Texas Inmate Phone System Begins

Friends and relatives of inmates can register on a Web site — www.texasprisonphone.com — and the company is working on an automated system for people who don't have Internet access, Cooper said.

People on an inmate's visitors list submit a copy of their telephone bill and a copy of their driver's license and their names are verified against the visitors list names.

"There are multiple layers of checks that occur," Cooper said, saying the phone system had security features and "a ton" of investigative capabilities.

"In terms of getting into the system, there are some checks," he said. "They are not perfect."

People who register and are approved are notified by a phone call from the firm.

The new phone privileges come in the wake of a crackdown by the agency on illegal cell phone use. Hundreds of contraband phones, chargers and phone components have been seized in recent months and security has been tightened for those entering and leaving the prisons after a death row inmate last year, using a smuggled phone, made threatening calls to a state senator.