St. Lucie County Jail

Find St. Lucie County Jail inmates...

Telephones

Interview with Henry and Bob

JM: Did you have regular access to telephones?
Henry: We had regular access to four phones in the dorm. However it wasn't uncommon to have 2 or 3 of the phones down or disconnected at any given time. Sound quality going in and out on the line was always ridiculously bad, and calls were often dropped. This is all inexcusable considering they were all heavy duty, pay phone style, landline telephones.
Bob: We had three telephones in our dorm. The telephones were generally on when we were out of our cells (8am to 6pm).

JM: What types of charges applied for calling people? How much money would you guess the average inmate spends per week on phone calls?
Henry: Phone calls cost $2.50 for 15-20 minute calls. Time on the call could always be disputed, being the whole phone program was an obvious sham.
Bob: It was two dollars for twenty minutes. Collect calls (no third party calls), only.

JM: Did you need to buy phone cards to call out?
Henry: There was no need to buy phone cards. All calls out were charged to the receiving party on the other end of the call.
Bob: No phone cards were necessary.

JM: Did the jail screen your calls?
Henry: The jail did screen calls, and made clear note of it all.
Bob: I believe that they did screen our calls. An automated announcement was played prior to the call going through which indicated that the call was being recorded and monitored.