1. Everything You Wanted To Know About Inmate Phone Systems
When speaking about inmate telephone service, there are several characteristics that classify an inmate
phone system from a regular telephone system.
The first characteristic is the ability for an inmate, or a loved one to be able to add funds to some sort of
prepaid card, or account remotely. Being that inmates to not have the ability to do banking on their
own, money needs to be added to these cards either from their commissary account, or through a
friend, associate or loved one "on the outside." This is very important characteristic because prison
officials need to be able to remain consistent across the board.
The second one is the ability to limit the amount of calls, the type of calls and the length of calls. For
instance, 900 numbers, cell and land lines of an inmates codefendants, or victim should be added to the
prison phone systems "block list" so that they are not able to threaten anyone or possibly come up with
new crimes. This is also because there may be active cases open, and it is not a good idea for an inmate
to communicate with their codefendants’ without prior knowledge.
Monitoring - in some circumstances, more often than not, an inmate’s phone calls may need to be
monitored. This can happen for a number of reasons:
 The inmate might be trying to smuggle drugs or contraband into the facility
 The inmate may be trying to threaten a person or a person’s family member through the phone
system
 They might be trying to contact a CO or correctional officer which is strictly forbidden
 The particular inmate might be planning an escape
There are many more reasons why the calls might need to
be monitored; however these are the primary reasons. An
inmate telephone service is very complicated, and most of
the time it needs an actual human to monitor what is going
on at all times. Most of the time this is surveillance, etc but
sometimes it can just be a correctional officer.
Another characteristic is data storage. These systems need
to be able to hold thousands of terabits of data in the form of audio files for later usage. Every single call
that has been placed must be able to be retrieved at a later date for analysis.
Not so long ago, there were any of these methods available for the inmates to use. Correctional
facilities greatly relied on the normal phone system for their use. These phone systems were easily
exploited by the prisoners, and also took advantage of the family members by charging enormous rates
to them.
The bottom line is that prisoners have rights, and the families and friends of the inmates should not be
punished just because the inmate is. Inmate phone systems have come very far - and the technology
continues to grow. Be sure to check out our website for more information.
www.inmate-telephone-service.com