623. Inmate telephone services. 1. Telephone services contracts for inmates in state correctional facilities shall be subject to the procurement provisions as set forth in article eleven of the state finance law provided, however, that when determining the best value of such telephone service, the lowest possible cost to the telephone user shall be emphasized.
2. The department shall make available either a "prepaid" or "collect call" system, or a combination thereof, for telephone service. Under the "prepaid" system, funds may be deposited into an account in order to pay for station-to-station calls, provided that nothing in this subdivision shall require the department to provide or administer a prepaid system. Under a "collect call" system, call recipients are billed for the cost of an accepted telephone call initiated by an inmate. Under such "collect call" system, the provider of inmate telephone service, as an additional means of payment, must permit the recipient of inmate calls to establish an account with such provider in order to deposit funds to pay for such collect calls in advance.
3. The department shall not accept or receive revenue in excess of its reasonable operating cost for establishing and administering such telephone system services as provided in subdivisions one and two of this section.
4. The department shall establish rules and regulations or departmental procedures to ensure that any inmate phone call system established by this section provides reasonable security measures to preserve the safety and security of each correctional facility, all staff and all persons outside a facility who may receive inmate phone calls.
Last modified: February 3, 2019