Texas, Nation’s Last Inmate Payphone Holdout, Contracts for Prison Service
Texas no longer will be the only state without payphone service for prison inmates. The Board of Criminal Justice awarded an Embarq-Securus Technologies partnership a seven- year contract to provide prepaid and collect-call services to inmates in 106 Texas prisons. Embarq will provide phones and lines, while Securus provides the digital security technology. The contract could generate $86 million gross annually, about $600 million over the life of the agreement, state officials said.
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Global Tel-Link and Unisys bid on the contract, offering lower per-minute rates. But the board said Thursday that it went with Embarq/Securus because they offered better security against misuse. Service will be implemented the next eight months, with roughly one phone per 38 inmates. To use phones, inmates will be voice printed and issued a personal ID number. Inmates with disciplinary problems or gang ties cannot use the payphones. Typically, 25-30 percent of the state’s 150,000 prisoners are on disciplinary restriction, officials said.
Texas prisoners now can make one five-minute collect call from the warden’s office every 90 days, if they've displayed good behavior. With payphones, the monthly time for calls will be 120 minutes, with inmates or relatives able to buy up to 120 prepaid minutes monthly at 23 cents per minute for in-state calls and 39 cents for interstate calls. Or inmates can call collect for 26 cents a minute intrastate and 43 cents interstate. Each call can last 15 minutes.
Embarq/Securus will get 60 percent of the revenue. The state treasury and crime victim compensation fund will split the other 40 percent, with the first $10 million in state revenue entirely for the victim fund. Inmates can call any time phones are free and they are out of their cells. They can call lawyers, relatives and friends on a preapproved list of up to 10 people’s landlines. Calls to anyone unapproved will be blocked, as will calls to cell phones. Except for calls to lawyers, calls will be monitored and recorded.
Texas balked at offering inmates payphones for fear of misuse, harassment of victims or continued criminal activity. But the state board found that security technology and the right set of rules prevent those outcomes, it said. By waiting, Texas was able to avoid mistakes seen elsewhere and devise a system that works well for inmates and the state, said Justice Board Chairman Oliver Bell. “This will be the finest inmate phone system in the country,” he said.