Seminole County Jail

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Telephones

Interview with Jessica, Sarah, Curt, Brad and Peter

JM: Did you have regular access to telephones?
Jessica: In my cell we had regular access to the phones. We were allowed to use them between 7:30am to 11:30pm.
Sarah: yes between 4 am and 11:30 pm
Curt: yes i did. i had minutes put on my girlfrends phone.
Brad: Yeah they had 4 phones in pod. They were adding some more when I was there for direct line to bondsmen.
Peter: Yes, after dinner on weekdays. On weekends we could use the phone until 11pm.

JM: What types of charges applied for calling people? How much money would you guess the average inmate spends per week on phone calls?
Jessica: You could only call people collect so it was a couple dollars a minute for local calls. If you wanted to call cell phones, you could set up a paid account to do so. I never set up the account but I'd imagine it was somewhere around four dollars a minute.
Sarah: You could use collect which is like $3 to connect and then $1.25 per min or you could use aprepaid account to one phone number and it was cost about $3.00 for a 15 min conversation.
Curt: $2.95 for a 15 minute block.
Brad: Basically a collect call. Not sure of the rate in Florida.
Peter: It was a 15 minute call that cost about $3 per call.

JM: Did you need to buy phone cards to call out?
Jessica: You didn't really NEED to purchase phone cards to make calls, but it was one of the options. Other options included collect calls and the calling account that someone on the other end would have to set it up.
Sarah: It wouldn't take phone cards
Curt: no. but you could buy one if you wanted.
Brad: No phone cards but you could buy time in a phone account for like 40 cents a minute.
Peter: No. It would charge the persons land line account.

JM: Did the jail screen your calls?
Jessica: Of course the jail screened our calls. They had to make sure there was no talk of violence or escape. Also, no three-way calling was allowed or there would be repercussions like loss of phone privileges or lock-down.
Sarah: yes
Curt: yes they stated it before every call.
Brad: Of coruse they do. They say your calls are subject to monitoring but I'm sure they monitor every call.
Peter: Yes, just about every call