Travis County Commissioners Court
June 12, 2007
Item 26
>> 26 is to authorize the purchasing agent to commence negotiations with the highest ranked proposer in reference to r.f.p. Number p 070173-vc for pay phone services, both inmate and public coin.
>> good morning. Cyd grimes, purchasing agent. Just background, we issued a request for proposal back on March the fifth. We received two proposals. One of those is from securest technologies, is which is the parent company of our current contractor, ever com. And the other proposal was from global tell link. This provides for telephone access privileges for the inmates and additional services for the inmate population. There are some added benefits this time that we are looking at. I'll mention those in a minute. Some of the added benefits they offer were the job finder at no cost. This is a service that will help the inmates look for jobs while they're still out of the jail and hopefully helpm have a job when they get out. There's e-mail from friends and families to inmates and and there's potential revenue that we will negotiate on that. There's also a kiosk at no cost that allows families and friends to apply funds to the inmates' commissary funds via credit card or cash. And also there's an interactive voice system that will allow inmates, friends and families to make inquiries about potential release dates. And again, those costs are part of our negotiation process. We have a guaranteed income, $1.5 million. They offered us that same guaranteed revenue for this contract. Additionally they will fund $25,000 each year for an f.t.e. As you know, its hires that position and they work here at the county, but securest helps fund that position. And that helps to administer and manage the contract. We did look at comparisons of other counties and what they charge for inmate calls much the last time we did that that was a concern. As we discussed at the time, the puc -- who sets that? The puc, they set those rates. They set the max. So as you can see, we mentioned -- we're going to be charging 4.65 -- $4.65, and this compares to $4.10 in johnson county and then ector county is the same rate. The other proposer had a -- they can't of quantified their guaranteed revenue amount, so we did not think that that was in our best interest. So I want to thank the committee. We had representatives walter la grown from its, sally green from its. Our technical folks and those from the sheriff's office, peggy hill and ms. Brown. Randy lott from pbo was on the committee as was shaun o'neal. And then vic from my office oversaw the process. This is normally a six-month process and they've done a very good job. We're three months in and hopefully we'll have a contract before another three months. The current contract expires the end of September. So we'll need to be back fairly soon. Weelt need to move forward with negotiations and I believe you had a few questions.
>> I had a few questions. First of all, looking at these bullets of additional services that are available. I just wanted to commend the committee. As a family member who has tried to maintain contact with one of my loved ones who is in jail for a long time, this is far more than I have to access my loved one, and this is a wonderful things. Positive contact with the outside is really important. I had a couple of questions. The 4 boy 65 per call -- the 4.65 per call and the 1.5 guaranteed income, I want to make the distinction, the sheriffs are still allowed free phone calls in booking, correct?
>> my understanding from the sheriff's office is they are in central booking, free calls. And also out at the jail if a client wants to call their attorney it's free, either in central booking or out at the jail facility. So yes, there are --
>> Commissioner, we're mandated by jail standards upon intake to allow two free calls to whomever they wish to call. And so we do that. And then like cyd said, we set up a deal with securest and the attorneys and those calls are free. So they have unlimited access basically to the courts.
>> so in regard to -- in regard to handling their case, those cawltz are still available to the inmate for free? There's no impediment to them maintaining contact with their representation for their criminal case?
>> that's correct. And of course, we also have counselors for the inmates and if they have some type of life or family crisis, we allow free calls with the counselor during sessions and stuff like that. I don't want that to get too much out, but we do that. But we don't -- we understand those things are going to happen, and so they can get those calls.
>> what is the maximum that the puc allows to be charged?
>> walter is telling me 5.05, he believes.
>> good morning. Walter la groibl, our infrastructure operation manager. I believe the maximum is $5.05. We've been at 4.65 since the beginning of the previous contract, which was in 2003. And evercome, which is now securest, has kept that current rate for the past five years.
>> does the puc mandate a certain menu of services by phone?
>> no.
>> is it just telephone calls?
>> what the puc is providing guidance to our telecommunication vendors is this is the maximum rate you can charge. Now, these telecom vendors can apply for a higher rate and either they'll approve it or they won't. But securest has kept it 4.65 for the past five years. And the current proposal is to keep it 4.65. If they want to change it, they have to request and get approval from the court to increase it.
>> it appears that the menu of services that they're able to provide for 4.65 a call -- and I assume we're taking some sort of cut from that 4.65 as well?
>> no. We are guaranteed --
>> that's their amount.
>> that's their amount and we are guaranteed the 1.5 and the 25,000.
>> I believe that it's a wonderful thing to be able to provide friends and family e-mail service, a key kiosk and job finder along with the straight phone calls.
>> do you know how the job finder -- can you explain how that works? Because I find that real interesting.
>> job finder is -- if you can equate it back to what people who are looking for jobs like monster.com, specifically for inmates and what securest does is they go out and find companies who are interested in getting -- apparently there's some kind of federal tax credit if they're willing to hire people who are coming out of jail. Securest finds those people, they show them how to use the job finder. Also the inmates will go in and put in what their skills are. And just like through monster.com there's a match. And the thinking is that if the inmates have jobs, they won't go back to crime. I'm excited about it. I think it's a good program. I think the vendor is trying to help reduce folks going into yale, this cycle. And I think that speaks highly for the company who kind of depends on inmates to produce revenue. So they're trying to help the community and I think it's -- I think it's great.
>> are they keeping statistics -- are any statistics revealed on the job finder setting? Do we have anything to show what --
>> we have a few representatives from securest, and we'll let them answer that question.
>> because I'm hearing some of these thing -- I didn't mean to cut you off, Commissioner. But I'm trying to get to the service. In other words, here is something that -- let me let you answer that. If you don't mind identifying yourself and tell us who you are, but I'd like to see how that work.
>> good morning, Commissioner, judge. My name is doug simpson, regional vice-president for securest technologies. This program is actually being launched as a result of studies that talks about the reincarceration process. And the likelihood of those people being released, coming back into jail if they have nothing waiting for them. So while I don't have the specifics -- and by the way, with me heather white. But there is definitely shown to be a reduction.
>> I would like to see what is the success of that program, the numbers, per se, who it's really helping. Travis County is currently looking at re-entry program and thing like that. And triemg to maybe -- and I'm trying to maybe tie the two together to see if there's a -- round table, a whole bunch other things, we're asking employers to maybe see what Travis County is doing as far as also trying to hire persons who have been incarcerated and are looking for employment. My point is if there's something that you're going out there now under this, it will be about good to have those numbers revealed to us, and especially if we're talking about the employers receiving benefits from the federal government as far as criticism. Can you tell me aig bit about that?
>> sure. And Commissioner, let me clarify. We've recently introduced this program into collin county up in northeast Texas. A nice size facility there. Not as big as travis. So the job market covers most of the dallas fort dallas-fort worth metropolitan area. That area has only been introduced the last three, four months. That's why I don't have any hard data to give you as far as the benefits from reduced re-entry. We have talked to the sheriff obviously about this and we know that he has shown an interest. It is our intent to tie those two together and it will dove tail nicely into a program the sheriff has started to introduce.
>> essentially what we do to help migrate the two together, you've got vendors you've already started --
>> could you just tell who you are.
>> I'm heather white, territory manager for securest technology for Travis County. Essentially what we do is we work with the county so like you alluded to, if you have vendors or companies that are already hiring inmates, we go ahead and those are the first people we put on the program. So they see the immediate benefits in working with the sheriff's department. And we also pursue companies outside that have initial core that you already have established. Does that answer your question?
>> yes. It will be good to see those who are willing to participate. I'm trying to put my -- I guess the whole court is trying to put our arms around the overall big picture knowing who the players are, who's willing to participate and I know Travis County is willing to do it. If there's other vendors out there and other businesses that are willing to take that on, I just think it would be good to know who they are.
>> Commissioner, what I can do is --
>> what can you do?
>> I can follow-up with -- get you a list of the people and types of businesses that will help and sign up in the collin county area and dallas fort worth area. It's really -- when you look at some of the people we've had sign up for it, they cover a broad spectrum. If you have skills in software development, for instance, there's company that are signed up for that. A lot of construction companies obviously. There's a lot of manufacturing, processing if you will companies. So there's a good spread of skills that can be utilized from the inmate uponlation. We're pretty excited about it. As walter mentioned, it's certainly not anywhere close to a phone provision, but it's part of a vision we have of helping the communities that we serve in. And so we can do that. What we do is facilitate the process. If you have a company that signs up for this and is eligible for the grants, you can facilitate that process of filing for the grants before it's -- it's all mccannnized. And then the benefit to the probation officers is that as long as -- if I'm the person that's been released and I'm working for you, then this has an automatic follow-up and the probation officer gets a report of am I still there six weeks later, two months later.
>> any more questions? Move that we authorize commencement of negotiations with securest.
>> second. All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you very
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, June 13, 2007, 8:00 AM