Residents Question Phone Call Procedures at Jasper County Jail
By: Katie Love
Updated: July 4, 2012
JASPER COUNTY, MO.--- A recent arrest left a few teenagers with no way to call their families. Jail officials say if you are booked into the jail you can call another landline, but not a cell phone. They say with more than 350 new arrivals each month, it would be to expensive to let inmates call a cell phone. Some say this might be a problem, because fewer people have landline's.
"They can't use the county phone at the jail to call out, only on a landline, like my family we don't have a landline, a lot of people don't have landlines, so they have no way of getting a hold of anybody," says John Bartosh, Jasper Co. Commissioner.
Jail officials say inmates can request a text message to be sent out using a free website, or they can sign up through a company called "EnCartle" and prepay for phone time.
"They can't use the county phone at the jail to call out, only on a landline, like my family we don't have a landline, a lot of people don't have landlines, so they have no way of getting a hold of anybody," says John Bartosh, Jasper Co. Commissioner.
Jail officials say inmates can request a text message to be sent out using a free website, or they can sign up through a company called "EnCartle" and prepay for phone time.
