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BAY CITY, MI — Providing a means for jail inmates to communicate with their loved ones on the outside is a lucrative business for a Dallas-based company, which supplies phone services to jails throughout Michigan.

Since at least 2000, the Bay County Jail’s phone services have been provided by Securus Technologies, formerly known as Evercom. The company is self-described as “the premier provider of innovative communication solutions for the corrections industry.” There are 85 jails and incarceration facilities in Michigan that make use of Securus, including those in Saginaw, Midland, Tuscola, Gladwin, Isabella, Arenac and Clare counties.

“Inmates have to have communication with their families, and we make a lot of provisions for that,” said Capt. Troy Stewart, Bay County Jail administrator. Inmates are able to write letters, place phone calls and, once per week, receive visitors.

“We don’t have our own phone system, everything is contracted out,” Stewart said. “Sheriff (John E.) Miller has been very good at trying to get the lowest price vendors on everything we have in this place. We’re very conscious of the cost that goes to the inmate, too, but that’s not a cost we put on it, that’s a cost from the company.”

Securus serves about 2,200 correctional facilities in 45 states and employs about 750 associates. In 2012 alone, they won $40 million in new contracts.

Securus’ website indicates that a call from the Bay County Jail runs $4.24 for the initial connection, plus 0.69 cents per minute. A 15-minute call costs a total of $14.59. The rate is the same for the Saginaw County and Tuscola County jails. By contrast, inmate calls from the Midland County Jail cost an initial connection fee of $3 and $0.25 per minute.

The Times was unable to contact a spokesperson from Securus for comment on how the rates are set.

The most recent contract between Bay County and Securus was approved in December 2010 by a 9-0 vote of the Bay County Board of Commissioners. According to the contract’s terms, the county is to receive 51 percent of the gross revenue of calls. From January through October of 2013, the county made $80,212.89, according to a document supplied by the county's Finance Department.

The current contract is to remain in effect until July 25, 2015.

Ernie Krygier

Bay County Commissioner and County Board Chairman Ernie Krygier, D-2nd District, said the county isn’t involved in helping Securus set its rates.

“I want to say they probably set their own,” Krygier said. “We really don’t have any input in it.”

He added that the Securus/Evercom contracts have been approved as they have provided “the lowest bid and the greatest amount of return for us.”

Stewart said maintaining phone services at the jail isn't always easy as irate inmates often damage phones, which can then lead to fights.

“We go through handles nonstop,” he said, adding that Securus responds within hours to repair any damages. He said the revenue generated by the county helps pay jail employees' wages and maintenance expenses.

“Can you imagine if we had our own phone system?” Stewart rhetorically asked. “All of that would come off tax dollars if we had to fix it, and that’s why we contract it out. It already costs the county enough to house inmates. It’d be more of a burden on taxpayers if we took that on ourselves.”

Most inmates make a call every couple of days, while some call once a day or more, Stewart said. There is no limit on how many calls inmates can place from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., Stewart said.

Bay County Jail Administrator Troy Stewart discusses the jail's phone services in the visitor entry area of the jail facility in Bay City. In the coming year, the company that provides phone services, plans to instal televisions with video conferencing capabilities in the lobby area.

The Bay County Jail has 21 blocks, with one phone in each block.

For inmates who can’t afford phone calls, the jail provides them with paper and two envelopes and two stamps each week.

Inmates have accounts through Securus, in which they or relatives can place money to fund their calls, via the Securus website. When inmates’ accounts are without money, they can place collect calls, but a recording informs the recipient that the call is coming from the jail, Stewart said.

All calls are subject to recording, which the inmates are advised of each time they use the phones.

The Michigan Department of Corrections, which oversees state prisons, uses Public Communications Services as its provider for inmate phone calls. The vendor’s rates per minute for calls debited to the inmate’s account range from $0.18 to $0.75, depending on if the calls are local, interstate or international. Inmates’ collect or prepaid calls cost $0.20 per minute when local and $0.23 when interstate, the MDOC’s website states.

If a prepaid account is set up through Public Communications Services, a credit card transaction fee of $3.95 also is added on.

A question of rates

Bay City resident Fred Zaplitny, an 87-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran, said his 58-year-old son, Keith Zaplitny, called him from the Bay County Jail earlier this year.

“He was calling me collect,” Fred Zaplitny said. “The process was so long that after about three, four minutes of instructions I would just hang up, or he would hang up. We only connected once, and I used my credit card.”

Zaplitny said the call cost him about $15. He compared it to calls his son had placed from a Jackson prison in January, February and March which lasted 10, 11 and 15 minutes and cost $2, $2.20 and $3, respectively. He said he believes the cost of the call from the Bay County Jail was exorbitant.

“The county is making money off the backs of the poor people in Bay County,” Zaplitny said. “That’s exactly what they’re doing. I'm not complaining because I can’t afford it; I’m not indigent. I think it’s patently wrong.”

Stewart said that while the calls can be expensive, they are the lowest cost available for the depth of services Securus provides.

“If I was a family member, I would use the postal system and the visits, because the phones are too expensive,” Stewart said. “It’s not cheap, but when you’re replacing handsets every week and keypads once every two weeks, those things get expensive.”

Zaplitny, though, is of the mind that there should be cheaper options out there for inmates to call home, especially when calls from prison are so comparatively low.

“I really think that it’s not fair, the manner in which they do it,” he said. “The poor people, I don’t know how they manage it. I know the city and the county are doing everything they can to make money, and they should. But there may be some places where they’re taking advantage of people who don’t have a voice.”

Krygier said if another vendor were to offer better services and lower rates, the county would likely contract with them.

“When that contract comes up again, I’m sure bids would go out. At that point, there will probably be a percentage set for the amount that would be kicked back to the county. When we put out bids, if somebody comes out lower, we’ll certainly look at that.”

He added that he has not heard any negative feedback on how the system operates.

Spotlight on charges

In an attempt to curtail unreasonable prices on a national level, the Federal Communications Commission has recently been focusing on the rates of inmates' phone calls.

In August, the FCC approved an order mandating states to charge inmates no more than $0.25 per minute for interstate collect calls and no more than $0.21 per minute for interstate debit or prepaid calls. The following month, the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau issued an order prohibiting inmate calling service providers such as Securus from blocking lower-cost call routing services.

The FCC made the push for more regulated, reduced rates as a measure to likewise reduce inmates’ return to incarceration.

“Studies make clear that inmates who maintain contact with family and community while in prison have reduced rate of recidivism and are more likely to become productive citizens upon their release,” the FCC stated in an August press release. “Lower rates of recidivism also benefit society by reducing crime, the need for additional prisons and other costs. In addition, an estimated 2.7 million children would benefit from increased communication with an incarcerated parent. Many of these children face challenges that are manifested in higher rates of truancy, homelessness, depression and other ills.”

The FCC went on to say that exorbitant phone call prices from correctional facilities do more to discourage such communication, citing examples where a 15-minute call can run more than $17.

New video technology on its way

In the next few months, Securus plans to install in the Bay County Jail a means for video visitation, featuring televisions in cell blocks that can accept Skype calls. Stewart said the plan is for there to be about 17 televisions in the cell blocks and five or six in the visitation area.

“Now they can see their kids, grandma and grandpa all on the screen,” Stewart said. The new technology would also reduce the opportunity for visitors to smuggle contraband into the jail and will allow for inmates to see their children, who currently are not allowed inside the jail, Stewart said.

“It’ll be a cost-savings for the county,” Stewart said, adding Securus is putting in about $180,000 worth of equipment to facilitate the video visitations. “We’re not putting a commission on top of the inmates for us, because it saves us in time and hassle and contraband, so we have a savings already just in moving prisoners, because they’ll be able to do it in their block. And the nice thing is they’ll get more than one visit a week. They can do a visit a day or two a day.”

The administrator said if inmates’ relatives visit the jail in person, they can use the TVs for free. If they want to visit via video from home, there will be a $20 fee for 20 minutes, but visitors won’t have to spend gas money or travel time, Stewart said.

Currently, in-person visits limit two to three people per inmate. With the video option, as many people who can fit on screen can converse with the inmate.

The video visitations, like their telephone counterparts, will be recorded and monitored by jail staff, Stewart said. Another advantage is that inmates can use the video visitation service seven days a week, whereas in-person visits are limited to Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday, Stewart said.

“I think in the long run, it will save families quite a bit,” he said.