County Jail Looks for New Inmate Phone Provider

A row of short, bolted down stools line a long and narrow room in the Tom Green County Jail, where approximately 22 inmates at a time can be brought in to speak to their loved ones through telephone receivers and plexi-glass.

The stereotypical visitation cell setup is familiar to many from Hollywood films, but in November 2013, Tom Green County introduced a new form of visitation that enables families and those incarcerated to visit via video session.

Beaming in from their cells to the computers and homes of their families, inmates enjoyed the service for nearly a year, but when the contracted company, Edge Access, went bankrupt in 2014, the video lines went down, three weeks before the one year anniversary.

Now, as inmates are temporarily shuffled back to the old-school visitation cell, the county has sent out a request for proposals for other companies to contract with the county for the video service.

Although some still prefer the face-to-glass-to-face interviews, Sheriff David Jones explained that the video system was widely well received and offered a variety of benefits to inmates and their families.

“They can do it any day, any time during the day,” Jones explained. “When it’s face-to-face, they only have a couple of times during the week when they can go and visit. With our video visitation, they can even visit from home. It keeps kids connected with the family, you know, whoever’s incarcerated. There’s just a lot of benefits to video visitation.”

One of the major issues associated with traditional in-jail visitation cells is that of manpower and security, explained Jail Commander Captain Todd Allen.

“The main is issue is the amount of staff time it takes to get the inmates back and forth and then the separation of the inmates,” Allen said. “If one inmate can’t be with another one, then we’ve got to move his visitation to the next block.”

Since there are no partitions or walls between each stool, if a violent or segregated offender is called to visitation, he or she must sit alone among 21 other empty stools. Gang rivalries and personal beefs between individuals may not always be immediately known by correctional officers, thus leading to a higher probability of incidents between inmates.

When the video system was installed, several units were placed in the lobby of the jail, while the receiving units were placed in the inmate’s cells. Visitor’s sign up for 15- or 30-minute chats online, and visits are scheduled 24 hours in advance.

Since several inmates often share the same space and video unit, each may only receive video calls at his or her appointed time.

All video calls are scheduled in advance and monitored closely by officers to ensure that conduct and dress codes are being adhered to. The videos are also recorded and can be referenced at a later date.

“When we had it, we did not find a whole lot of [inappropriate behavior],” Jones said. “We did not find much at all. There was a few sessions that we discontinued and took them off the list that they could visit, but it worked real well.”

Currently, the Tom Green County Jail owns all of the units in the lobby, but Edge Access still owns the units in the jail cells. One of the biggest sticking points for a new service provider is compatibility, or ensuring that the devices the county owns will function with those the company brings in.

“The plan is when we get a new company, they’re going to either negotiate with [Edge Access] to use those (jail cell) boxes or take them out,” Alen said. “The plan is for him to come and get him, but whether he wants to negotiate with the company is between him and the company we go with.”

The Tom Green County Jail purchasing department officially sent out the RFP on Jan. 21, and has set a deadline of Feb. 6 at 2 p.m. Since sending out the RFP, companies have already begun responding with questions, Captain Allen said.