03-11-2015, 07:42 AM
(03-10-2015, 11:42 PM)duluth45 Wrote: If Arizona doesn't have the money to put brakes on the phones, freedoms, etc. that prisoners can have
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Duluth, while I can't vouch with certainty for Arizona's inmate contacts by phone or visits, many years ago in our local paper, a story about the county jail acquiring an independent contractor to handle all outgoing calls by inmates was done and for a nominal fee, family and friends could place money on the inmates phone account. Minutes remaining rolled over. A Telmate machine was placed in the lobby at the jail where money could be inserted to add extra time. Or, could be done from a home phone. Phone calls were still monitored.
Where it was so benign before, an inmate would fill out a form stating who could visit and calls from the inmate were from the internal system. If anything, it was time consuming for staff. I think the entire system was designed as a money maker for both the county/jail as well as the service. At some point I believe there were complaints about the fees and some changes were made. But I think possibly this is a format that Arizona uses, it brings in more money, just as the meals that are now served at Perryville - which look like a vile clump, their costs per day for preparation are virtually nil.
This teleconferencing that Arias has access to for visitors probably doesn't work on the same format as far as charges, but allows for visitation where the inmate can be observed. According to Arpaio they're doing that but somewhere at the beginning of the process, that was failing since two teens were able to access Arias. All it takes is one staff member to set the ball rolling in the wrong direction. And I'm pretty sure, there are a lot who try every trick in the book to visit inmates. They look for weak links in the system to exploit. Something Arias is keen to...she'll surely learn more as she processes through the system.
Here is an interesting situation done by inmates in jail - talk about exploiting the system! A relative obtained an RO from a male subject while he was incarcerated. It was delivered to him. In the interim, she moved to another town, changed her phone number (he called her from jail) and tried to go on with her life. He anticipated that she would move. On an envelope, he placed a 'Christmas' sticker, not a stamp. It went through the mail process at the jail and the postal service! They delivered it to her! She sent it back and a 'return address' label of her new residence was placed on the envelope. They sent the envelope back to the inmate for "insufficient funds." He now knew where she moved to and began writing her. The timing was remarkable! But you can see how easy this was for an inmate to exploit the system where two agencies failed twice in their positions! Jails are not immune to the antics of inmates!!