Allen County approves amendment with ViaPath for inmate communications as FCC ruling cuts commissions

The Allen County Commissioners on April 25 approved Amendment No. 4 to the county's master services agreement with Global Tel Link, now doing business as ViaPath Technologies, for inmate telephone, tablet and video-visit services.

County staff described upgrades to tablets, video visitation and the facility's fiber network and warned the county's revenue from telephone commissions will fall under a pending Federal Communications Commission ruling expected to take effect in June. "The new FCC ruling will essentially remove the commissions off of phones," said Cody Fry, Community Corrections.

Fry said the county first signed with GTL in August 2020 and has since upgraded infrastructure and added tablets and video-visit stations. He said the tablets are used for phone calls, games, movies and education services such as job-preparedness and resume-writing. Fry also said the county hopes to add the Atlas virtual program to the tablets after additional security review by the vendor's engineers.

Fry detailed the expected price and commission changes under the FCC action: phone-call rates have fallen by about 12 cents per minute, tablet-message fees increased from $0.25 to $0.50, and video-visit per-minute rates decreased by roughly 11 cents. He said the county will no longer receive commissions on phone calls or on video visits conducted through tablets; the county will receive a 25% share of revenue only on purchases made through the tablet platform (for example, messaging, movies, games or music).

Fry described contract terms and operational controls before the board. "This contract is essentially 3 1-year terms and then we have a 90 day out clause if we so choose to do that," he said. Fry said the county does not currently plan to exercise the 90-day out clause, citing satisfaction with the vendor's infrastructure and services. He also said the county screens and blocks phone numbers tied to no-contact or protective-orders and that the county's systems and technology manager, "Mr. Gamback," regularly screens phone calls, tablet messages and video visits.

Commissioners moved and seconded approval of Amendment No. 4; the measure passed by voice vote. The motion to approve was made by a commissioner and seconded by a fellow commissioner; the board indicated approval verbally. No members of the public spoke on this item.

The amendment keeps the county's current suite of inmate communications tools but, according to staff, will reduce commission revenue once the FCC ruling takes effect. County officials said they plan no immediate contract termination and will monitor utilization and revenue under the new fee structure.