10/6/2021
The updated contract will allow the County to profit even more off of inmates.
At the McLean County Justice Committee meeting yesterday, Sheriff Sandage successfully pushed for an update to the existing contract with Inmate Communications Solutions, a company that profits off of telecommunications services to correctional facilities. Currently, the County generates 6-figure profit off of this contract.
The update adds tablet services for inmates to the contract, the details of which are covered in this article.1
“On these tablets inmates are able to send and receive messages from loved ones, their mail will come via this, and also they have ability for educational learning and also streaming movies, music, things like that,” said Sheriff Sandage.
District 7 Board Member Sharon Chung asked how recent these tablets were introduced to inmates as the contract update is retroactive to October 2020. Sheriff Sandage said they’d been available for only a couple weeks. Yet, this seems to conflict with emails between the detention facility and ICS dating from September 1st, 2020 to January of 2021. The emails show multiple trainings, installations (Comcast had to come out at least once to install a fiber optic cable), and surveys on how the program was going.
Chung followed up with comments about her discomfort with profiting off of human misery. The update adds a 25% commission for tablet services to the 72% the county already gets for calls and video visitations. Chung stated, “To make profit off of people who are incarcerated just doesn’t sit right with me… I know criminal justice reform & prison reform is a very real thing in our country. I would personally like to see the County and the Sheriff’s department recognize that a little more.”
Sheriff Sandage responded to this saying, “Actually, any profit that’s been raised through commissary or what will be raised off of these tablets; it funds inmate meals, it funds inmate uniforms, it all goes back to the inmates. And, that’s designed by law.”
Again, this assertion contradicts past statements about where the money from the contract goes. Back in May of 2020, then-County Board member George Gordan of District 6 said the revenue from the contract goes directly into the general fund, not to the sheriff’s department or towards inmate food. It’s not clear what law Sandage is referring to when he said the funds must go towards inmates. There seems to be no evidence that the money is then being used to fund the jail or make the conditions more conducive to reform.
He repeated this assertion later in the meeting unintentionally revealing truth, “Any profit that we use, that’s taking a tremendous liability off the tax payers the past few years. Because instead of the county paying for the inmate’s needs; we’re supplementing for that.” The county has kept property taxes flat for years using these types of for-profit schemes. Black bodies make up the largest plurality (if often times not a majority) of inmates based on race; this despite the fact that African-Americans only account for 8.26% of the McLean County population. We have a very real example of the confinement of black bodies for-profit benefiting an upper class made up mostly of people of a colonial complexion.
The update to the contract passed the Justice Committee unanimously. It still needs to be approved by the full board on Thursday, October 14th, 2021.
Requests for comment have been sent to the Sheriff’s department and County administration, and this article will be updated with their responses.
- Inmates have access to tablets for music, education, gaming, and more… for a price, of course. It costs inmates $.05 per minute for streaming services. Inmates can send emails at $.25 per email at $.05 a minute while typing. The county makes 25% commission on all streaming revenues and at least 10% revenue on emails. Broke inmates can access Ebooks, educational material, and file grievances. You can get all the specifics received via information request from the Sheriff’s department here.
