Already deprived of in-person visits during the pandemic, prisoners and the people they talk to on the outside now face new fees and are subject to data collection
After months without personal contact with their families and lawyers, prisoners are struggling to stay connected as Oregon prison officials hand over management of statewide prison communications systems to a company infamous for numerous consumer complaints and deceptive business practices.
Despite efforts from state lawmakers to address exorbitant phone charges, Oregon prisoners and their families say they are still being charged high fees and have lost access to instant messaging services that help them feel connected to their loved ones.
A contract between the Oregon Department of Corrections and its new provider, CenturyLink, also reveals that an unknown number of Oregon prisoners and the recipients of their calls are being automatically enrolled in a massive data-collection program that extracts and digitizes their voices into unique biometric signatures, known as voice prints.
“We have people marching outside for police reform, but police reform is just one small part of a huge need for criminal justice reform,” said Aliza Kaplan, a law professor and director of Lewis & Clark Law School’s Criminal Justice Reform Clinic. “After a person is arrested, then what happens?”
During a June 21 phone call, Kaplan said she lost all communication with her clients at Oregon State Penitentiary for weeks and only just started receiving notices to sign up for the Department of Corrections’ new messaging system.
The day before the department started a four-week transition of communications systems at Oregon’s 14 state correctional facilities on June 3, the agency sent an email update to friends and family of prisoners.
“As you may have heard, the Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) is in the process of transitioning its correctional communication system (phones, video kiosks, and tablets) to a new vendor, CenturyLink.”
“Overall the rollout of this change was just awful. No tech company would get away with this out here, but we have no choice but to use it.”
Six months earlier, the Oregon Department of Justice announced CenturyLink would pay $4 million to settle charges of deceptive advertising and undisclosed fees, including the repayment of $672,000 to 8,212 Oregonians who were overcharged for their services.
“Today’s settlement sends a clear message that hidden fees and other forms of unfair and deceptive business practices will not be tolerated in Oregon,” Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said at the time.
In response to written questions about the switch, the Department of Corrections’ communications manager, Betty Bernt, said the new contract had substantial advantages, including reduced call costs, better customer service, and improved capabilities to monitor prisoner communications.
But prisoners, advocates and family members told Street Roots the switch to CenturyLink has been plagued with problems, including new fees for depositing money into inmate accounts that offset lower phone and video call rates.
Additionally, the instant message system prisoners have been using to connect with their families through Telmate, called Getting Out, is being replaced with a CorrLinks system. Whereas prisoners used to be able to access new messages as soon as they logged in, with the new system, it’s up to prison staff when and if messages are delivered — and there are no refunds for rejected and undelivered messages.
“Overall the rollout of this change was just awful,” said Emma Arbogast, whose husband is incarcerated. “No tech company would get away with this out here, but we have no choice but to use it.”
Bernt said the Department of Corrections instructed state facilities to begin communicating details about the switch to CenturyLink in May newsletters sent to prisoners across the state, but a review of those newsletters found that seven out of 10 included no mention of the transition, including Oregon’s largest prison, Oregon State Penitentiary.
After a Facebook group for family members of prisoners became inundated with posts expressing frustration with the new system, Arbogast said she created a guide for navigating the transition.
CenturyLink contracts with multiple service providers that each have their own policies about fees, refunds and billing requirements.
George, a prisoner at Mill Creek Correctional Facility whose name has been changed due to concerns of potential retaliation, told his wife the current communications system is “the most complicated, most useless system” he’s ever seen.
Communication issues have placed added stress on prisoners who continue to raise alarms about prison staff not wearing masks, nonexistent enforcement of social distancing guidelines, and fears of being placed in solitary confinement for reporting symptoms of illness.
Prior to his transfer to Mill Creek, George said he and other prisoners “literally went around trying to hide the fact we were sick. Because what they did was lock you in the hole.”
When prisons and jails nationwide suspended visitation earlier this year due to COVID-19, prison telecom giants started offering free calls to prisoners and their families while continuing to charge high rates and hidden fees. Meanwhile, the prison phone system industry is estimated to be worth $1.2 billion a year.
U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), who has targeted private equity funds that fuel consolidation in the sector and profit from mass incarceration, called the free call promotions a “hollow corporate altruism campaign.”
Last year, Oregon state lawmakers passed legislation attempting to prohibit kickbacks from companies with track records of charging extortionate rates while providing subpar services.
But a loophole in the law means that prisons and jails that have outsourced communications services continue to rely on payments from companies that profit from prisoners and their families.
Prison officials and county sheriffs that outsource their phone, email and tablet services to private companies often enter arrangements where state and local governments receive kickbacks and a percentage of company profits.
In most cases, the extra money is then used to fund other prison and jail services.
A review of the Department of Corrections’ contract with CenturyLink found that the agency will continue to receive millions of dollars a year in “staff reimbursement fees” and “third party provider reimbursement fees.”
According to one section of the contract, “the parties acknowledge that current Agency staffing cannot support the System and that Agency internal and external costs to oversee and manage the System will increase over the first several quarters.”
The Department of Corrections included “compliance with recent legislation prohibiting a commission based financial model” among the benefits of the new contract, but declined to provide details on whether the new fees would be spent differently than in the past.
The contract also includes a requirement to provide “continuous voice biometric verification technology.”
CenturyLink’s website describes the technology as the “most advanced biometric identification system available that exceeds the needs of today’s most discerning agencies.” It also includes “called party voice analysis.”
The Department of Corrections did not answer questions about who currently has their voice data collected, how the data is being used, and whether prisoners, their families or their lawyers have been notified.
The agency did say it is not possible to opt out.
After previously refusing to approve a large-scale release of prisoners identified as susceptible to contracting the coronavirus and nearing the end of their sentences, Brown on June 12 asked the Department of Corrections for a “case-by-case” analysis of medically vulnerable prisoners.
A federal judge ruled in early June that only the governor has the power to direct the release of vulnerable inmates who do not pose a public safety risk, denying a preliminary injunction sought by seven Oregon inmates as part of a class-action lawsuit against Brown and the Department of Corrections.
George, who entered the state prison system nearly 20 years ago and is set to be released in a few months, said he feels fortunate compared to other elderly and vulnerable prisoners who have expressed doubts about the possibility that Brown will order their early release.
“To be honest with you, I know I’m institutionalized, and I’m working on it,” George said. “Right now I just want to go home, get a job and try to live my life and figure out what it’s like to be free again and make decisions and pay bills – simple things like that.”
George said his wife shouldn’t be subject to consequences.
“I did what I did to come to prison; I accept my punishment,” he said. “But my wife didn’t do anything. Just because she loves me doesn’t mean she should have to suffer in these ways.”
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