Out with the old, in with a new $400K dispatch console; revenue from inmate communications
Genesee County’s outdated emergency dispatch center certainly was cheaper to be removed than the new one replacing it.
Genesee County Legislature approved an additional expense of $23,094 during its meeting Wednesday for unexpected costs related to the capital project for dispatch center console furniture. The project initially was for $320,000 in February 2022 and was adopted on July 27 of that year for $380,000.
The director of Emergency Communications requested the latest additional funding to complete the project, which was estimated to be 95 percent finished. Sheriff William Sheron said that individual monitors are to be installed within the next week or so. The outdated communications monitor that was several years old was removed at no charge.
The $23,094 will be offset with a 1 percent sales tax, which county legislators also approved — to extend an extra 1 percent sales tax through Nov. 30, 2025.
Another resolution had to do with a tablet for every jail inmate.
No, it’s not exactly what it sounds like, Sheriff William Sheron says. The Sheriff’s Office finalized an agreement with Securus Technologies LLC for inmate communication services, which provides tablets and phones for inmates at the county jail.
Out of three bids, it was determined by the Sheriff, purchasing director and jail superintendent, “that our current provider Securus Technologies, LLC provided the best combination of competitive pricing and services,” the resolution states.
“The company supplies the tablets and the phones. And the inmates are charged for usage of it. And then the county receives a percentage of that from the company. So there is no cost to the county. The cost is all incurred by the inmates,” he said after the meeting. “The company comes in and sets everything up, supplies all the tablets, supplies the phone system, and then the inmates, through their usage, they pay for it. It's one for each inmate if they want it, or just right now, our population is running somewhere between 50 and 60, low 60s, and the new facility capacity will be 184, which will mean usually at 85 percent of that. So somewhere around 140ish, they have them in their possession.
“There's a lot of good programs that are associated. Obviously, they can't get anything that we don't authorize, but they can get educational programs, and they can get reentry programs on there. They can get Law Library on there. So they've been very popular,” Sheron said. “And I think the miscommunication sometimes with the public is that we're giving them free entertainment that, no, they're actually paying for their usage of it.”
The contract includes an 84 percent commission paid on inmate telephone calls to Genesee County, for the period of May 1, 2023, through April 30, 2025, with the option to renew for three (3) additional one-year periods upon mutual, written consent of both parties under the same terms and conditions as the original Agreement.
