[asterisk-biz] Asterisk for Inmate Communication Services?

Tue Feb 26 23:00:52 CST 2008

I worked for a payphone operator that had ported a large number of their pay phones in prisons over to an ATA/DSL. I think they eventually pulled them out because not a single ITSP could deliver dial around compensation reliably over to the destination POTS carrier. Without that, the company did not receive a portion of the revenue from the 800 numbers (calling cards) the prisoners would always use. Actually it wasn't just a problem in prisons, but in the few thousand other ATA's with DSL they had deployed. Oops!

Doug.

----- Original Message ----
From: Harry McGregor <hmcgregor at espri.arizona.edu>
To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion <asterisk-biz at lists.digium.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 6:11:40 PM
Subject: Re: [asterisk-biz] Asterisk for Inmate Communication Services?

Hopefully 
some 
of 
this 
will 
help 
others 
here.

I 
helped 
with 
an 
Asterisk 
deployment 
in 
a 
law 
office 
rather 
recently, 
and 
it 
was 
a 
ton 
of 
headaches.

The 
biggest 
issue 
is 
that 
we 
switched 
them 
from 
Qwest 
pots 
to 
Time 
Warner 
Telecom 
ISDN 
PRI.

On 
the 
Qwest 
Pots 
service 
they 
could 
received 
collect 
calls 
from 
a 
specific 
prison.  
Time 
Warner 
does 
not 
permit 
3rd 
party 
collect 
call 
billing.

Most 
people 
don't 
need 
this 
and 
don't 
care, 
and 
it 
is 
normally 
not 
a 
big 
deal, 
and 
more 
of 
a 
fraud 
prevention 
issue 
than 
anything 
else.

Of 
course 
most 
of 
our 
problem 
was 
communication.

Client 
called 
us 
and 
said 
that 
they 
"could 
not 
received 
collect 
calls", 
so 
we 
went 
back 
and 
forth 
with 
our 
sales 
rep 
and 
TWTC 
Noc 
trying 
to 
trace 
this 
down, 
and 
tested 
collect 
calls, 
etc, 
without 
issues.  
We 
reported 
to 
the 
client 
that 
we 
could 
not 
find 
an 
issue 
with 
collect 
calls.

Client 
called 
again, 
with 
collect 
call 
issues, 
this 
time 
mentioned 
it 
was 
a 
prison.  
We 
tracked 
down 
all 
of 
the 
prison 
calling 
services 
we 
could, 
CBS 
was 
the 
main 
one, 
and 
setup 
for 
them 
to 
get 
direct 
billed.  
Thought 
issue 
was 
solved.

Called 
again 
with 
this 
issue.  
After 
some 
teeth 
pulling, 
we 
find 
out 
exactly 
which 
prison 
it 
is, 
and 
what 
the 
recorded 
message 
they 
got 
said.  
Talked 
with 
this 
specific 
billing 
company, 
they 
ONLY 
do 
prepaid, 
or 
third 
party 
billing 
via 
your 
dial 
tone 
provider.

We 
also 
found 
this 
in 
the 
CDR, 
which 
helped 
us 
find 
the 
billing 
contact...

2007-xx-xx 
xx:xx:xx 

928428xxxx 

"INTEGRETELARIZO" 
<928428xxxx> 

xxxx

ANSWERED 

00:45

So 
all 
in 
all, 
it 
took 
about 
30 
hours 
of 
our 
time, 
plus 
TWTC 
times, 
including 
the 
area 
sales 
manager, 
and 
a 
director 
in 
the 
NOC, 
to 
find 
out 
that 
because 
the 
3rd 
party 
billing, 
nothing 
could 
really 
be 
solved.

The 
lawyer 
refused 
to 
open 
the 
prepaid 
account, 
said 
the 
client 
could 
write 
a 
letter 
instead, 
and 
is 
still 
thinking 
of 
moving 
back 
to 
Qwest 
due 
to 
the 
issue.  
$50 
dropped 
into 
a 
prepaid 
account 
vs 
30+ 
non-billable 
hours 
over 
the 
course 
of 
two 
months...

Prison 
phone 
systems 
make 
the 
prison 
system 
a 
lot 
of 
money, 
and 
the 
billing 
companies 
are 
more 
concerned 
with 
fraud 
prevention 
then 
enabling 
clients 
to 
talk 
with 
their 
lawyers.

Problem 
processor:
Integretel 
Inc. 
and 
the 
billing 
processor 
is 
IPS.

IPS 
- 
1-888-506-8407 
(24/hour 
service 
number)

The 
account 
can 
be 
setup 
with 
any 
major 
credit 
card 
(other 
options 
include 
Western 
Union....)

If 
you 
add 
$50 
or 
more 
to 
the 
prepaid 
account 
at 
one 
time, 
you 
avoid 
the 
$4.99 
processing 
fee.

If 
at 
any 
point 
you 
decide 
you 
wish 
a 
refund 
of 
the 
remaining 
balance 
of 
the 
prepaid 
account, 
IPS 
has 
a 
$2.99 
processing 
fee 
for 
the 
refund.

Problem 
prison:
Grahm 
County 
correctional, 
Arizona

Easy 
billing 
provider 
to 
work 
with 
(they 
will 
do 
invoicing 
for 
law 
firms, 
etc):
Correctional 
Billing 
Service 
1-800-844-6591

All 
in 
all, 
if 
you 
do 
any 
work 
for 
a 
law 
firm 
and 
don't 
use 
an 
ILEC, 
expect 
to 
run 
into 
issues, 
as 
every 
prison 
is 
different, 
and 
will 
cause 
you 
headaches.

Harry

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