LaPaz County Jail in Arizona Adds New Technology to Improve Safety and Accessibility to Inmates

HUDSON, Wis. - Nov. 26, 2013 - PRLog -- At no cost to taxpayers, LaPaz County Jail is now providing a new inmate phone, commissary, video visitation, trust accounting and email program to inmates. In partnership with with Consolidated Telecom of Dallas, TX and TurnKey Corrections of Hudson, Wisconsin, the county significantly upgraded it services to inmates and their family and friends to better communicate internally and externally.

Turnkey manufactured 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 these kiosks offer greatly reduces paper-flow at the jail and will also dramatically reduce staff time spent manually processing commissary and inmate requests. In 2013, TurnKey has processed over 3,000,000 inmate requests in the facilities it services in 27 states.  "This means 6,000,000 pieces of paper are not floating around" added TurnKey VP Patrick McMullan.

"When our new administration took over in early 2013, improving our inmate services was one of our top priorities.  Our challenges with these services were adding a significant amount of stress to both inmates and staff" said Lapaz County Jail Commander Lt. Richard Epps.  "TurnKey and Consolidated immediately stepped in, rolled up their sleeves and worked with us like business partners to bring our services to not only acceptable but to a level that is considered leading edge.  Their impact has been astounding.  Our inmates have nearly tripled the amount of time they are being able to communicate to their loved ones, our revenues that fund programs for rehabilitation of our inmates has more than doubled and the efficiency gains from all the services TurnKey and Consolidated offer has added hundreds of hours of gained staff time to direct to working with inmates versus administrative duties" added Lt. Epps.

"Adding TurnKey and Consolidated was one of the best decisions we have made as a new administration" said Sherff John Drum.  "We needed immediate improvement and their level of service and execution has been nothing short of amazing" added Sheriff Drum.

Turnkey’s software 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 without traveling to the jail, on www.inmatecanteen.com.

Turnkey’s latest enhancements now free up even more time for the LaPaz County Jail staff.  Friends and family can send and receive e-mails to inmates at a cost of $0.25 each. This is significantly cheaper than postage rates and the program allows for jail staff to review all incoming and out-going emails on a real-time basis; by doing so in a prompt fashion, inmates receive immediate communication back and forth, a critical factor found in helping inmates trying to forge a new path while incarcerated.


In addition to lowering the cost for inmate written communication, Consolidated Telecom has brought in a rate structure that is far more affordable to the citizens.  "We believe in providing an affordable service and a high level of service to both our client facilities and the citizens they serve" said Consolidated Telecom President Jerry Jacobs.  "We want to be an asset for our client facilities making our services a reason inmates successfully return to society as productive citizens.  When we combine our offerings with TurnKey, we believe we provide a complete package second to none in the industry" added Mr. Jacobs.

­­Also included in Turnkey’s state-of-the-art technology is Off-site visitation: 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, and TurnKey provides this service at an industry low rate of $0.35 per minute. "Our competitors charge as much as 3x this amount" noted Mr. 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. Off-site visitation has dropped on-site visitation traffic at jails for other clients as much as 70%, McMullan added, "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.

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 movie services are provided through Turnkey’s advanced kiosks.  These services all come at no cost to the facility and put them at the front of technological advances available to jails.

About TurnKey Corrections:
Based in Hudson, Wisconsin, TurnKey Corrections provides superior technology for accounting software to manage inmate accounts, manage commissary transactions, video visitation, law library, inmate e-mail and other inmate communications. TurnKey Corrections has been a leader in the correctional commissary market for more than 10 years. TurnKey services clients in over 25 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.  TurnKey also owns Three Square Market, a Micro Market company, that you can learn more about by visiting www.ThreeSquareMarket.com, following us on Twitter (@32Market), like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/32Market or follow our profile on LinkedIn.

About Consolidated Telecom

Based in Dallas, TX, Consolidated Telecom is privately held company with over 100 locations in 13 states.  Consolidated provides state of the art inmate phone services with the highest level of service.  Consolidated has been in business dating back to the mid 1980's.  Learn more about consolidated CTel by going to www.Ctel.us.