The oregon department of corrections has been mandated to explore ways to reduce the cost inmate phone calls. since phone fraud and bad debt are a major contributors to the costs of these calls we will be testing a pre-paid debit calling system at Coffe Creek Correctional Facility. cccf was chosen because the inmates there will not be moved to another facility.
this is from the odoc. of course they don't mention the other contributing factor to the costs of these calls: their cut!

this is good but also so frustrating for me. cccf is the womens state facility in oregon. all female inmates are housed there. it is also an intake prison for male inmates being sent to one of 14 other facilities. my friend is in intake there and cannot take advantage of the debit card system since he is transitional. aaargh! frustrating, 'cause my line is blocked and we are incommunicado. haven't heard from him in letters either 'cause he used up all his envelopes and gets no commissary till assigned to a permanent prison. no soap no shampoo nothing. they are only supposed to be there for 30 days but he's been in for about 6 weeks.

anyway, anyone else had experience with these debit card systems? i've heard they can be more expensive than collect calls, although i'm wondering if this would be the case with this state, since it's been mandated.

TIA:

I BASICALLY HAVE THE SAME SORT OF SYSTEM HERE IN NORTH CAROLINA.... ;I ACCEPT PHONE CALLS FROM MY SON ON MY BUSINESS TELEPHONE. I HAVE DONE THIS FOR 12 YEARS AND HAVE PAID MY COMPANY BACK EACH MONTH WHEN THE PHONE BILLS COME IN.

1 YEAR AGO, THEY STARTED A NEW SYSTEM.... MY LONG DISTANCE COMPANY IS NOT SET UP WITH EVERCOM THE PRISON BILLING SERVICE... SO, I HAVE TO MAKE A PREPAID DEPOSIT IN WHATEVER AMOUNT AND THEN WHEN HE CALLS THE CALL DOLLAR AMOUNT IS DEDUCTED FROM MY PREPAID. THIS, SO FAR, HAS WORKED GOOD. I SEND THEM A CHECK WHEN MY BALANCE GETS TO $50.00 SO HE WILL NOT PREVENTED FROM CALLING.

I AM SURE THE DEBIT CARD IS BASICALLY THE SAME THING... THE AMOUNT OF THE PHONE CALL HAS NOT INCREASED.

DONNA

Just curious, who mandated the odoc to do this?

i don't know who, i just saw it in a small newsbriefs regarding oregon prison phone systems. it had to do with lowering the cost of from prison calls to families. i wish it would hurry though so i could talk to my friend. i've tried everything but my line keeps getting blocked. my phone company says they cannot see a block but i cannot get a call. occassionally once in a blue moon a call will go through but not for a very long time.

Tia...the block may not be w/your phone company. I may be w/the company that owns the phone systems in your friend's prison.
If you can, call down to the prison & ask for the person or dept. that handles the "inmate phone systems", someone there SHOULD be able to help you or possibly direct you to another place where you should call.
I had the same thing w/my fiancee, my phone company said no block, but he wrote me letters stating it was blocked. I called the prison & found out the name of the phone company that owns the phone systems. They of course said there was no block, but they would be HAPPY to recheck my line. Miracle of miracles, he happened to try that night & got through, hmm...makes 1 wonder....

DJ

Maybe the company is that Correctional Billing Services, like what happened to me and I didn't even know I suddenly was given an account by them with a limit on it!

Good points, Isadora & DJ

Isadora...when dealing w/the prison phone systems it's all a game of playing detective for us. The guys call us & we don't know WHERE the calls are coming from or don't even know how much they are until you get the phone bill. Then you see what company it is. When your line gets blocked you go through hell trying to call your phone company, getting no where there & then trying to figure out where that damn block could be.
Believe me Isadora & vnv I have spent whole days when I got a letter from EJ saying my line was blocked calling EVERYWHERE & having people say..."NOPE no block!" It's so frustrating believe me.
Isadora...try calling correctional billing services to see what they can do about your account, I know they can up your limit, they did it for me in the past. If that doesn't work, try calling down to the prison & ask for whoever handles the "inmate phone systems" & hopefully you can figure out what is going on.
It gets me so mad that we have to go through all these problems just to be able to talk to our loved 1's!!