Recommendation to adopt Specifications No. RFP PD14-029 and award a contract to Legacy Inmate Communications, of Cypress, CA, for providing inmate telephone and video visitation services at the Long Beach City Jail, for a period of two years, with the option to renew for two additional one-year periods, at the discretion of the City Manager.  (Citywide)
Item 12 is a report from Police and Financial Management recommendation to award a contract to legacy inmate communications to provide inmate telephone and video visitation services at the Long Beach City Jail. City Summer. Thank. There's been a motion and a second set of staff report. There is not. So any member of the public that wishes to address Council on item 12. Is there. They don't see us. We certainly can have one. Deputy Chief Robert Luna can address it. Well, I have some council members that would like to address the issue, and perhaps there are questions for Deputy Chief. Councilmember Price. Thank you, Deputy Chief Luna. How many other local city jails are offering this service? I guess two inmates. It's kind of like a Skype. Is that what it is? We've provided the video services to vice mayor and members of the City Council. We've provided the video service for the last ten years, and I don't know exactly how many other cities offer this. We can definitely research. That for you and get back to you on that. And since I'm not familiar with what happens at our local jail, is this something that is a remote access or does the visitor have to be in the jail facility to have the contact via video? The current system that we have, you have to be in the facility to facilitate this. The new system that we're going to, which we're pretty excited about, you can remotely do this from other locations. That's one of the benefits that we get from the new system, other than I mean, there's different things that we're getting with this new system. Like I said, we're excited about our number one. The current system only offers two languages, and the new system will offer actually 20 languages, including Combi. So does this impact at all the inmates access to the telephone? Because I know that in some city jails, most facilities, they have limited access to being able to communicate with loved ones, which is part of the punishment. So how does this affect that? The current I'm sorry, the new system that we're going to will give more access to the prisoners because the you'll be able to get it in from different locations. I notice that it says in the in the staff report that 72% of all the revenue generated is going to go to the prisoner welfare fund account. What is that account? Are you talking specifically the prisoner welfare fund? What does that go to? Yes, that's used to purchase items or make repairs that benefits the inmates while they're in custody. And there's no it says there's no fiscal impact on the city's budget. How is that? Why is that? We currently do not. Pay for. The current system. As a matter of fact. The current system, as it sits now, ranges between zero and 42% of the funding that goes to the welfare fund. And that's exactly how the vendor draws the money for it. With the new system we're going to, 72%. Of that will. Will come to the prisoner welfare fund. And this is a service we provide so that we're user friendly for the inmates. I mean, what was the. What was the. Intent behind this to make it more accessible for them to talk to their loved ones? Ah, yes, absolutely. I have no further questions. So Councilmember Price raises a couple of questions for me. And I'm wondering in this might be helpful. There's no there's not very much background or explanation in the staff reports. So at this juncture, I'm curious, why is this service being considered? Not that it's not valuable or necessary just to understand why are we considering this right now or how did it come about? Okay. Well, the the new the current system, the new vendor provides similar services to the current vendor. So the basic operation will remain the same. But going to the new vendor, number one, the current vendor offers two languages. The new vendor offers 20 languages. We also the there will be an increased commission rate that will be paid to the prisoner welfare fund. Currently, the current vendor ranges between zero and 42%, depending on the service. The new vendor, 72%, will go to the prisoner welfare fund. Web based teleconferencing also is added. As stated earlier, the person doesn't have to come to the public safety building to talk to speak to their loved one. And the. Last is the. Ten new video stations, 36 new mounted jail cell phones, three which are free to inmates for their free calls, three phones mounted on wheels to allow inmates in isolation to make phone calls. So it does increase the accessibility to the inmates to use the the video teleconferencing. Thank you, Deputy Chief Councilmember Gonzalez. Thank you. I just had a couple of questions. So who who actually will be monitoring this site? I mean. Now, when a prisoner uses this system, there is no expectation of privacy. So the person in custody and the person out of custody who's talking to the to the prisoner understands that there's no level of privacy. The video is recorded for a limited time, 90 days, and our detectives have. Access to it, if so needed. Okay. Thank you. Councilmember Mongo. Deputy Chief Luna. Sorry about my voice. Deputy Chief Luna. Would you say that this system actually increases the security and access for our prisoners so that there's less necessity to have the one on one face to face contact and all of the risks that come with bringing people in and out of the jails to talk with their loved ones. Yes, it does. And one of the reasons we've had this system for the last ten years is we were trying to prevent any contraband from entering the custody facility. And by doing this, it prevents any either weapons and or narcotics from entering. The Long Beach jail. Thank you. Councilmember Price. I guess the question I have and you've been doing it for ten years and apparently it's working, but is there any sort of limitation on the number of calls or access that a prisoner can have because that's inmate. That's actually considered a privilege. And so does the severity of the crime impact, how frequently they can, you know, videoconference with their loved one. Does everyone now get as much access as they want? Are there any limitations to their access to the outside world? Do we now? If we don't, that's okay. I'm just curious because I know that a lot of times you get court ordered phone calls or you get a certain number of phone calls a day. And so for increasing their access, you know, my question would be, you know, why are we doing that? Is that because we're trying to be more inmate friendly as a city? Yeah. I'm going to have our jail administrator come down and answer that specific question for you. It's inmates. Says Rollie Siebert, our jail administrator. Now. And this is for anyone that's serving time at the jail arrestees, as well as people who are sentenced under AB 109, correct? Yes. Right. So convicted folks, as well as people who are pending trial on open matters. We don't have. Convicted folks. In our jail. It's pre-sentencing or pre arraignment pre-sentencing. Yes. So that means they're convicted, they're awaiting sentencing. Go ahead and answer that. They're pretrial and the video conferencing is limited by our visiting hours. So the inmates will be allowed. Actually, the people from the outside will be allowed to set up the visits through the Internet to visit the inmates. The phone system is going to be virtually the same, except the city will get a higher percentage of the of the revenues in the prisoner welfare fund. The rates are going to remain exactly the same. And so it's no it's no real change other than video visitation for the parents, grandparents, etc.. They can't make it to the jail. And we only keep the people for up to 4 to 6 days, depending on when they're arrested. Okay. So that the amount of stay that they would have access to this is 4 to 6 days. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Councilmember Richardson. I think if the I think where the debate just ended. So I think we're good here. Councilmember Austin. Yeah, I agree. I just was wanting some clarification on terminology versus inmates versus arrestees and what that meant. And I think that was clarified. I'm ready to vote. Thank you. Thank you. Seeing no further discussion of the. I'm sorry, members, please cast your votes. I'm a yes. Motion carries eight zero.