It may not be an issue that strikes people as important, but making provisions for prisoners to call home has been shown to be a very valuable help to society. It lowers recidivism rates and improves prisoner behavior, or so it's said. To that end, Securus Technologies has been at work to bring the Secure Calling Platform (SCP) to work with its clients, and at last report, has most of those clients in place.

An announcement from Securus itself noted that 99.6 percent of all prison and jail customers alike had made the jump to SCP, a platform powered by voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service. The only holdout was with the Alaska Department of Corrections, a project that's slated to be complete by the end of 2015. That's no mean feat, and reports so far suggest that the users are quite happy with the results thanks to a set of key advantages found in Securus' tools. The first among several is routine software upgrades; reports suggest software updates take place quarterly, offering extra services and product enhancements, a welcome addition to most any lineup.

The benefits go on from there, as reports note; repairs are often faster since most can be resolved remotely with some software modifications, and since the whole thing is IP-based, the rates on calls can be lowered, an issue that was once regarded as a major problem. Facilities can get higher commissions on use, and a portal allows for easy access to information about the service at any time, from any place. Facilities are monitored on a round-the-clock basis, and many problems can even be fixed before the customer is aware there was a problem needing fixing to begin with.

Even the numbers come out in support of Securus' product line. When compared to older, premise-based systems—where the equipment necessary to operate is located at the prison or jail in question—Securus compared shockingly well against such systems. Securus had 24 percent fewer field dispatches than the premise-based alternative, and 57 percent fewer trouble tickets, a sign that the system ran smoothly. But the bottom-line impact was also clearly felt, as Securus reduced capital expenditures (capex) by 18 percent, and was 10 to 15 percent lower in operational expenses (opex) as well.

It's hard to argue with bottom-line results; with governments increasingly cash-strapped as tax bases fall apart and those who are left to be taxed resisting every tax hike like the cost was being assessed in blood, saving money is a major factor for state and local governments across the country. But by like token, skimping on prisoner calling is potentially a false savings; losing out on lower recidivism rates means a loss to the future tax base, as well as increased expenses incurred to try and incarcerate prisoners. While improving prison conditions may be a short-term expense gain, it can be a long-term saving as fewer prisoners return to the system.

It's a difficult issue to work around, but Securus is showing us how quality service can be provided, inmates can keep in touch with family on the outside and improve behavior on the inside, and the entire system can be improved overall thanks to the value that VoIP can bring to the table. It may not solve every problem, but it sure does a job on this one.