On August 20, 2014, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Corrections Division started utilizing a new “Inmate Phone System” in the jail provided by a company called SECURUS. SECURUS is the second largest inmate phone system provider in the United States and was the winner of the Phone System bid over eight (8) other companies evaluated by a combined team from both County Government and the Sheriff’s Office. This new system is replacing the GTL Phone System that has been in the jail for the last five years.

The new system will provide the inmate with a high quality phone call to their families, lawyer and clergy, while they are incarcerated in the jail. One issue with the new system being investigated occurs when the inmate has the opportunity to make his or her first, FREE phone call. Currently when this call is made the inmate will hear a 57 second commercial advising them on how to set up an account with SECURUS. This commercial seems to either confuse or angers the inmate, who will then hang up and lose the advantage of their first free phone call. This problem is being addressed by either cutting the message down to less than 30 seconds or possibly removing it altogether.