Report Says New Mexico Prison Phone Companies Still Gouging Families

by Dave Maass

The phone is ringing; you pick it up. An operator announces it’s a collect call – your spouse, sibling, child – from prison. Will you accept the charges?

Good luck finding out what those charges will be.

Family members of prisoners complain of 45-minute waits for customer service operators and billing statements that never arrive. The rates vary wildly depending on the institution – from $2 to $6 per 15-minute slot, plus a dollar for every finished call. Some companies charge $6.95 surcharges for credit card transactions, others require $50 minimum deposits into a prisoner’s phone account, some charge another $15 to get unused balances back.
All in all, rates for long-distance calls within New Mexico are “not just or reasonable,” New Mexico Public Regulation Commission Utility Analyst John J Reynolds concludes in his Jan. 23, 2009 testimony in a rate case that has been going on since 2007. He also says the companies may be breaking the law.

“You hear reports of folks ending up with four or five, six, $700 a month in phone bills from detention facilities before they realize how big the costs ...

On June 18, 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a judgment of non-infringement in a patent dispute over the design of a prison telephone.

TIP Systems, LLC patented the design of a telephone for use in prisons that does not include a cord or handset. Rather, the mouth and earpieces protrude from the phone itself. The phone was designed without a handset or cord in order to prevent individuals from using the cord to hang themselves or as a weapon.

Other companies involved in the provision of the telephone services to prisoners developed similar phones. TIP sued these companies claiming infringement. The district court rejected TIP’s claims. TIP appealed.

The Federal Circuit affirmed. The phones that TIP alleged were infringing on its patent had subtle differences, according to the court. For instance, the mouth and earpieces on the alleged infringing phones did not protrude from the phone. Instead, they were flush with the phone’s casing, See: TIP Systems, LLC V. Phillips and brooks/Gladwin, Inc., 529 F.3d 1364 (Fed. Cir. 2008).

California Class-Action Suit Reinstates $1.5 Million Illegally Siphoned From County Jail Inmate Welfare Fund

by John E. Dannenberg

Santa Clara County, California (SCC) agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit seeking recovery of funds unlawfully taken from its jails’ Inmate Welfare Fund (IWF) between July 2003 and January 2008 to pay guards’ salaries. The $1.5 million lump sum ordered paid into the IWF will be used to fund programs directed at prisoner rehabilitation and reintegration.

The lawsuit was filed in 2005 by the Public Interest Law Firm and Fenwick & West on behalf of 4,600 prisoners housed at the County’s Main and Elmwood jails, after prisoner programs were cut in response to budget problems. While surcharges on prisoner phone calls and commissary sales were still collected, the funds were redirected. The recovered $1.5 million, added to an existing $4 million IWF balance, will provide individual and group counseling for 800 prisoners who have suffered from abuse and trauma. Another 500 prisoners, in maximum security, will gain the Roadmap to Recovery program.

Additionally, literacy classes will be provided and subscriptions to the San Jose Mercury News will be reinstated.

$100,000 of the settlement was earmarked for the non-profit group Friends Outside to ...

by David M. Reutter

Florida’s Public Service Commission has recommended that TCG Public Communications, Inc. (TCG) pay $7.5 million for the improper disconnection of jail prisoners’ telephone calls. The recommendation was made in a September 8, 2008 memorandum following an investigation into complaints made by family and friends of prisoners at the Miami-Dade Pretrial Detention Center (MDPDC).

The Commission began investigating after receiving a complaint on March 18, 2004 that alleged the phone system at MDPDC was malfunctioning, causing prisoners’ calls to disconnect prematurely. As a result, the complainant incurred $900 in additional phone charges between May 2003 and January 2004.

TCG was a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Communications of the Southern States, Inc. All prisoner calls from MCPDC were “collect only,” resulting in a surcharge of $2.25 for 30-minute local calls and $1.75 for interstate toll calls plus an additional per-minute charge.

When a call would disconnect prematurely the prisoner would have to dial the party again, resulting in assessment of another surcharge. The disconnects were caused by a serious problem with TCG’s “third-party call detection” software, which resulted in approximately $6.3 million in improper charges. The Commission’s investigation revealed that TCG was aware of the problem but ...

On October 20, 2008, the entire Texas prison system was locked down and searched for cell phones and other contraband. The search resulted in the discovery of hundreds of cell phones, chargers, SIM cards, tobacco stashes and weapons. [See: PLN, March 2009, p.29]. While the search was in progress, the first Texas prison guard charged with cell phone smuggling was sentenced.

Former Mark Stiles Unit guard Davisha Maxine Martin, 26, pleaded guilty to providing a prisoner with a cell phone and received a four-year sentence on October 27, 2008. The Stiles Unit, located in Jefferson County, is the Texas facility where the most cell phones have been discovered in the past year. Two hundred cell phones have been found at the prison, including 60 hidden in an air compressor delivered to the facility.

Also on October 27, 2008, two New Jersey prison workers were indicted on charges related to cell phone smuggling. State prison guard Lisa Whittaker, 32, was indicted for hindering apprehension and two counts of official misconduct. The hindering apprehension charge stems from Whittaker giving investigators false information about New Jersey state prison nurse Darlene R. Sexton, 44.

Sexton, an employee of Correctional Medical Services, was indicted on ...

Suit Filed Over Minnesota Jail’s Secret Recording of Privileged Phone Calls

by Matt Clarke

On October 15, 2008, a Minneapolis law firm filed a civil rights suit in federal district court alleging that attorney-client phone calls from the Becker County Jail in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota were secretly recorded and sent to law enforcement officials.

Kenneth E. Andersen was arrested for murder and incarcerated at the jail from June 2007 to June 2008. He was given an orientation handbook when he arrived at the facility that stated phone calls were recorded and monitored except for attorney-client calls, which were not recorded or monitored. No further information on procedures for securing privileged phone calls was provided to Andersen or his attorneys.

Andersen’s initial attorney was based 200 miles from the jail. She and her investigator used phone calls to question Andersen about the case, inform him of the progress of their investigation and plan trial strategy. After four months of privileged phone discussions, they began to suspect that their phone calls were being recorded and provided to law enforcement personnel.

On multiple occasions, law enforcement officials interviewed witnesses a few hours before they arrived at planned witnesses interviews that had been discussed ...

by Matt Clarke

On October 20, 2008, Texas Governor Rick Perry placed all 112 prisons and 155,000 prisoners in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) on lockdown to search for cell phones after a state senator received calls from a death row prisoner.

Richard Lee Tabler, 29, who is awaiting execution, used a cell phone to call state Senator John Whitmire, chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, on October 7, 2008 to ask for his help in obtaining a pro bono attorney and special visits for his mother and grandmother.

Tabler’s mother, Lorraine, was arrested at an airport when she arrived from Georgia after Sen. Whitmire told her he had arranged a visit with her son. Detectives are in possession of a videotape from a Wal-Mart in Waycross, Georgia that shows her purchasing minutes for the cell phone that Richard used. Over forty calls made from death row were to her home number.

Tabler’s mother and sister, Kristina Martinez, who surrendered to authorities in Temple, Texas on October 22, 2008, were named in felony warrants for providing a prohibited item to a prisoner. They face up to two years in state jail.

Tabler had also called Austin American-Statesman ...

Washington State prisoner Habib Saleh sought review of his federal habeas corpus denial challenging the admission of statements made in a voluntary phone conversation he initiated at his trial for first degree murder. The court affirmed the statement's use and his conviction, holding that the non custodial phone interrogation did not require a Miranda warning.

Seattle apartment manager and Saleh's ex wife, Elizabeth Edwards, was brutally beaten and killed in 1996. On March 3, 1998, Saleh, in jail for assaulting his son in law, was interrogated in the murder after being read his Miranda rights. On March 25, 1998, he requested counsel but also said to a detective that he wanted the electric chair so that he could be with Edwards, but denied killing her. The next day, March 26, 1998, Saleh placed a call to the detective and again requested the electric chair.

Saleh was charged with first degree murder. His attack on his son in law resembled the attack against Edwards. He had a history of violence toward Edwards and blood found on his apartment's exterior matched her DNA. He had been treated for injuries consistent with the method of Edward's attack. The March 3rd and 25th statements ...

On August 14, 2008, the Texas Board of Criminal Justice (TBCJ) awarded a phone service contract to two companies, Kansas-based Embarq Corp. and Dallas-based Securus Technologies, Inc. Prior to this historic event, the Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) was the only state prison system in the nation that did not let prisoners make phone calls. The contract was awarded during a TBCJ meeting held at a motel in Austin; prior to the contract award, details of the bids were confidential.

It is now known that Global Tel*Link and Unisys also submitted proposals, with Global Tel offering the lowest bid. But the TBCJ didn’t accept the lowest bid; after all, it will be prisoners and their families paying for the phone calls, not the state. Instead, the TDCJ accepted the higher Embarq/Securus partnership bid with rates of 26¢/minute for in-state and 43¢/minute for out-of-state collect calls, and 23¢/minute for in-state and 39¢/minute for out-of-state prepaid calls. The contract will result in the installation of approximately 5,000 phones at 113 prison sites by April 2009, which will be used by about 160,000 Texas prisoners.

To be eligible to make phone calls, prisoners must have no major disciplinary violations within the past ...

More Damages, Costs & Attorney Fees Awarded in NH False Disciplinary Case

Three prisoners involved in two federal civil rights lawsuits against officials of the Hillsborough County House of Corrections in New Hampshire (the jail) were awarded nominal, compensatory and punitive damages plus attorney fees and costs.

On July 14, 2002, jail guard Cesar Rivas, working alone in a medium-security housing unit, radioed in an alarm. He claimed to have been rushed or cornered by a group of at least twenty prisoners. Rivas picked out nine pre-trial detainees from the locked-down unit whom he claimed were involved in the incident. The nine were placed in solitary confinement.

The conditions in solitary were especially harsh, and included denial of all property except a mattress, sheet, pillow and prison uniform. Prohibited items included legal papers, writing instruments and personal hygiene items such as soap and toilet paper. The water supply to the cells was shut off and the nine prisoners had to rely on the largess of guards to turn it on briefly so they could wash their hands or flush the toilet.

They were subjected to up to five in-cell strip searches a day in which they were often required to ...