Dakota County Jail

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Telephones

Interview with Shawanda Miller, Jeremy and Chuck

JM: Did you have regular access to telephones?
Shawanda Miller: Yes. During non lockdown times. You couldn't use the phone after breakfast until the cleaning was done. Lockdown used to be 1 hour before lunch, 1 hour before supper. Then they'd shut the phones off at 10:00 pm.
Jeremy: Ya, we had a phone in the pod. During booking they give you a $5 free phone card that you can use when in the pod and get dayroom.
Chuck: Yeah we did. There were 2 phones on the unit, pretty much turned on for the whole day.

JM: What types of charges applied for calling people? How much money would you guess the average inmate spends per week on phone calls?
Shawanda Miller: Collect used to be $2.35 for approximately 10 minutes.
Jeremy: Dont know
Chuck: $1.35 a minute and you only get ten minutes to talk.

JM: Did you need to buy phone cards to call out?
Shawanda Miller: Before all calls where collect. But now I believe you can buy phone cards in the amount of $5.00, $10.00, $15.00 & $20.00. The other jails like Ramsey County, Washington County, you have to set up an account. Dakota County uses or used to use Evercom Correctional Billing Services and you still need to call them to set up an account and they would let the first $100 or $200 go through I believe.
Jeremy: Well, you get the free card when you are booked in. After that I am pretty sure you have to buy the cards. When you are released there is a FREE phone in the lobby where you can call anyone! Long distance also.
Chuck: You could buy phone cards from the canteen.

JM: Did the jail screen your calls?
Shawanda Miller: The jail records all phone calls
Jeremy: I am sure they did.
Chuck: Oh yeah... all the time.