality” …
“Obviously the vendor has the responsibility to build into the system a significant safeguard to satisfy all the operational concerns we have,” said Brad Livingston, the prison system’s executive director. Among those safeguards are identifiers like fingerprints or retina scans or voice recognition programs to ensure the proper inmate is using the phone and not exceeding the time allowed.
The system will be commission-based as are most others.
The vendor will install and manage the system and the state will get a portion of the revenue. The first $10 million each year from commissions generated by the calls is to go to the state Crime Victims Compensation Fund. The Legislative Budget Board last year estimated annual revenue about $5.8 million, meaning all of the money would go into the victims fund. If revenue topped $10 million, 50 percent of the excess would go to the compensation fund and the other 50 percent to the state’s general fund.
There is a great deal more detail in the Houston Chronicle article.