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Telephones

Interview with Stan, Rich and Claudia

JM: Did you have regular access to telephones?
Stan: Yes, you had to call collect however
Rich: Telephones are available in the normal cell blocks from approximately 10:00 AM in the morning to 10:00 PM or 10:30 PM at night. These are of course collect-based telephones, that have a frustratingly poor voice recognition system to sign in and use them. Most of the normal cell blocks have two floors, with two phones side-by-side on each floor. There oddly rarely seems to be much fighting over the use of the phones. More restrictive areas of the jail (mental health, medical, maximum security, high-observation, etc.) might allow access one or two hours per day, to one inmate at a time (the one with his hour/two hours out). The phone system is expensive, although much less expensive than it was in previous years. The jail used to offer phone cards on commissary, but fighting occurred frequently over this and this phone card was withdrawn. It is not uncommon for inmates who are good at imitating the voice of other inmates to pretend to be them and use their phone monies/privileges (the initial passcode you enter on the phone's buttons are your prisoner number and date of birth, which can readily be observed by other inmates on your jail armband). One must then say the first name recorded into the system at the time of booking, or 'United States', to gain access to the system. Saying 'United States' rarely works on the phone system as the password part of authenticating access to the phone, and leads to a lot of frustration. Phones can have funds linked to certain number, or 'debit' funds, which can be used to call any number in the United States, and which are the mostly likely the most desirable 'marks' for jailhouse thieves to try to gain access to.
Claudia: You can use the telephone anytime but they do not turn them on until 10am and they turn them off at 10pm so anytime in between you can use them except from 4pm to 5pm when they do lock down for head count.

JM: What types of charges applied for calling people? How much money would you guess the average inmate spends per week on phone calls?
Stan: Normal collect call charges.
Rich: I believe up to $390 dollars can be added per month to the phone system access for a single inmate. The company that services the phones does not like credit card transactions in large frequency or dollar amount, and may insist upon further funds being sent by certified check/money order, or Western Union. A local (Michigan Detroit area) call is $2.00 for the acceptance of the call, and $0.25 for each minute of the call, up to a maximum of 15 minutes per phone call. I believe those amounts are doubled for long-distance, and even higher for the international calls allowed on the system. The average inmate likely calls daily for at least 10 minutes, and might make multiple calls per day. At a minimum of $5.75 per fifteen minute call, the average inmate might spend $40 to $70 per week on telephone privileges. There is also a separate $7.95 to $9.95 fee per money load onto an inmate's phone account for any loading transaction (to be paid by the person on the outside loading the funds).
Claudia: its a collect so im not sure of the exact price I know it cost about 4 dollars to connect and then its about 10 cents a minute from then on. but you can purchase Phone card or claling card off the commissary they have $5, $10,$20 dollar calling cards and on a 5 dollar card you only get maybe 2 3 minute calls on a 10 dollar card you get about 5 3 minute calls and a 20 dollar calling card u can get up to 10 calls but it also depends on what area code you are calling. it gets very expensive on average the normal inmate does even have money to use the phones but those who do spend up to 40 a week on calling card and 100 on collect.

JM: Did you need to buy phone cards to call out?
Stan: No
Rich: The jail used to offer telephone calling cards on the commissary, but between a change in servicing phone companies and many disciplinary incidents caused by the potential for abuse of the phone cards (either in outright theft, or as something to be used and traded in the 'jail economy', or by allowing inmates to call easily anyone they want without close monitoring), this was discontinued in the past year or two, as I understand it.
Claudia: you can call any land line collect no cell phones. if you want to call a cell phone you had a purchase a calling card.

JM: Did the jail screen your calls?
Stan: ?
Rich: Yes, in jail there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. All calls are prefaced with a note indicating that this call may be recorded. The only protected written or oral communications from within the jail are with one's legal team or lawyers. Some deputies have been overheard discussing (for their own amusement) some of the activity that went on, on certain inmates' telephone calls, indicating that they were likely 'eavesdropping' on the calls from their 'cage'/command center.
Claudia: yes all calls are recorded.

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