MANSFIELD — A new inmate telephone service agreement at the Richland County Jail will provide enhanced services and also additional revenue, according to sheriff’s office Capt. Chris Blunk, the jail administrator.
There is no cost to the county for the contract and the revenue comes from a commission based on inmates’ usage of the communications services.
County commissioners on Thursday approved a new five-year contract with IC Solutions, a company whose website says is “a leading provider of innovative telecommunications products and exceptional customer service to correctional facilities across the nation.”
IC Solutions will replace Securus, which Blunk said has provided inmate phone services for more than two decades. “They had it when I got here in 1998,” the captain said.
The new vendor will allow inmates, for the first time, to conduct internet-based, online video visits with family members and other loved ones, according to Blunk.
Currently, a visitor must come to the county jail at 73 E. 2nd St. in downtown Mansfield and use the jail’s intranet system to conduct video visits. There are no face-to-face visits at the county jail.
Blunk said inmates are allowed one 30-minute visit per week for free. The new system will allow inmates to pay for additional video visits.
“ICS has been around a long time, too,” Blunk said. “When we signed with Securus five years ago, we looked at ICS and the consensus was we liked the ICS platform better. But Securus had been good to us over the years, so we didn’t feel we needed to change.
“But the service we have received from Securus has not been the greatest over the last two or three years with the (jail-issued inmate) tablets. We were not getting the tablets when we needed them and that was causing issues in the jail. We were not happy with (Securus) response to that,” Blunk said.
(Below is a PDF of the new inmate telephone services agreement approved by Richland County commissioners on Thursday.)
Under the terms of the contract, ICS shall pay the county a commission based on the totality of service calculated as 78 percent “of the gross call revenue for all call types generated from the service locations.”
“ICS shall also pay the county commission of 50 percent for any service fees collected with respect to video visitation services and 20 percent of any service fees collected on the tablet, entertainment streaming, video messaging, and voice messaging service services,” according to the contract.
Blunk said Securus paid the county between $120,000 and $130,000 in 2023. He said ICS projects it will pay the county about $300,000 annually with the increase due to the availability of online video visits.
Blunk said that revenue must be used for the betterment of inmates. “It can’t be used for anything else,” he said.
He said the new service should be in effect on Feb. 23.
Also on Thursday, county commissioners extended the current jail food service contract 90 days. It was due to expire on Feb. 29 and will now run through May 28 under the current terms.
The move was made to distance the agreement from the new medical services contract, which is currently being offered to vendors.
