[asterisk-biz] Asterisk for Inmate Communication Services?

[Trixter aka Bret McDanel]

On Tue, 2008-02-26 at 14:07 -0800, Douglas Garstang wrote:
> Aren't pay phones the defacto standard for correctional facilities?
> 
> Doug
> 
They have a different line class in the US denoting they are from a
correctional facility, and generally there is something like the
truephone system (they have the BOP.gov contract) where inmates have
money stored on an account and its a prepaid calling system.  The
product itself I believe is called "ITS"

The way that the BOP wants it (and presumably others too) is
recording of all calls held for 90 days unless marked for longer
	lawyer calls are supposed to be marked, and not 
	listened to but um yeah they listen they just dont
	use it in court - ask any federal lawyer
ability to listen live to calls in progress
daily and monthly total minute quotas
lists of numbers allowed to be called
	all calls must be registered first,
	there is generally an intake phone that
	lets you call anyone collect only


Each inmate is assigned a phone code, they have to use that 
for all calls.  There is actually a lot of money in this given 
that truephone charges like 20 cents/min for a US 48 call.

There are also some behind the scenes data manipulation going 
on, one thing that is often done is cross referencing inmates that
have the same number, that way they can see if inmates are sharing
their phone codes with someone else.  This is done either by extortion
or outright purchasing of the minutes.  Generally they resolve this by
flagging the inmates account, when a call is made they will listen and 
ask the guard in that block to identify the inmate at phone X to 
see if its the right one.

So its more than just a normal payphone at many of the facilities.  
And some of them are doing deals to get basically kickbacks for the 
usage of the phone, where the super high charges made are in part that 
high so the jail can get some extra cash from people who are forbidden 
from actually working for that money.


-- 
Trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com     Bret McDanel
Belfast +44 28 9099 6461        US +1 516 687 5200
http://www.trxtel.com the phone company that pays you!