Bexar County Jail

Telephones

Interview with John, Raquel, Colby, Nikki, Lea and Hoyllwood


JM: Did you have regular access to telephones?
John: Yes.
Raquel: Yes.
Colby: yes. If you are in A tower you have more access to phones (at least 4) others in B or C towers have apx 2, if working..
Nikki: yes, if you want to call that regular, you have certain times you can use the phone, depending on if you are not restricted for a disciplinary write up.
Lea: Depends on the guard on duty , totally up to them you can either use it all day, calls 20 minutes at a time, or not use it at all.
Hoyllwood: Yes I did. As long as no one was on the phone in the cell I was able to use it. I wasn't limited on calls. And even if I was, they pay so little attention to you, they'd never know if you were on the phone for an hour or two.

JM: What types of charges applied for calling people?
John: A lot. I think it was $10-15 for a half hour.
Raquel: It is very expensive. Buying calling cards is good if you can but they put a limit on how many you can have and they go by fast. One thing to think about is all the poor people or I should say(indigents) will ask to borrow "just one minute" It's never just one min.... and they all become your best friends. If you get a phone card, don't tell everyone or you will become everyones new best friend.
Colby: These vary pending on which phone company the jail uses that year. If call collect from jail, I know its initially $3 for the connect and apx .50 cents for each minute for a total of $12 for each 15 minute call.
Nikki: first of all, the person you are calling has to have an account set up by the phone company. I think it is called Vericom? Or something like that.
Lea: five dollars a call unless they set up some kind of plan. all calls are collect.
Hoyllwood: I wasn't charged for calling people. We had to call collect. Meant whoever we called had to pay for the call.

JM: Did you need to buy phone cards to call out?
John: Yes, you could buy phone cards in the commissary but if you didn't have any money then you could just call collect.
Raquel: No. You can call collect.
Colby: No.
Nikki: no, no pre-paid phone cards, collect calls only
Lea: No
Hoyllwood: Nope.

JM: Did the jail screen your calls?
John: Yes.
Raquel: Probably.
Colby: This is a leary subject, I do believe they screen calls in visitors booths as for the calls made from the units, I dont think so...
Nikki: I don't know, it is random, and they inform you and the other person that it can be screened at any time.
Lea: Calls whether in jail or private from your home or cell phone are always screened by the government, so yes.
Hoyllwood: I wouldn't doubt it. I mean they treated me like a murderer so why wouldn't they.