Consolidation within the prison payphone communications industry, also known as inmate communications services (ICS), continues with Global Tel*Link (GTL) asking the FCC for approval to buy (some? all?) of the assets of Legacy/Edovo.

GTL is the largest provider of ICS in the US. Legacy Inmate Communications is a wholly owned subsidiary of Jail Education Solutions, Inc. d/b/a Edovo (“Edovo”).

From the FCC filling, “On July 2, 2020, GTL, Legacy, and Edovo entered into a Master Transaction Agreement (“Agreement”) pursuant to which GTL will purchase certain assets and customers of Legacy, including certain customer accounts and receivables, certain customer agreements and contracts, certain vendor agreements and contracts, and certain equipment (the “Transaction”).”

Pursuant to the Transaction, Legacy will assign the following correctional facility contracts to GTL:

(1) Cook County, Illinois;

(2) Fresno County, California;

(3) Maine Department of Corrections;

(4) Bay County, Florida;

(5) Sonoma County, California;

(6) Kane County, Illinois;

(7) City of Santa Ana, California;

(8) Jackson County, Oregon;

(9) Mendocino County, California;

(10) Carroll County, Maryland;

(11) Yolo County, California;

(12) Dunn County, Wisconsin;

(13) Santa Clara County, California.

As a result of the Transaction, GTL will provide ICS to the Correctional Facility Customers pursuant to the terms of the above-referenced contracts, which are primarily county jail contracts.

Interestingly, the filing states, “Further, the proposed Transaction will not adversely affect competition because, after consummation of the Transaction, the total share of the interstate interexchange market of GTL will be less than ten percent (10%), and there are many other interexchange and international carriers operating on a nationwide basis, including other ICS providers. The Transaction will not provide Applicants with any competitive advantage as the result of concentration of fiber assets and will not harm consumers or negatively impact the market for facilities-based service. The proposed Transaction will not have a negative impact on the public interest, services to customers, or competition.”

With GTL and Securus Technologies controlling 80% if the total ICS market, we are not sure how this does not, in fact, continue the trend of adversely affecting competition in the ICS industry though the elimination of smaller competing vendors.

What this latest proposed acquisition shows is that the ICS industry is a duopoly and the current competition has neither the scale nor scope to compete. This market structure hinders true competition and thereby the economic and innovation benefits a robust marketplace would bring to inmates and their families.

The following image from a recent Prison Policy Initiative article highlights how these two firms have been allowed to capture this industry through acquisition.

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The UK Justice Secretary recently announced that more prisoners will get in-cell phones to help maintain the family ties which can cut re-offending by 40%. The Justice Secretary unveiled plans for a further £10 million roll-out of in-cell landline telephones to help prisoners preserve relationships with their own loved ones and reduce tension on prison wings.

In justifying the investment, the announcement highlighted the three main benefits of enhanced communication:

• Family ties are a vital part of rehabilitation, an important link over the festive period, and ultimately help to cut the number of future victims of crime
• Restricted in-cell phones will also reduce both tension on the wings and demand for the illicit mobiles which fuel violence
• The roll-out is part of wider efforts to bring stability to prisons and boost inmates’ prospects of rehabilitation

Similar to the traditional bank of prison wall phones, all calls on in-cell phones are recorded and can only be made to a small number of pre-approved numbers. In the event that they are suspected of being used for criminal activity, calls can be monitored, and prison administrators can remove the phones of those who have misused them.

In a subsequent interview, the Justice Secretary stated that the in-cell phones would not be able to receive phone calls, unlike an illegal mobile phone.

“At the moment they can only make calls out, and that is not true with mobiles. Families come under huge pressure to phone into mobiles that are held illegally in prison and that can be very difficult for them,” he added. What is different is that if someone is in absolute crisis in the middle of the night, they can actually phone someone they love rather than asking a prison officer who is patrolling the entire wing.”

He also stated, “In-cell telephones provide a crucial means of allowing prisoners to build and maintain family relationships, something we know is fundamental to their rehabilitation. Introducing them to more prisons is a recognition of the contribution I believe in-cell telephones make to turning prisons into places of decency where offenders have a real chance to transform their lives.”

Response to the plan has been varied. An ex-prisoner interviewed made the following points:

• A great initiative and a step in the right direction, it may ultimately fail to achieve the government’s ambitious goals.
• The prison phone is too expensive and instead prisoners should be able to receive incoming calls via the prison pin system.
• The importance of family ties in prison is massive and supporting a loved one in prison can be the difference between life and death. I think it would reduce self-harm and suicide.
• He questioned why the roll-out is costing £10 million, one third of the additional £30 million allocated to prisons in the last budget, particularly given the phone lines are already in place.
• Most illicit mobiles in prison are in fact used only for keeping in touch with loved ones rather than criminal behavior.

Our view is that the philosophy and intent of this initiative is correct, but the implementation is deeply flawed. The reasons for this are twofold:

• The £10 million cost is a wasted capital cost that could be used for other investments (not to mention the ongoing operating costs to maintain, repair and replace). Why incur the handset and wiring expense when secure prison cell phone solutions such as meshDETECT cost nothing to the prison to deploy and maintain?
• Handsets on walls do nothing to improve the digital literacy and technological competency of inmates. In a recent interview the MoJ digital chief stated, “Prisons have been bypassed by the digital revolution. I think the opportunities of digital in that space are huge, and I’d like to leave a legacy of work that will take years to deliver, where we move much more towards a [situation] where, when you’re in prison, you can do useful things in your cell.”

What “useful things” can an inmate learn, accomplish, or gain in terms of digital literacy and technological competency by using a payphone handset connected to the wall of his cell?

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Here is the latest summary of recent news articles regarding contraband cell phones in prisons around the world. I call these periodic round up of news items, “Wireless Prison Payphone™ Briefs” because this is essentially what smuggled mobile phones in jails have become – a substitute for the current wall mounted prison payphones.

Two years ago, we explored some of the news regarding wireless prison tablet devices; which highlighted how prison payphones were being replaced by a secure wireless device with cell phone capabilities that will reduce the demand for contraband cell phones. These articles demonstrated the fact that regardless of whether the device takes the form factor of a tablet or a cell phone, wireless voice capabilities will be the key service offering in reducing contraband and recidivism.

We thought it might be worthwhile to once again survey the recent news on this wireless technology deployment trend in prisons and jails.

• Inmates are entitled to phone privileges. There are 100 phones in the jail, about six for each cluster of cells known as a pod. Each pod can hold 64 inmates and has six phones — and they don’t always work. In May, all phones in one pod failed for five days. You can see why there would be disputes among inmates trying to make phone calls. Instead of standing in line waiting for a phone and then paying handsomely for the privilege, inmates will have their own tablets to use to make calls. (Source)

• Phone calls on mobile devices make sense. Allowing people to make phone calls from their tablet is basically a good thing. Instead of using a shared phone in a public area (probably with other people waiting in line), callers can now talk in more private locations. (Source)

• The Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) has recently released a plan aimed to lessen the cost of inmates calling loved ones while behind bars, simultaneously increasing access to educational tools for incarcerated individuals. The tablets would also function as telephones. According to WYVY-TV, the plan will be included as part of the inmate telephone contract that will be sent out at the end of the year. (Source)

• All South Dakota DOC inmates who want a tablet now have a tablet. Inmates get longer phone calls with family and easy access to prison documents. (Source)

• According to Captain Stewart, since the inmates have been using the tablet there’s been a drastic decrease in inmate problems. “Our suicide attempts are down 66%, our successful suicides are down 100%, our inmate on staff assaults are down 60%, our inmate on inmate assaults are down” (Source)

• Amanda Michika, who also works for the Pima County Sheriff’s Department noted how the tablets have proven to reduce suicidal ideations and decrease the number of fights, including inmate-on-staff altercations. “All of the inmates that we have here are pre-sentenced inmates. They haven’t been convicted of any crime. We afford them the opportunity to have the same rights they would have outside when it comes to electronics,” Michika said. As Harms put it, the tablets provide an escape, whether its downloading music, reading books or chatting with family. “With over 200 men in one pod, there’s a lot of tension, a lot of testosterone. It means I can receive pictures from my loved ones and talk to my loved ones whenever I want,” Harms said. (Source)

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As we have commented before, we believe that contraband cell phones are a problem of both supply and demand. Due to the demand for cell phones in prison, there is an active and highly lucrative pipeline of supply. Most prison administrations have focused on restricting the supply of contraband cell phones through detection, jamming and search.

For existing jails and prisons where the installation of a hard-wired wall phone is impractical due to cost and infrastructure limitations, a secure prison cell phone solution such as meshDETECT will achieve the same results with no capital outlays.

Inmates at the country’s newest prison will be allowed to use phones and computers in their cells – but with heavy restrictions and monitoring.

Private prison operator Serco, which has a $840 million, 25-year contract to run the new facility at Wiri, says prisoners’ calls to pre-approved numbers will be monitored, and the computers will not have internet access.

Currently all New Zealand prison cells have televisions, but in the new facility those TVs will double as computer screens with a keyboard and mouse.

“They provide basic computer access for prisoners to work on their studies while locked in their cells,” says Serco director of operations Scott McNairn. “Access to this technology imposes the expectation that prisoners will engage in purposeful activities, such as education, in what can often be an unproductive time in other prisons.”

“Computers are an education tool, they’re an education aid,” Corrections Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga told TV3’s The Nation. “They help with building up the skills, building up the education in order for these offenders to go out and get meaningful jobs. We know that’s important.”

As for the phones inside the cells, Mr Lotu-Iiga says they come at “very little cost” to Serco, and will enable prisoners to make regular calls home will help reintegrate them back into society.

“There’s a de-escalation of tension that they’re not lining up behind a public phone in order to use a phone to call their families.”

Mr McNairn says it’s the same system Serco operates in the United Kingdom.

“When Serco introduced this system in UK prisons, it saw significant improvements in prison security, including a marked reduction in attempts to smuggle in mobile phones, a drop in random mandatory drug tests failures, fewer assaults, less bullying and fewer incidents of self-harm.”

Prisoners will only be able to make calls to a list of pre-approved numbers, and will not be able to call one another.

Source

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Here is the latest summary of recent news articles regarding contraband cell phones in prisons around the world. I am calling this round up of articles, “Wireless Prison Payphone™ Briefs” because this is essentially what smuggled mobile phones in jails have become – a substitute for the current wall mounted prison payphones.

Alabama Inmates With Illegal Cell Phone Active On Facebook: “Cell phones are against the law, that’s a new bill that just passed last year, making the possession, or the introduction of a cell phone into a prison setting a class C felony,” Corbett explains, though he still is not surprised by the discovery.

“Last year we confiscated more than 5,000 cell phones statewide.” The Department also has a policy against inmates using social networks. It’s clearly posted on the DOC’s website that such sites “are a security violation and will be shut down.” (Source)

Cat Caught Smuggling Saw, Cell Phone, Into Prison: The cat’s out of the bag, and that means prisoners at a prison in northeast Brazil will no longer have easy access to cell phones and saws.

Upon inspection, officials noticed that the feline was wrapped with tape. Underneath that tape was a battery of items including a saw, cell phone, drills, an earphone, memory card, batteries, and a phone charger. (Source)

Fourth Circuit to Hear Dispute Over Cell Phone Contraband Conviction: Here’s the issue: Did Beason have “fair and sufficient notice” that his possession of a mobile phone opened him up to criminal liability? Beason’s attorneys, Brian Kornbrath and Kristen Leddy, who work for federal public defender offices in West Virginia, contend the old law is unconstitutional for its vagueness. A cell phone, the attorneys said, “has a legal purpose and productive uses, which can carry over to the prison environment.”

“The vast majority of cell phone possession cases in federal prisons have been resolved through administrative sanctions within prisons, not in federal courts,” Beason’s lawyers said in a brief in the Fourth Circuit. “Beason was not given sufficient notice that his possession of a cell phone would subject him to federal criminal penalties.” (Source)

How Cell Phones Make Prison Drug Dealing Easy: Despite a lack of resources and an isolated consumer base, US correctional facilities host a thriving drugs market. But the limitations and monitoring imposed on the use of prison phones are an obstacle. “You can’t set up nothing on the regular prison phones because they are monitored,” one prisoner tells The Fix. “They record everything and when you are trying to make a move, you don’t want no one eavesdropping on your conversations so that they can make a bust or put the brakes on.” The solution isn’t hard to imagine: “With cell phones it is easy. No one is listening and you can talk freely. Once you got a cell phone, anything is possible.”

Of course, cell phones retail at a premium behind bars: Prisoners will pay up to $1,500 for one. But they’re not that difficult to find. “If you have money you can get a phone easy; you can get an iPhone with Internet access or whatever,” the prisoner says. (Source)

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An article about the deployment of email and other electronic services via kiosks in prisons in Singapore. The problem with the use of kiosks is that you create the same access, prisoner movement, and queuing issues that currently exist with prison payphones. The meshDETECT secure prison cell phone is a much more efficient and cost effective means to deploy and deliver electronic content to detainees.

Corresponding with family members electronically, instead of using pen and paper, could soon become a reality for prison inmates here.

Over the next few years, the prison authorities are exploring the option of allowing inmates to type out their letters, which will then be sent by the prison staff to the intended recipients via an electronic portal – as part of its plans to move with the times and tap on technology to enhance the rehabilitation process for the inmates.

Singapore Prison Service Senior Assistant Director (Technology) Kuai Ser Leng said: “I tell the staff … I don’t even write letters anymore – when is the last time you wrote letters with pen and paper?

“Almost consistently, they tell me the same answer (that) they can’t remember the last time they wrote a letter. We email, we use SMS, we use Whatsapp these days.”

Apart from allowing inmates to go paperless while corresponding with the world outside, the prison authorities are also exploring ideas such as giving the inmates access to e-books and e-learning opportunities.

Currently, family members of inmates can book visits online. One project that has already been successfully piloted is the use of self-service kiosks, via which prisoners can submit their requests such as longer visiting time and a change in diet. Previously, inmates convey their requests verbally to their prison supervisors.

The inmates can also use the kiosks to track the status of their requests or check the availability of new courses.

To build rapport between prison officers and the inmates, a mobile device is also available for the officers to, for instance, access instantly the bio-data of an inmate instead of having to check it on the computer in the office.

On the device, Senior Prison Officer Roy Phang said: “It allows us to find out more about the inmates immediately as they could be new admissions. We are also able to key in observations at the point where we observe certain behavioural changes in the inmates.”

Mr Kuai told TODAY that there are plans to increase the features of the self-service kiosks, including allowing inmates to check on their privileges.

The prison authorities saw the use of the kiosks as an opportunity for inmates to familiarise themselves with technology – which would also help them assimilate back into society upon their release.

Singapore After-Care Association Director Prem Kumar welcomed the adoption of technology in the prisons.

Not only does it increase efficiency, it also empowers the inmates, Mr Kumar said. “As long there is an effort to outreach and empower those who are not tech savvy, that will be ideal.”

The prison authorities are also tapping on technology to improve the security of the premises.

Currently, there are thousands of surveillance cameras installed at Changi Prison Complex. The authorities are studying the use of video content analysis to detect abnormal behaviour exhibited by the inmates by incorporating video intelligence into the existing surveillance system.

They are also looking to use audio analytics to act as ears on the ground to detect aggressive voices. This could provide early warning to the staff for appropriate intervention.

Source

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According to the article below about legislative initiatives in Maryland to increase the penalties for smuggling, possessing or receiving contraband cell phones in prison, “Cell phones are a lucrative form of contraband because, unlike drugs, they have a significant and perpetual resale and rental potential and value.”

With a change of mindset, cell phones can also be lucrative form of commissary revenue for prisons. By deploying a secure prison cell phone solution with all the controls and forensic capabilities of traditional prison payphones, prisons can reduce the demand for contraband cell phones while tapping into a new source of revenue that will offer welcome relief to over-stretched prison operating budgets.

Keeping cell phones and other electronic devices out of the hands of inmates and punishing those prisoners found with such contraband is the aim of two bills that have recently been the subject of committee hearings in the General Assembly.

Cell phones have been a problem at state prisons, especially in metropolitan areas.

The problem isn’t as severe at prisons located in rural areas because friends and relatives can’t simply hand cell phones through fences or toss them over the walls as easily, prison officials have said.

“Cell phones are a lucrative form of contraband because, unlike drugs, they have a significant and perpetual resale and rental potential and value,” according to a fiscal and policy note to the bills prepared by the Department of Legislative Services.

The contraband phones have been implicated in a prisoner’s arrangements for a hit on a witness in the prisoner’s murder case and in transactions involving a prison-based drug ring, officials said.

House Bill 587 increases penalties for possession of or receiving a cell phone or other device for prisoners and for delivering or attempting to deliver a cell phone to a prisoner.

Delivering the device to a prisoner would result in a stiff misdemeanor sentence of up to three years on a first offense and become a felony with a nonsuspendable five-year sentence on second offense, along with fines.

A prisoner caught with a device would face a nonsuspendable felony sentence of five years and a fine of up to five years. The sentence would be consecutive to any sentence the person is already serving.

Senate Bill 669 and the companion bill, House Bill 1086, would take away good-time credit permanently for prisoners caught with a prohibited device.

Good-time credits reduce a prisoner’s sentence for every day that he serves without infractions against prison rules.

Cell phones have become a big safety issue in prisons, Gary Maynard, the secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, has said. Cell phones smuggled into prisons can be used to coordinate illegal activities outside the prison walls and plan escapes and attacks on corrections staff and other inmates.

Two thousand cell phones have been confiscated in Maryland prisons since 2008, according to the department.

The cell phones can be found hidden anywhere, including the bodily orifices of inmates, Maynard said.

The department is using the latest technology, including cell phone-sniffing dogs, to get cell phones away from inmates. The dogs have sniffed out 500 cell phones found since 2008. The dogs also offer something of a psychological deterrent, Maynard said.

“When they walk down the hallway, the cell phones fly,” Maynard said.

The department has a $1.2 billion operating budget and supervises 22,000 inmates in 22 prisons and 70,000 individuals on probation and parole, among other duties.

Source

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This is an article on contraband prison cell phones is an interesting analysis of the impact smuggled cell phones have had on the revenue from prison payphones. In a quote from the article, a prisoner states, “The prison system is mad because nobody uses the phones on the wall anymore.” In California, as in other states, there has been a big drop in the number of prison phone calls made as illegal cell phones have become more prevalent. Unlike prison cell phone jammers, the meshDETECT secure cell phone solution has no upfront capital costs and recovers the prison phone call commissions currently being lost via the smuggled cell phones.

Frustrated by the state’s inability to prevent thousands of illicit cellphone calls made by inmates from its prisons, California’s corrections chief is seeking help from an industry that has a big financial interest in his cause.

Prisons Secretary Matthew Cate said he will offer a deal to companies that bid for the next contract to provide phone service for state inmates: Install costly equipment that will block cellphone calls and see profits surge as prisoners use authorized services to connect with the outside world.

“If cellphones are inoperable, the company will make more money,” Cate said in a recent interview.

Prisoners are supposed to use pay phones mounted on the walls of their housing units to call people outside. They are charged collect call rates, and the conversations are recorded and monitored by prison staff. But the proliferation of smuggled cellphones in recent years has reduced use of the authorized phones and the ability to monitor them, and officials say they cannot afford the technology to block cellular signals.

The contract for inmate phone service is up for renewal. Cate wants the winning bidder to pay the estimated $16.5 million to $33 million that it would cost to install “managed access” systems in all 33 state prisons.

In one day earlier this year, a test of the system intercepted more than 4,000 attempts to place calls, send text messages and access the Internet from smuggled cellphones at a single prison, said California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Paul Verke. He would not reveal which prison, citing security concerns.

Use of authorized phones went up by 64% in the days after the test, Verke said.

Dorothy Cukier, an attorney for Global Tel Link, the Alabama company that supplies pay phones and collect call service to California’s prisons, said that “contraband cellphones certainly have had an impact” on the number of calls placed from her company’s phones. The firm “welcomes the opportunity to discuss” Cate’s proposal, she said.

Prisoners’ rights advocates and civil libertarians say Cate’s plan would lead to financial exploitation of inmates and their families, many of whom struggle to pay for daily necessities. A typical 15-minute call from an inmate costs about $2.

“When the prison system gives the phone company a monopoly, they jack up the price,” said Margaret Winter, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s national prison project. “What we want to do is encourage more contact. That’s a prime predictor of [inmates’] success in the future.”

Bobby Taylor, who was recently released from Avenal State Prison in Central California, where he served part of a 19-month sentence for drunk driving, said he had a Samsung phone for most of his time there. He stayed out of trouble checking Facebook, following his favorite fishing websites and staying in touch with his 13-year-old daughter, he said.

“The prison system is mad because nobody uses the phones on the wall anymore,” Taylor said.

The state’s take from the pay phone concession was $26 million in 2008, when legislation was passed to bring down the cost of inmates’ calls. The government’s share has been reduced by $6.5 million per year since, prison officials said, and will be reduced further, to $800,000, this year.

Prison officials have been warning legislators that the explosion of smuggled cellphones — guards confiscated 261 devices in 2006 and more than 10,000 in 2010 — poses a public safety threat. Inmates use them to run criminal enterprises from behind bars and arrange assaults on enemies inside. Even the most closely watched inmates have been caught with them. Notorious killer Charles Manson has been caught with two.

Legislators complain that prison employees are the most likely sources of smuggled phones because, unlike visitors who must go through metal detectors, employees are not searched on their way into work.

Taylor said he rarely saw anyone using the wall-mounted pay phones during his sentence at Avenal.

“I think the only time people would use the wall phones,” he said, “was to call their people” on the outside “and get another cellphone.”

Source

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