Prison board approves phones for inmates
Agency will have to hire vendor to supply security measures such as fingerprint, retina or voice scans.
By Mike Ward
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Thursday, January 24, 2008
Texas junked its historic ban on pay phones in state prisons Wednesday as officials took a first step toward getting cutting-edge technology that could keep convicts from using phones to plot new crimes from behind bars.

Without debate or dissent, the prison system's governing board unanimously approved a rule change to allow eligible convicts up to 120 minutes per month of call time � a maximum 15 minutes per call. With about 120,000 convicts expected to be allowed to make calls � those in solitary confinement and disciplinary cells would not be eligible � that could mean 4,000 phones in Texas' 106 prisons.

The pay phone system would use personal biometric identifiers, such as fingerprints, retina scans or voice recognition, to allow only approved convicts to make calls from dayrooms in their cellblocks, in dorms and at other locations inside prisons.

Bad idea. Very bad idea.

Are the fees from the phone calls going to pay for someone to monitor that, like a deep lung device, someone else doesn't provide the ID before another inmate uses the phone? And is the money generated also going to pay for someone to record and monitor all the phone calls for objectionable conversations or evidence to be used at a later date? And what of codes used by gangs?

Give me a break.

"Without debate or dissent, the prison system's governing board unanimously approved a rule change to allow eligible convicts up to 120 minutes per month of call time"

No debate, no dissent, and unanimous approval to change long-standing practice. What does the board do at meetings?

[Though I will allow that the press does not always get it right.]

JAS

Didn't they see Manhunter? You don't give Hannibal Lecter a phone.

And shouldn't there be a ban on giving phones to all those inmates who argued that the use of their fingerprints violated the Fifth Amendment?

One purpose of prison is to cut a criminal off from society. This will allow inmates to run all kinds of scams, and maintain their criminal organizations after they go to the joint. An extraordinarily bad idea.

Guys, guys, didn't you see the part about how the State can make money? I thought we all had agreed that money trumps public safety every time (see discussion re early release laws).

"cutting-edge technology that could keep convicts from using phones to plot new crimes from behind bars."

Because nobody with fingerprints or retinas would ever break a rule or commit a crime.

quote:

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Originally posted by Dan Bradley:
"cutting-edge technology that could keep convicts from using phones to plot new crimes from behind bars."

Because nobody with fingerprints or retinas would ever break a rule or commit a crime.

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Exactly.

In addition, none of those measures guarantees the inmates can't plot new crimes, etc. -- it just helps authorities catch them after the hit has been ordered, the drugs have been shipped, etc. And that all assumes you have a competent person actively monitoring the calls in a timely manner. I wonder how much the Lege appropriated for enforcement? I can just see the job posting now:

"WANTED: Investigator with penchant for gossip and rumor-mongering to monitor inmate phone calls. Must be able to sit on your rump for long periods of time for low pay and limited benefits. A working knowledge of street slang and popular culture is a plus. SALARY: starting at $19,500, with a chance to top out at $28,000 after 15 years of service, if you can survive that long; see TDCJ for more details."

I don't see what the problem is. There are phones in every single county jail in Texas. There are phones in all of the federal prisons, and there are phones in the prisons of most every other state but Texas. So I don't think that it is any big deal.

Cutting off inmates from their friends and families is a very bad idea. Do you not realize that almost 90% of all inmates get out at some point? They need to have these family support ties if they are ever going to make it on the outside. Prisons in Texas are spread all over the state, and most inmates' families are lower income families. So phone calls are a cheap and easy way to help keep those ties strong.

Yes, we can all point to instances in which some prisoner somewhere has done something wrong with a phone. The same can be true with the mail system or with face-to-face visits.

Again, phones in prisons are very common and widespread all across this country. This is nothing new.

Personally, I think they should take volunteers (from victim groups) for the job of monitoring the phone calls. Something they could do off-site, from their computer at home. Let's make the rest of the world a big prison-phone-call monitoring web site.

[This message was edited by JB on 01-25-08 at .]

[This message was edited by JB on 01-25-08 at .]

Maybe Perverted Justice could expand its services.

And what if the kids walked in while the volunteer is listening in?

"Mommy, what's a ho?"

[This message was edited by David Newell on 01-24-08 at .]

quote:

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Originally posted by RTC:
Prisons in Texas are spread all over the state, and most inmates' families are lower income families. So phone calls are a cheap and easy way to help keep those ties strong.

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Trust me. These calls will be neither cheap nor easy on those lower income families.

Second point: Did they say retina scans??? What is this... Star Trek? ... A James Bond movie? Yeah, the lower income families are going to have to use the entire Economic Stimulus check of $600-$1200 to the phone bill!

We regularly monitor jail phone calls in Williamson County. The most frequent complaint heard is by a mother talking to her misguided child about the gargantuan phone bill that she can't afford to keep paying if Junior keeps calling every day.

Aren't we shutting down prisons because there is not enough money to pay for guards? Where is this money coming from and why isn't it used to put more guards in for everyone's safety. A little more letter writing wouldn't hurt anyone with nowhere to go all day long, anyway!

Momma could always refuse the call. My dad used to bother the crud out of my mom at home because he simply would not answer the phone. He did not expect anyone else to answer it his place. Mom could not stand to have the phone unanswered while dad just didn't feel like talking to anyone. There was a quote in Fiddler on the Roof-- Good news will wait; bad news will refuse to leave.

If Momma had that sort of self-control, Sonny Boy might not be in prison.

The company who got the contract has a very good lobbyist...

quote:

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Originally posted by JB:
If Momma had that sort of self-control, Sonny Boy might not be in prison.

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I believe that Merle wrote a song about that one long ago, correlating mama's lack of self-control to a high degree of codependency.

I know AP and Scott can name that tune. Anyone else?

It's a shame we couldn't rig up something that routed these inmate calls to all the telemarketers that bug us from 6 to 9 PM.