Emails for inmates

We just read a good article in The Independent, by Tracy Overstreet, about how Hall County Jail set up an email service for inmates - because the phone rates were too high! And the licensed phone provider for the jail? You guessed it – Securus!

 

The jail administrative assistant said that local call costs a flat rate of $3.75 for 15 minutes – which is still 25 cents per minute for a local call!

One inmate told the Independent “They changed the phone rate because most of us came from Omaha.” Long-distance calls in Nebraska cost $3.95 plus 69 cents per minute. The long-distance calls outside Nebraska carry only the FCC-mandated 25-cent-per-minute rate. At those rates, a Hall County inmate calling California could talk for 15 minutes for $3.75, while a Hall County inmate calling Omaha would have a cost of $14.30 for the same 15-minute call!

As the inmate said “It is now cheaper to call California than to call Omaha.”

 

That is why the email system was introduced, through the commissary system: $2 for a weekly subscription, or $8 for a monthly one.

Email is supposed to help reduce the cost of high phone prices

Email is supposed to help reduce the cost of high phone prices

 

Whether the email system will reduce phone revenue remains to be seen. According to the  Corrections Director, Fred Ruiz, the jail typically sees about $1,800 in phone calls per week.

 

If you would like to read more, you can check out: http://www.theindependent.com/news/local/hall-county-jail-adds-email-service-for-inmates/article_c14d2ddc-2b49-11e4-9b15-0019bb2963f4.html

 

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Posted by on August 25, 2014

Category: Inmate communication, News, Press

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