An unusual proposal has been mentioned by the new acting sheriff of Tulsa County to help with the jail's financial crisis– getting smartphones for inmates.
Normally, mobile phones have to be smuggled into jails as contraband, but new acting sheriff Michelle Robinette floated the idea at the County Criminal Justice Authority meeting this week as a new revenue source.
"We are working with our phone vendor to bring in a Note. A Samsung Note. It's bigger than a cell phone but smaller than an iPad to bring in some additional revenues," Robinette said.
She went on to describe inmates using the devices to watch movies, listen to music and make calls. Each action would come at a cost to the inmates and create a new revenue source for the jail. Robinette said the devices could be controlled and monitored.
"[It] continues to show the trend that taxpayers are just a bank. That we can just keep funneling money and that inmates are nothing more than just a commodity," said Marq Lewis of activist group We the People.
Late last year, the federal government put a cap for inmate call costs due to "unreasonably high phone bills" paid by inmates' families. The county is trying to think outside the box to recover that lost money while also dealing with existing financial problems.
Lewis said treating inmates as captive revenue sources– while their families foot the bill– is not the type of solution the county needs.
"[These are] taxpayer-funded jails, so we should be putting energy into resources in reducing incarcerations as opposed to increase incarcerations," Lewis said. "Taxpayers are already paying for cable, and now you are going to ask the tax payers to possibly go out here and float the idea for a cell phone?"
2 Works for You reached out to the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office for more information on the proposal and a response to We the People's criticism but were told no officials wanted to comment.
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