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Telephones

Interview with Tom, Jessica, Justin D., Pat and Sandi

JM: Did you have regular access to telephones?
Tom: there were two phones for 1200 men and half the time someone would agravate a guard and the phones would be turned off
Jessica: only 8 am to 10pm then collect calls only and each call limited to 8 min
Justin D.: Yes
Justin: yea from 6am to 10 am you had access.. that is if they had them turned on
Pat: Yes where I was I could use the phone
Sandi: Yes. Once I got to maximum security, which was 7-10 days after I arrived at the jail (I started out in the psychiatric area). There were 3 or 4 phones in the pod.

JM: What types of charges applied for calling people? How much money would you guess the average inmate spends per week on phone calls?
Tom: astronomical a five minute local call was roughly $8.00 and only to numbers pre approved and that could accept charges for the call
Jessica: high costly per minute charges
Justin D.: Collect
Justin: it would cost 2.65 to connect. and 5.00 for every 10 minutes after that charge
Pat: Not sure you had to buy a card to make calls and I didnt do that
Sandi: I think that the phone calls charged the recipient of the call around $7 a minute. Calls would cut off after about 15 minutes and you would have to call back. I can't imagine what some inmates would charge on phone calls. Most of them were not on the phone all of the time. There was no charge to call Attorney offices.

JM: Did you need to buy phone cards to call out?
Tom: that was suggested to the sheriff and was never implemented
Jessica: no
Justin D.: No
Justin: no, you usually had your ppl put money on an account
Pat: Yes you need phone cards or you could do collect calls
Sandi: There were no phone cards at the time.

JM: Did the jail screen your calls?
Tom: every single one
Jessica: yes recorded each... booking number was used as your pin for call to go through
Justin D.: Yes
Justin: yes. they always screened your calls
Pat: I dont know think so
Sandi: Absolutely they screened every call and would use any information they could on inmates in their trials.

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