Sheriff installing new inmate phone system

The Young County Sheriff ’s Office is close to implementing a new phone system that allows inmates to make and take calls in their cells, will pay for itself and will generate revenue for the county, Sheriff Travis Babock told the commissioners court on Nov. 14. The sheriff asked the commissioners to amend the contract they approved on Aug. 1 to allow the phone contractor, Crown Correctional Telephone, to install new wiring for the phones.

The phone system is being installed at no cost to the county, which will, in fact, make money under the 60-month contract, said Precinct 3 Commissioner Stacey Rogers.

“They are going to set up inside the [cells] so that [the inmates] won’t have to be escorted by the jailers to where the phone system is - in the visitation area,” Mr. Rogers said. “The county is not out any expense – but [is] going to get 50 percent of the revenue that was generated from the phone system.”

Sheriff Travis Babcock asked for approval for the phones, which require inmates to hold their ears up to the wall-mounted receivers, because of problems with inmates using wireless phones as weapons against other inmates and deputies.The new phones will be installed in the 12 separation cells, where inmates are housed individually, Sheriff Babcock said. Those inmates now share a single cordless telephone that is rolled to their cells on a cart.

Inmates will have to purchase phone time and will be issued a PIN to operate the phones, he said.