Skamania County Washington adds Significant Technology & Efficiency to the Sheriff's Department

HUDSON, Wis. - March 29, 2013 - PRLog -- Heading in to 2013, Skamania County Jail in Skamania, Washington, sought to improve internal efficiency, reduce on-site visitation traffic and seek avenues to grow revenue that funds critical inmate programs.  After thorough research and recommendations from their inmate phone provider, Consolidated Telecom, the county selected TurnKey Corrections to provide this service at no cost to Skamania County taxpayers.

The Skamania County Jail provides a commissary program for inmates to purchase additional hygiene, food, and recreational items that are not provided by the facility. TurnKey Corrections was awarded this role through their state-of-the-art technology that includes kiosks located in the jail’s housing units. The TurnKey kiosks allow inmates to order commissary items with touch-screen equipment. Inmates view and make their selections on the kiosk. In addition, the kiosks feature technology to submit requests to staff members (to attend programs like AA, or request a nurse appointment) electronically. The features with these kiosks greatly reduce the paper-flow at the jail, and also reduce staff time spent manually processing commissary and inmate requests. The system which includes inmate accounting software, will allow staff to spend less time on commissary, and more time on jail operations.

Included in this new technology is the ability for friends and family to visit from home for a rate of $0.35 per minute.  Off-site visitation is one of the most frequently discussed products on the market for jails today. TurnKey provides this service at an industry leading rate of $0.35 per minute. "Our competitors charge as much as 3x this amount" noted TurnKey President Patrick McMullan. "The public will not pay this. If jails want to provide better access to inmates while improving security given they dramatically reduce inmate movement, the public needs to have this service priced at a level that will drive this behavior; Our rates allow this" noted McMullan. McMullan added that off-site visitation has dropped on-site visitation traffic at jails for other clients as much as 70%. "Some sites have been so pleased with the effect that they have gone to a total off-site visitation solution".

All visits are monitored and recorded and can be terminated for inappropriate behavior.   "The key to off-site visitation, is it allows children to visit from a safe environment that they are comfortable with." noted TurnKey CEO Todd Westby.  "This is one of the most important aspects of what we do: Provide jails with as many tools as possible to not only help grow revenues and control expenses, but to make a real impact on helping jails with tools that help return inmates to being citizens."  

The impact in Skamania County has been immediate.  “We have seen our volume of sales and service double” said Sheriff Dave Brown.  “Their impact is wide spread as it has allowed us to work more with our inmates on returning as productive citizens than chasing busy work – TurnKey has automated enough functions that it has freed up what equates to multiple employee work hours to be applied to our main role of corrections” added Sheriff Brown.  

In addition, the system offers an easy solution for friends and family to provide commissary and communication funds to their inmate. Loved ones now have the ability to deposit funds on inmate accounts and not have to travel to the jail. The public can use VISA, American Express or MasterCard through smart-phones or the internet to deposit funds. Inmates get immediate access to these funds to use for anything from phone cards for calling family to buying hygiene items or snacks. In addition, there is an electronic kiosk in the lobby area of the jail that will accept cash as well as credit cards.

TurnKey also has provided the county with an additional communication means, inmate e-mail.  This allows inmate to send and receive emails through TurnKey’s system.  E-mails are reviewed and approved either in an automated or manual fashion, depending on classification.  E-mails are only $0.25 and are cheaper and faster than standard postage.  “This feature allows inmates and the general public to communicate in the most widely used communication forum – written – at a much more affordable and rapid rate” added McMullan.  “More people text than talk on the phone thus we made this available and affordable”.

Additional services such as access to an automated law library, automation of many federal requirements for PREA (Prison Rape Elimination Act), inmate e-mail, music and move services.  These services all come at no cost to the facility and put them at the front of technology advances available to jails.  

About TurnKey Corrections:  TurnKey Corrections provides superior technology for accounting software to manage inmate accounts, manage commissary transactions, and inmate communications. TurnKey Corrections has been a leader in the correctional commissary market for more than 10 years. TurnKey services over clients in over 15 states. TurnKey owns all aspects of its' technology, fulfillment, kiosk manufacturing, customer service and more.  All systems are copyrighted, patented and proprietary.  Learn more by calling them at 612.267.8277, visiting their website, www.TurnKeyCorrections.com, follow them on LinkedIn, Twitter (@TKCKiosk), or like their Facebook page, www.facebook.com/TurnKeyCorrections.