Hand-held tablets for inmates coming to the Cape Girardeau County Jail

By mid-to-late April, the administrator of the Cape Girardeau County Jail expects nearly everybody incarcerated there will be given a hand-held tablet using a closed wireless system for accessing movies, music and reading material -- at the inmate's cost.

The Cape Girardeau County Commission approved a new agreement Monday with a familiar vendor, Securus Technologies, which for several years has provided a kiosk in each inmate pod plus video calling options at the lockup.

The tablets are an add-on feature of the new contract, said Richard Rushin, Cape Girardeau County's jail administrator since March.

Securus, according to information provided on its website, has agreements with more than 3,400 jails in the U.S.

In addition to the Cape Girardeau County lockup in Jackson, Securus also has contracts with the City of Cape Girardeau and Scott City police, plus the Sikeston Department of Public Safety.

Pricing

Rushin said there is no cost to the county for the tablet service.

In fact, the county, through the sheriff's department, will actually realize revenue.

Under the previous Securus agreement, the county was receiving approximately $90,000 annually.

With the new agreement approved by commissioners Clint Tracy, Paul Koeper and Charlie Herbst, "we have a guarantee of receiving $210,000 -- assuming an average daily jail population is at least 240," Rushin said. He added the jail's capacity is currently 218 but said the inmate census generally runs well above that number.

"This revenue is a drop in the bucket to the millions of dollars it costs to run a jail," Rushin said, "but it will help."

Securus earns money when inmates use the system by accessing their commissary accounts to purchase movies, music and reading materials.

The county participates in the revenue and inmates benefit by receiving another form of recreation.

"These will be pretty rugged devices but not indestructible," Rushin said, adding if a tablet is found to have been abused, an inmate will likely lose privileges for awhile.

Purpose

Sheriff Ruth Ann Dickerson made brief remarks to the County Commission before handing off the details of the Securus system to Rushin.

"What we're after is a tool to help us keep inmates occupied and calm," Dickerson said.

"(The tablets) are a great way for the inmates to get their minds onto other things," Rushin added.

Rushin noted the Law Enforcement and Safety Tax, OK'd by county voters June 2, 2020, by a 57% affirmative vote, has helped the jail's operations.

"When I first got here, we were really low on staff with just 13 jail employees. Now we're up to 34, which has allowed us to go back to a normal rotation with not a lot of overtime, and the day-in and day-out morale has improved," Rushin said.

"With inmates seeing more people out on each shift, they don't tend to 'test the waters' as much."

Restrictions

"The new Wi-Fi will be a dedicated system and the tablets will have filters. It's set up so normally there will be no way for the inmate to reach outside using the tablet to contact those not in the jail. Also, a block will be put on the system so that those victimized by inmates cannot be contacted," Rushin said.

A consistent worry for all correctional facilities is contraband.

"With people trying to smuggle in drugs, we had been only allowing Bibles in sealed, never-before-opened, packages," Rushin said.

"When the new system is installed, which could be as early as April 15, paperback books should go away. If an inmate wants to read the Bible, for instance, whatever version or translation they want, we can have it uploaded to the system."

Rushin said six vendors returned requests for proposal for the work at the lockup, but only Securus offered full-time technical support, an option the jail administrator said was decisive.

"We didn't want the system to go out over the holidays, for example, without someone available to fix it right away," Rushin said, adding the county wanted a system to be of a reasonable cost to the inmate and the inmate's family members.

Rushin told the commission Securus has a one-year probationary period on the contract, allowing the county to exit the agreement with a 30-day notice, if necessary.