County approves phones for jail cells

Some inmates at Young County Jail will soon have access to wall-mounted phones in their cells after county commissioners voted at their Aug. 1 meeting to allow the jail commissary supplier to install and operate the devices at nocost to the county.The commissioners approved a 60-month contract for Sterling Commissar y/ Crown Correctional Telephoneof Clifton, Texas.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 anddeputies.The new phones will be installed by Sterling-Crown 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.

“Phones in the separation cell will make it easier for everybody, especially the jailers,” Sheriff Babcock said. “I plan on changing them out in all the cells. [The inmates] will pull the receivers out, pull the wires out and use them for whatever. I don’t like having a receiver where they can use it to beat us.”

Inmates who purchase phone time will be issued a PIN, which they will use to operate the phone, he said. Families of inmates will be able to purchase phone minutes at the commissary or online, a Sterling-Crown representativetold the commissioners. The inmates will be issued a check or debit card for unused minutes when they are released from jail, the same way they receive unused funds from their commissaryaccounts, he said. The commissary delivery workers who supply the jail weekly will have the tools on their trucks and training to repair the phones if necessary, hesaid.

Handout photo