Dallas County Jail

Telephones

Interview with Charles, m ray, Leon, Jean, Accountant, Hot attorney, Lil Will and Cam

JM: Did you have regular access to telephones?
Charles: The phones are collect only, they are on from 8am to 10pm daily. Free phones are available in the bookin area at central intake. free phones may only be used when you are in the bookin process.
m ray: yes collect calls only
Leon: Yes there were pay phones in the tanks.
Jean: Yeah, we did in our cells. Every day you could use the phone. If you could make a collect phone call, you could make a phone call 24 hours a day. actually, that's not true. They turn the phones off at 10, and turn them back on at 8 in the morning. You have access to a collect call only, and those phone calls are $7.55 per minute. Your friends and family can run up a few thousand dollar phone call really quick, so be fast when you call them.

Everyone that was in there. My biggest group was when I was in the infirmary. There were 25 women sharing one phone. Not everyone would call all the time - some people would call their boyfriend every night, and some would call their moms. How ever many people were on the floors (or cells, as I called it), there's nine girls or 25 to a phone. In the big areas with 60 girls, there might be two phones.
Accountant: Yes for local calls only.
Hot attorney: Only pay phones and they only work during certain times of the day.
Lil Will: Yes but they are regular rip off collect phones
Cam: From 8 a.m. to 11p.m most phones are available..However, there are some inmates that hog the phone and do not allow others to use them..This normally causes fights and riots in the tank..Ive seen it many times..

JM: What types of charges applied for calling people?
Charles: If calling local they are about 5 too 7 dollars a call.
m ray: its really expensive
Leon: Not sure I didn't use them.
Jean: As mentioned above the calls were $7.55 per minute - ridiculous.

When you call it gives them the chance to accept it or not. So you can't call your employer and tell them you're feeling sick - it tells them where you're calling from.

Sometimes you can call cell phone - it's kind of weird. It depends on what kind of cell phone they have. If you have one like my husband has, well, first he had one of those pay per use kind, like the Virgin mobile, it just cost him ten cents a minute because they had no way of billing him. It worked for a long time, but then they called him and it wouldn't anymore. His partner's phone is Cingular, and it accepts collect calls, but a lot of phones won't, and there's not anything you can do. You can't make your phone take collect calls. It's whether your carrier will let you take collect calls or not.

Don't be fooled, though - even though the calls are expensive, you will still have a lot of competition for the phones. I don't know what the general rule is, but it seems to me that any black person that's in jail is always going to have groceries, they're always going to have money, and they're always going to be able to make phone calls. They've got something going on out there that us white people don't know about. That's all I can say about that. I don't mean that to be prejudice, but I just know that an average family could not afford what they've got.
Accountant: While in there, I made about twenty calls to a relative, and once out, I paid a phone bill in the amount of $70
Hot attorney: Regular collect call fees.
Cam: If I'm not mistaken there was a $3.95 fee for called collect from the jail..

JM: Did you need to buy phone cards to call out?
Charles: Phone calls are not available to the inmates. The dallas county jail uses At&t collect call system. Collect time may be bought and added to any phone number by calling At&t. That allows inmates to call even cell phones collect. I think it also give you a little discount for each call.
m ray: no
Leon: No.
Jean: No, you couldn't use phone cards.
Accountant: Buying things wasn't an option........they take away all freedom/rights.
Cam: No..

JM: Did the jail screen your calls?
Charles: The recorded message advised they could be recorded.
m ray: yes
Leon: Not sure but probably recorded.
Jean: The jail didn't screen the calls. Well, actually, they may have. They could have from some other source, but it's just a pay telephone. On every floor, wherever there's a populated area, there are phones. You have no access to a phone book either.
Accountant: Possibly.
Hot attorney: Probably.
Cam: Yes..