Corrections has collected $1.25 million for calls, messages since 2021

The state prison system collected at least $1.25 million in fees from inmates and their families for phone and messaging services in the three years leading up to this month’s sudden shutdown of tablet-based communications.

The South Dakota Department of Corrections (DOC) revenue is a mix of commission payments for phone calls and electronic messaging. The money is paid to the DOC from its communication contractor, ViaPath, which does business as Global Tel Link. 

Inmates can call from wall phones and, until recently, from their tablets. Those fee-for-service mobile devices are provided by the contractor to all inmates at no cost to the state. The tablets offer calls, texts and photo messaging, music and games for fees, and have a free law library. Inmates cannot access regular websites or social media.

‘Order restored’ at penitentiary following ‘disturbance’

The DOC provided the commission payout information to South Dakota Searchlight in the run-up to a Wednesday evening disturbance at the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls. During the event, inmates in the East Hall cell block could be heard from the street chanting “we want phones.”

An initial call on the disturbance appeared on the Sioux Falls Police Department call log just after 4 p.m. Wednesday. DOC Secretary Kellie Wasko sent a written statement at 8:30 p.m. announcing that order had been restored at the penitentiary.

The statement referenced a “staff assault,” but did not mention the extent of any correctional officer injuries.  

In an interview with The Dakota Scout’s Austin Goss on Thursday, Gov. Kristi Noem confirmed that the incident began when correctional officers took tablets from inmates.

“That’s what started the original conflict last night, and yes, we did have a correctional officer that was assaulted and went to the hospital,” Noem said.

In the same interview, Noem said the state needs to “see if it’s possible for prisoners to have these tablets and have them not be used for nefarious reasons.”

“We’re working with the technology and the vendor to make sure that to see if that’s even a possibility,” Noem said.

Attorney General Marty Jackley released a statement Thursday saying the state Division of Criminal Investigation will work with the DOC to “to investigate the disturbance at the State Penitentiary.”

“It is the Attorney General’s intent to prosecute those responsible for any harm done to correctional officers, other inmates, and state property to the fullest extent of the law,” Jackley wrote in a press release.

Communication restrictions began 20 days ago

The tablet-based messaging system, which moved to a new mobile platform late last year, was heavily used prior to the March 8 shutdown of tablet-based phone calls, texting and photo messaging. 

A press release posted to the agency’s website two weeks after that date said that tablet communications had been suspended indefinitely pending the completion of an investigation. The release offered no details about the nature of the investigation, and the DOC has declined to offer further details on its nature.

Inmates were still able to place calls using wall phones, the DOC notice said.

The sudden change, as well as a lack of communication about it, has frustrated inmates and their family members across state prison facilities in Sioux Falls, Yankton, Pierre, Springfield and Rapid City. Inmates have complained of wait times for phones, and about the loss of the tablets’ 1-hour phone call limit – 40 more minutes than they’re allowed on wall phones.

“The tension is rising due to the lack of phones in here,” Inmate Wesley Jarabek told Searchlight last week.

Surge in text, photo messaging follows tablet update

Pre-paid phone calls currently return an 18.7% commission for the state. 

Commission rates are far higher for tablet-based text messages and emails, netting the state 50% of the proceeds. Inmates pay 12 cents per photo or text to family and friends outside the walls. Family members and friends pay 25 cents per message.

The lion’s share of the $1.25 million the DOC collected between February 2021 and last month came from prepaid phone calls. But text and photo messaging payments skyrocketed after the tablet and messaging platform updates took effect last year.

November is the first month for which tablet-specific data are listed in the commission report, which was provided on Monday by DOC spokesman Michael Winder. In prior months, revenue from emails and photo messages sent over the previous platform were lumped in with monthly phone revenue reports, Winder said.

Investigation shuts down texting, email, tablet-based phone calls for inmates and families

By November, all inmates and families were able to communicate using a mobile app called “Getting Out” that works much like regular smartphone-based messaging. 

By January, 412,343 messages – more than 13,000 per day – were exchanged between inmates and those on the outside, according to the DOC’s commission data. That’s an average of about four messages per inmate per day. The DOC collected $37,758 in commission that month from tablets, according to the commission data.

That same month, the agency collected $26,662 in prepaid phone revenue. 

The report includes monthly payouts from February 2021 through last month, which added up to a total of $964,755.28.

There was a period of time when monthly payments appeared to drop suddenly and significantly, from November 2021 through March 2023. Monthly payouts had totaled $30,000 or more in the months leading up to November 2021, but fell to around $11,000 or so each month until March 2023. 

Winder, the DOC spokesman, said via email on Wednesday afternoon that the payouts didn’t actually drop. Instead, he said, the method of calculating payments changed in that time frame. 

“ViaPath paid a lump sum payment of $288,057.20 for the difference in those months,” Winder said. “That payment is not included in the cost recovery reports we sent because those are monthly totals.”

Adding the lump sum payment to the monthly payments puts the total for known communication service commissions for the past three years at $1,252,812.

Winder did not immediately respond to a follow-up question on any other additional commission revenue that may have been collected since February 2021.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated since its original publication to add Gov. Noem’s comments on Wednesday’s disturbance and inmate tablet access.