CountyJail.net

Find Clackamas County Jail inmates...

Telephones

Interview with Lisa, Bill, Ron, Cindi and Holly

JM: Did you have regular access to telephones?
Lisa: No
Bill: Yes
Ron: Yes, after lunch mon-fri 1:30-5:15, 7:00-Lockdown(That time depended on the guard...Weekends were all day, hell, they even left the lights off in your cell until lunch on weekends as well.
Cindi: I was in the dorm, so yes you have access with the exception of an hour after lunch and an hour after dinner. They are also turned off at night.
Holly: During out-time you can access the telephones, but out-time is limited and the phones are only turned on for a few hours out of the day. There are limited phones, there were three but one was broken so it is very hard to get a phone as everyone wants to use them at the same time.

JM: What types of charges applied for calling people? How much money would you guess the average inmate spends per week on phone calls?
Lisa: I didn't call anyone.
Bill: Collect calls only were allowed
Ron: $2.94 connection fee, 7 cents a minute after that, up to 15 minutes. Long distance was much more expensive though, but all my calls were local, so I am unsure of the rates. If you want a phone call from somebody, you will be giving up your lunch or dinner.
Cindi: You get up to 15 per call, and .25 per minute. The amount of money spent on the phone veried. Some people spent $60 a week or so on it, some people didn't spend any.
Holly: I was charged per min for calls. It got very expensive, I only made 3-5 calls a week and was spending $30-50 per week, and I think that is about average for inmates.

JM: Did you need to buy phone cards to call out?
Lisa: Not back then.
Bill: No
Ron: Collect calls or phone cards. You can purchase time once a week.
Cindi: You had to have money on your books, or you had to have someone call and set up a phone account for you.
Holly: Yes, you can buy phone cards off the commissary. Or family and friends can put money on her acct for you. I personally didn't purchase any phone cards, I just had money put on my account with Telmate, the phone operator system they used.

JM: Did the jail screen your calls?
Lisa: I figured if they were looking through two way mirrors, it stands to reason phone calls wouldn't be private but I didn't have a reason to call anyone.
Bill: Don't know
Ron: They prompted you that they were recorded and possibly monitored.
Cindi: Yes, I believe they do.
Holly: Yes, the jail screens all calls.

Read about how inmates pass the time in the Clackamas County Jail