6. How often does inmate phone abuse
result in a new criminal case being
filed?
7. Many are called, few are
referred.
The Texas Information Systems Division monitored
37,528 offender telephone calls in 2012. No new criminal
cases were reported being filed or prosecuted.
(TDCJ 2012 Annual Report, p.17)
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) surveyed 50
federal prisons on "inmate telephone abuse" in 1996 and
found that the Bureau of Prisons referred only 4 calls to
the FBI for investigation out of the roughly 200,000 calls
made daily. That is 4 out of 73 million calls made
in a year.
No mention was made if any of the 4 calls resulted in a
conviction. Also, none of the calls in either the Texas or
Federal examples were said to involve a 3-way, or
8. Lost Commissions
Most Inmate telephone service providers pay a commission to
each Department of Corrections it serves. A "commission" is a
percentage of the amount charged for processing inmate
phone calls.
For most prisons this amounts to millions of dollars a year.
For example, as of August 5, 2012 Century Link paid the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice $5,893,470 on a commission
rate of 40%.
Since fiscal year ended on 8-31-12, the total may have
reached 6 million dollars in commissions.
11. An estimated 7 million 3-way calls
were attempted in 2009.
(Based on a 09-24-10 Securus Technologies press release and
BOJ statistics for 2009)
12. How does an inmate telephone service provider determine if
an attempted forwarded call is being made?
13. Inmate telephone service providers monitor inmate phone calls
for any pause in the call (e.g. 2 seconds). When a pause is
detected an "exception" (e.g. an "attempted forwarded call") is
recorded in a "call detail record" (CDR).
The provider may allow the call to continue, or may drop the
call.
17. 7 million estimate is too high.
The only way to verify that a 3-way Call was actually attempted
is to have staff listen to the conversation where the exception
was recorded. Since many innocent things will register as an
exception (e.g. weak battery, passing siren, baby crying), and
it would take numerous staff hours to do it (cost), it is not
regularly done. Since a number of the detected exceptions
were likely false, the 7 million attempted forwarded call
estimate is too high.
18. 7 million is too low.
All inmate telephone service providers will admit that they
cannot detect every 3-way call attempt. Consumer digital
technology (e.g. iPhone, VOIP) is too seamless to detect all 3way call attempts, and so disallowed calls are missed.
Since the 7 million estimate is based only on detected calls,
the estimate is too low. Further, because the trend is digital, it
will become more difficult in the future to detect inmate 3-way
calls.
19. All of the detected "exceptions", whether or not
actual attempts, as well as any additional missed
calls, occurred in a universe where all forwarded
and 3-way calls are not allowed.
Therefore, when Controlled 3-Way Calling is
permitted, all of the call numbers will move strongly
higher, including projected commissions.
21. Prisons are losing millions of dollars in commissions each year
by disallowing all 3-way calls. They are losing money when:
1. An inmate would be allowed to add the
3rd Party to his PAN (personal allowed
number list);
2. The 3rd Party would like to speak to the
inmate; and
3. Someone else is willing to pay for the
inmate to speak to the 3rd Party.
23. V-Call is the only company that has the
technology to:
1. Control what 3rd Party is added to an
inmate's collect call; and
2. Generate new collect call
commissions from a Controlled 3 Way
Call.
26. Get more commissions per time segment. Like taking a bite
from an Oreo Double Stuff cookie vs. a regular Oreo, your
inmate telephone service provider may charge an additional
connection fee and per minute fee during an ongoing call.
31. 1. The USPTO issued two patents for the technology .
2. A top tier inmate telephone service provider made an offer to
buy the then issued patent and pending patent; and
3. A Product Specialist from a different top tier inmate phone
service provider said it would be "easy" to implement V-Call's
technology (i.e. Reconfigure the dial prompts to have the
caller engage in the new dial pattern).
33. V-Call's technology supports the promotion of positive
change in prisoner behavior and reintegrating offenders
into society by helping prisoners stay in touch with their
families.
It is well known that having a strong family relationship
helps motivate inmates to become better persons and
reform their lives.
34. Public Safety: V-Call will reduce
Contraband Cell Phone demand.
Prisons are full of poor people. Many of their families are
likewise poor. Contraband cell phones provide a means to
contact family members who cannot accept a collect call.
When contraband cell phones are used no record is created or
commission is earned.
V-call's Controlled 3-Way Call provides inmates a controlled
means to speak to such a person (when the party who accepts
the inmate's collect call agrees to pay for it) while your inmate
telephone service provider controls each call made, creates a
CDR, and generates a commission for your prison.
35. Public Safety: V-Call as an investigative tool.
V-Call can be used as an investigative tool to map prisoner
connections.
Allowing a controlled 3-way call will create a true call detail
record (vs. undetected relayed calls that hide the identity of
called parties) to show the connections between the inmate
and parties outside the prison.
36. Conclusion
V-Call's Technology will benefit your Department in the
following ways:
1.V-Call will safely earn substantial new revenues for
you Department;
2.V-Call will reduce the demand for contraband cell
phones;
3.V-Call supports public safety by offering a new
investigative mapping tool, and promotes positive
change in prisoner behavior and reintegrating
offenders into society.
Good morning ladies and gentlemen.
My name is AJ Bayne
I am the owner of V-Call
Thank you for inviting me here to speak to you about what V-Call can do for the TDCJ.
Public safety
In 2012 the Texas "INFORMATION SYSTEMS DIVISION"
monitored 37,528 offender telephone calls
No new criminal cases were reported being being filed or prosecuted based on the monitoring.
(Texas Department of Criminal Justice 2012 Annual Report", page 17)
Likewise, in a related 1996 report
the OFFICE of the INSPECTOR GENERAL
surveyed 50 federal prisons on Inmate Telephone Abuse
The OIG found that out of the roughly 200,000 calls
made EACH DAY-
the Bureau of Prisons only referred 4 calls to the FBI for investigation.
That's 4 referrals out of 73 million calls made that year.
In both the Texas 2012 report and the 1996 OIG report
3-way calls were not broken out.
(In 1995 there were 80,221 federal offenders in confinement
So the TDCJ has almost 2x that number)
Talk about anomalies -criminal threats, dissuading witness,etc
Texas has an APPROVED list of numbers
Whenever an inmate is able to get mom to establish a 3-way call
A " lost sale occurs"
And Both the Phone service provide and the DEPARTMENT lose money.
You can use the number of detected 3 way call attempts as a proxy to determine the anticipated market demand and projected revenue.
Hard to say, because there is not a lot of public information on attempted 3 way calls.
So...
This is an illustration of how a detected 3 way call attempt is handled...
A common scenario might be...
An inmate is on a collect call with mom
At some point during the call
He asks his mom to conference in his wife
The Mom attempts to add his wife by depressing the hook receiver
IF the OTS detects the 3-way call attempt
The call will be terminated
and an exception record is generated.
So, for example if I called you on your 4g network iPhone, and you hit a pre-programmed "add party key", it is unlikely to be flagged by your OTS. Also, many people are using a mobile phones instead of a land based phone, and those who have a land based phone
use Skype, or similar VOIP. So, it's time to get ahead of the trend.
So with these numbers in mind, I concluded that
4 out of 73 million calls
The person could be on the prisoner's call list
Prisons are full of poor people, and their families are likewise often poor.
It could happen. Mom will pay for wife. Sister will pay for inmate to talk to mom.
V-Call's UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION is that it's the only company that has the technology to
Control what 3rd Party is added to an inmate's collect call; and
earn new revenues from an inmate's three way call.
V-Call's technology is an "add-on capability" to your
Offender Telephone Service platform.
As you can see from the illustration
The inmate's call is handled JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER INMATE CALL that your OTS NOW processes
THE difference is that your OTS can now receive 2 phone numbers
And dial those 2 numbers sequentially for the same inmate.
This "V" call pattern maintains a CLOSED SYSTEM
And addresses the public safety concern.
And "a closed system is a happy system."
Your OTS can continue to use it's proprietary technology to continue to monitor for any Unautorized Outside Party initiated 3-way call.
Since your OTS is connecting another line, your OTS could charge
An additional "connection fee"
(which in most cases is often the most expensive part of the call);
as well as The usual per minute fee.
In addition to greater average revenue per user (ARPU)
I believe tht, b/c an offender can now call his mom whose phone is blocked,
There will be less demand for contraband cell phones.
So now you can control who is being added to the inmate's call and
earn new commissions - IT'S A WIN WIN!!!
The million new calls will not be tying up more phones-
V-Call's technology increases call density and ARPU
It's liked dbl stuff Oreos - you get more stuff per bite - more communication per minute.
V call makes calling more efficient, b/c More communications are occurring in the same time segment
And the inventor of
"SELECTIVELY ADDING A THIRD PARTY TO A COLLECT CALL""
And
"CONTROLLED THREE WAY CALLING"
SELECTIVELY ADDING A THIRD PARTY TO A COLLECT CALL
Is designed to have the party who accepts an inmate's collect call
Agree to pay an additional fee for any third party that is added to the inmate's collect call.
Additionally..
"CONTROLLED THREE WAY CALLING"
Maintains a "closed system" in connecting an inmate to a collect 3-way call.
I've been inventing for 15 years
and I've been awarded patents in mobile phone advertising, finance and inmate telephone communications.
I am an attorney by profession, (trinity)
And before that I was a production planner in the aerospace industry.
I've had discussions with two top inmate phone service providers
The Product Manager of one of them
Said that it would easy to implement V-Call's technology
and that it would be a matter of Reconfiguring the prompts to have the caller engage in the new dial pattern
The other inmate telephone service provider
made an offer outright to buy the patents
Which tells me that V-call's technology can be executed profitably.
It's well known that inmates who have regular contact with family do better when released.
I often tell my clients to remember who is here in court for them
Who is crying themselves to sleep for them
It's sure not their hoodlum friends
When people have a big enough "why" they will figure out the "how"
to overcome their vices and cut off the occasion of bad company.
For example, in California there are persons (data mules) who visit seemingly unrelated prisoners, up and down the state, putting money on their books and passing messages.
"Holly Golightly" with tattoos.
With these benefits in mind
And with no cost to the TDCJ to use V-Call's technology
When can we get started?
What size facility do you see a pilot program being done at ?
We look fwd to proving our value to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Thank you.
