By Paul Larocco
The Press Enterprise
RIVERSIDE COUNTY, Calif. — Collect call rates from Riverside County jails are among the lowest in the state, officials said, and provide $2 million annually for inmate program funds.
The county is entering the second year of its most-recent contract with Global Tel*Link, the private company that facilitates phone service for most of the state’s correctional facilities.
“Overall, we’re happy,” said sheriff’s Lt. Joe McNamara, a corrections commander. “We had to be a steward for the inmates and the people they’re calling.”
As officials in Los Angeles County and elsewhere push for lower inmate call rates, terming them excessive, Riverside County officials said they were able to reduce costs through a competitive bidding process.
Under the contract that took effect last June, GTL submitted a fixed-price bid for services that would cost inmates $2.95 million per year, or an average rate of 23 cents per minute. GTL also agreed to fund two county employees who monitor and record jail calls.
Another bidder reserved the right to raise rates during the contract, sheriff’s officials said, making GTL a more attractive option.
“The bid process made sure rates were industry standard and were fair to the inmates and the public,” McNamara said.
Riverside County inmates made more than 850,000 calls last year, totaling 9.3 million minutes. Standard connection (or first-minute) fees for local collect calls are $2.29, or $2.10 for interstate calls.
Last year, Los Angeles County supervisors opened its service to bid after learning that inmates were paying about $5.20 for a 17-minute call, as much as 30 percent above the state average. In Southern California, only Orange County was higher.
San Bernardino County sheriff’s Lt. Rick Roelle said his county also is among the state’s lowest, with its 2009 contract with GTL providing inmates with local collect rates of 18 cents per minute, with no connection fees, and interstate rates of 50 cents per minute.
That covers additional costs required, such as monitoring calls for security, he said.
“It’s not just hooking up a phone and they’re connected,” he said.
For most counties contracting with GTL, roughly half of call revenues are paid directly into the Inmate Welfare Fund, which benefits programs such as substance abuse treatment, re-entry training and education. In San Bernardino County, the total is about $3.5 million.
GTL contracts with 31 city, county and juvenile corrections departments statewide. Authorities often favor the company’s technology and rates, but it also is a frequent target of complaints by inmates’ families.
Stories of recipients being charged hundreds of dollars per month to take calls from incarcerated loved ones are common online. But one man who has been on both sides of inmate collect calls said the problem extends beyond jails or GTL.
Michael Papich, of Hemet, received a collect call last month from his teenage son at a pay phone in Murrieta. For the three-minute call, he was charged $31.54 by CTI Collect of Las Vegas, he said.
He said the company would only tell him that they follow Federal Communications Commission rules.
“I’ve been on cruise ships, in airports and in jails, and never had a call like that,” said Papich, 48.
He said the charges included a $7.50 connection fee and a $6 equipment fee.
When it comes to accepting calls from jail, Papich said he prefers to buy prepaid calling accounts that they can use at lower rates. In Riverside County, local prepaid calls are more than a cent per minute less than collect calls. Interstate calls are nine cents less.
“I know this,” Papich said, recounting his collect call experience from the pay phone, “I’ll never accept another one.”
Copyright 2010 The Press Enterprise, Inc.