Inmate telephone system

Inmate Calling Service (ICS) or inmate telephone system in the United States, describes the integrated telecommunications systems designed for use in correctional facilities. By 2015, in the United States, ICS had become a $1.2 billion telecommunications industry. The two largest providers in the United States were private equity-backed companies—Global Tel*Link (GTL) with 50% in 2015. and Securus Technologies Inc. with 20%.

For prisoners and their families and legal counsel, the ICS is meant to offer a consistent communication that is a crucial rehabilitation tool. It also is used by facilities' staff to record and monitor the inmate's telephone activities.

The Inspector General argued in a report published in August 1999 report that "as many as 150 crimes were committed by inmates using the ITS."

On April 2, 2001, the Federal Bureau of Prisons announced a new policy that limited "inmates' use of the telephone to a total of 300 minutes per month." In 2002, in many prisons, phone credits are accessed via an inmate account card. Inmates have to register to be able to use the service, and need to provide a list with names and numbers of people they will be allowed to call. In 2009 prison systems limited the calls to a fifteen minute maximum, and inmates have to wait thirty minutes before being allowed to make another call, though the call limitations vary depending on the prison's house rules.

Before the 1990s, in the United States, service rates for phone calls within jails were similar to those available to the general public through commercial providers. Since then jail phone service providers began to charge higher rates for the phone services than traditional home phone service. Congressman Bobby L. Rush(D-Illinois) introduced the "The Family Telephone Connection Protection Act of 2007" that began the discussion of rate regulation for inmate telephone calls. This Bill brought about the defining of the actual costs of telephone services from jails and it was hoped would result in a standardization of rates among inmate telephone providers in 2009 or 2010.

One of the reasons for the significantly higher telephone rates stems from the way in which exclusive contracts are granted by prison operators who in turn benefit from a lucrative system of collecting fees from the providers. In a 2015 article in The New York Times, it was reported that facilities enter into these exclusive concession contracts with a specific company to provide these services for all their inmates, typically favoring the provider that can provide larger commissions to the facility via their service fees. A Congressional Research Service 2010 report cited concerns expressed by Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE), that "telephone providers often pay prison operators a high percentage of the fees they collect for prisoners’ collect calls, and then charge inmates well-above general market rates for service...with commissions on telephone service... as high as 45- 65% of gross revenues generated by the service." Federal officials and States had become "dependent on a small group of companies" and the rise of a "prison-industrial complex" is "dependent on government funds" and has a "vested interest in the continuation or expansion of the prison system." The National Sheriffs Association claim that the contractual arrangements with service providers "ensure security and allow them to monitor inmate phone calls" and that "changing the rules could endanger public safety".Bloomberg Businessweek reported in 2014, that exorbitant rates are typically meant to compensate for the high commissions paid to the facilities the provider serves. These practices have been frequently criticized by the families of inmates, who feel that these providers had exploited their personal situations in order to turn a profit. Corrections facilities and law enforcement agencies typically resisted attempts to lower these fees, arguing that they provide additional funding to support a facility's operations, such as security. Jail phone service providers traditionally charge higher rates for the phone services than traditional home phone service since the phone systems are much more sophisticated, difficult to manage and require more service repairs.

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