Corrections Department Allowing Use of Cordless Phones for Inmates

• NCJ Number: 247719
• Journal: Techbeat Dated: July/August 2014 Pages: 11-13
• Author(s): Michele Coppola
• Date Published: July 2014
• Length: 3 pages
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Report (Technical); Program/Project Description

Annotation

This article focuses on the Indiana Department of Correction's policy of allowing inmates to use cordless phones in their cells under the rationale that it stems recidivism and the use of contraband cell phones while contributing to better behavior while incarcerated.

Abstract

From a phone bank, corrections officers take phones off the charger and hand them to inmates who have signed out to use them. Security is essentially the same as that for a stationary wall phone, with monitoring and recording by prison staff. The phones are connected to the provider network just as are the stationary wall phones. The system permits calls only to persons the inmates are authorized to call. A pin number must be entered before the phone can be used. Inmates are allowed to walk around with the phones and take them to their cells for privacy when talking to family and friends. The department has been using the cordless phones in prison recreation areas for about 2 years. In the spring of 2014, the cordless phone service was extended to one 250-bed general population maximum-security housing unit in a 3,000-bed correctional facility as an experiment. The program has gone well and will be expanded to another 250-bed unit in the same facility.