Inmate Communications System

The Vendor is required to provide inmate communications systems, to include the following systems, at the county jail: inmate telephone, video visitation, inmate digital request and grievance forms, jail to inmate communication platform and mobile tablets.
- General requirements
• Web-browser based, easy to use application.
• System shall allow outgoing calls only.
• The proposed system shall allow inmate calls to be restricted to 15 minutes. Grand traverse county representatives must be able to change this call duration limit by inmate pin, specific telephone, or group of telephones.
• The users – inmate and called party – shall be notified of limit in advance of the system terminating the call.
• Supply one TTY phone to the grand traverse county jail.
• Require active acceptance by the called party.
• Include user prompts in English and Spanish in addition to other languages that may be requested by the county.
• Need to have a program that will proactively attempt to set-up an account for individuals who are not able to accept collect calls, enabling families to quickly communicate with incarcerated individuals. Please describe your program
• Notify end user when they have reached 75% of its site or personal credit limit and describe process.
- Personal identification number (PIN)
• Utilize personal identification numbers (PIN) for the inmates.
• The PIN is generated from integrated trust account software defaulted to mm/dd.
• The inmate telephone system shall interface with the jail’s commissary/resident banking vendor to allow for tracking of phone calls by PIN and allowing the inmate to access their resident bank account status and to purchase commissary items using the inmate telephone system.
• Inmates will need capability to re-set their passwords themselves.
• The county must be able to restrict calls based on the inmate’s PIN.
• This includes call duration, time of day, and destination numbers.
• Method of verifying the inmate’s PIN to guard against fraudulent PIN use through voice verification.
• List facilities where this type of interface has been implemented successfully.
- Call acceptance
• Alert the called party of the per-minute cost of the call prior to acceptance.
• The called party must actively accept the call.
• The inmate cannot communicate with the called party until the call has been accepted.
• Billing does not begin until the call is accepted.
- Voice biometrics & other investigative tools
• Capabilities to provide a voice biometric feature, which will assist in authenticating an individual’s identity.
• The system will need to be equipped with a remote call-forwarding feature for those numbers that are under surveillance by the investigative unit.
• The feature will need to allow authorized personnel to monitor a call, from any designated remote location, while the call is in progress. The call will need to be automatically re-routed once the call is accepted by the called party and in progress.
• The inmate calling system will need to be able to interface with the facility’s LAN (local area network) allowing access to all features and tools from existing desktop computers.
• The system will also need to allow for immediate, real-time live monitoring of calls in progress via either the vendor-provided multi-media pc workstation or predetermined desktops on the LAN throughout the county, including but not limited to, city police department, sheriff’s district offices and other locations as determined by the county.
- Call monitoring & recording
• System shall maintain 365 days of call recording online.
• Facility personnel must be able to search call recordings by dialed number, date, time, inmate account, or site id.
• Facility personnel must be able to simultaneously listen to and record conversations.
• Recordings must be backed for archival.
• System shall have integrated visitation phone recording capabilities.