Self-Service Kiosk Makes Life Easier for Visitors and Corrections Personnel

July 11, 2008 - PRLog -- Could you imagine your visitation officers handling upwards of $100,000 of phone and commissary deposits a month while hundreds of visitors come in and out of your facility in a maze of confusion? That is exactly what one correctional facility encountered before the recent implementation of a self-service option for friends and family members to deposit inmate funds.

The Montgomery County Correctional Facility, located in Lower Providence Township, Pennsylvania houses approximately 1,800 male and female sentenced offenders and individuals awaiting trial. A large inmate population usually generates a great deal of visiting traffic to the facility. Traffic counts average approximately 165 visitors per day – which equates to over 28,000 visitors since the beginning of 2008. Visitors to Montgomery County come either to spend time with a loved one or to drop-off additional funds into a loved one’s commissary or phone account so that they may buy necessary goods or make phone calls out of the facility.

Before self-service kiosks were installed, friends and family members were permitted to deposit money into inmate accounts only by waiting in the visiting line and speaking with the officer(s) on duty. Deposits were permitted only four days a week for a few hours each day. Because of these regulations, officers assisted hundreds of visitors and often handled upwards of $100,000 per month in deposits, creating an accountability nightmare and a potential security risk. In order to facilitate the deposit process, Montgomery County implemented two self-service kiosks from Inmate Telephone Inc., their trusted inmate phone provider, in late February. The eZ Deposit KioskTM accepts cash or credit card deposits from an inmate’s family and friends and places it automatically into either the inmate’s commissary or phone account.

When any amount of money is taken into a facility, security is always a risk. Since the introduction of the two kiosks, visitation officers at Montgomery County are no longer burdened with the responsibility and accountability of handling large sums of money. The kiosks have reduced the need for expensive labor hours spent counting and balancing funds to ensure the absence of theft. The eZ Deposit KioskTM includes an advanced locking mechanism that will track who has accessed the cash deposit bin in order to eliminate the security risks and hassles associated with handling money.  
Friends and families of inmates lead demanding lives while their loved ones serve time in correctional facilities across the country. Montgomery county residents are no different. With the two new self-serve eZ Deposit KiosksTM in the lobby of the facility, those coming in to deposit funds no longer have to wait in the lengthy visitation lines during stated hours – they are now able to fulfill a prisoner’s request quickly and efficiently during the fourteen hours per day that the facility is normally open to the public. Warden Julio Algarin boasts that the addition of these kiosks has reduced visitation lines by at least 65% in his facility. “On visitor days, I used to watch numerous family members backed up in lines stretching out the door. Now, those wanting to make a quick deposit simply use the kiosks in the lobby – they don’t have to wait in those long visitor lines. Our visitation officers are no longer distracted. They are now focused on providing top-notch security and clear instructions to our visitors.”

Since February, Montgomery County is averaging 2,923 kiosk transactions per month. They are currently the company’s largest site using the kiosk. The facility averages about 1.86 kiosk transactions per inmate per month, while the company’s next largest facility averages approximately 1.23 transactions per inmate per month.

For those interested in learning more about the Offender Communication System,
please visit Digital Solutions / Inmate Telephone, Inc. at http://www.dsiiti.com/products/selfserviceoptions.shtml, or
contact Mr. Thomas Brence at tbrence@dsiiti.com or 888.222.3081.

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Established in 1984 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Digital Solutions Incorporated (DSI) is a privately-held technology company that specializes in automating corrections agencies. Its sister company, Inmate Telephone Incorporated (ITI), was founded in 1994 to create and maintain a state of the art inmate phone system. More than twenty years of successful implementations in over four hundred agencies has enabled DSI / ITI to become the leading provider of software solutions to the corrections industry. The company attributes much of their success to the practice of involving users in the design phases of the application development process - input that is critical in enabling the company to continually improve while building a sense of ownership among the communities they serve. For more information, please visit http://www.dsiiti.com.