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Telephones

Interview with mitchell, Stewart, Adam, Jeffrey, Brent and Daryll

JM: Did you have regular access to telephones?
mitchell: yes
Stewart: as I was saying earlier, most of the time if you wanted a phone in the evening you could not get it because the gang members would hog them and you could pay one to let you use a phone. don't blame them, I blame staff for a total lack of control of the institution
Adam: There was only 4 phones in the dorm for 60 guys and there was one fight in there because one guy was making mulitiple phone calls... We also have to order our commissary on phones so it makes it even more jammed up. Plus officer once took them away for three days and last three days to order to boot
Jeffrey: most of the time the gang bangers would hold a phone and pretend they were on it or keep making calls and then if you wanted to make a call you would have to give them the desert of your tray or a soup off commisary
Brent: the phones were hogged by a certain few and it was a hustle for them. what they would do is sit with a phone to their ear for hours until they could find someone to give them some commissary or a dinner tray to be able to use the phone
Daryll: there were 3 phones per block for about 30 inmates

JM: What types of charges applied for calling people? How much money would you guess the average inmate spends per week on phone calls?
mitchell: i think it was like 3 dollars a call we had to call collect
Stewart: it was about $3.00 dollars for me to make a 15 minute local call in county. I spent an avg of $15.00
Adam: local calls where 2.25...I called one county over in Alabama for 5 min and cost 15 dollars. some of the guys where probably making 2 to 3 calls a day
Jeffrey: all calls were collect and the charge to call someone in county were ridiculous. in 7 months I spent $1,500.00 using the phone to stay in touch with family
Brent: I didn't use the phone much but it was about $3.00 to make an in county collect call
Daryll: you could either make collect calls or have your family pay an outside vendor for pre paid calls and for me to call home ran an average of $50.00 to $60.00 a week

JM: Did you need to buy phone cards to call out?
mitchell: no
Stewart: collect calls were how I made my calls
Adam: they could be bought on commissary or have phone cards bought
Jeffrey: no it was either collect or your family could pay some outside company up front for calls over phone with a credit card
Brent: I believe they had phone cards to buy on commisary
Daryll: collect calls or call through a pre paid acct

JM: Did the jail screen your calls?
mitchell: yes
Stewart: there was a recording that came on periodically that said calls are being monitored
Adam: of course the screened them...one guy got a little upset on phone and took him to be watched for a period of time
Jeffrey: there was always an annoying recording interrupting the calls to say they were being recorded
Brent: there was a recording that said they were but I don't know if they actually did screen the calls
Daryll: there was always this annoying recording saying they were monitoring calls but I am not sure if they really did

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