This database contains documents about prison and jail purchases of goods and services (“procurement documents,” in technical terms). Our work has focused largely on communications and technology services, so the majority of documents in this database focus on this area, but other types of contracts are included as well. In addition to contracts, the database also includes procurement solicitations and other related documents.

The documents in this database come from various sources: open records requests, discovery in litigation or regulatory proceedings, other advocacy groups, and anonymous tips. In the remarks field, we’ve provided some information to help you better understand these documents, but if you have additional questions we encourage you to reach out to the appropriate jail, prison, or Department of Corrections.

Unless we need to reduce the size of a large document, files are generally posted in the same format we received them. This means that if we submit an open records request for a contract, and the agency provides the contract as ten separate files, it will probably appear in the database as one entry with ten subsidiary files. If we receive documents through a public records request, the file might contain a copy of the agency’s cover letter responding to the request.

Do you have documents you’d like to submit?

We accept new submissions for inclusion in this database. Use this form to submit them for review and possible inclusion. Please include as much information as possible about the documents (including your name and email address, in case we have questions).

Database fields

We organize documents by facility, type, service, vendor, date, estimated expiration date, facility type, and state. We also provide additional information in the “remarks” field for some entries. Below is documentation on how we categorized information and what each field means.

Correctional facility

This field indicates the name of the facility that has entered into the contract:

• For federal or state correctional or detention systems, we simply list the agency (e.g., Alabama Department of Corrections, Federal Bureau of Prisons).
• For local jails, we use facility names from the Bureau of Justice Statistics Census of Jails.
• Privately operated facilities are listed individually along with the location and the name of the operator (e.g., Adelanto ICE Processing Center (Adelanto, CA-Geo Group)

Document types

The database contains seven types of documents:

• Solicitation: a document issued by a correctional facility or agency that wants to purchase goods or services. The document may be called a request for proposal, request for information, request for qualifications, or other similar names.
• Proposal: a vendor’s written offer to provide services under contract (sometimes called a bid). These are usually submitted in response to a solicitation but can also be unsolicited.
• Contract: an agreement where a correctional agency agrees to purchase goods or services from a vendor.
• Commission report: a report showing sales volume for a given period (i.e., minutes of phone calls or items sold through a commissary). These reports often — but not always — include the site commission payments that the vendor pays to the correctional facility.
• Bid evaluation: agency document listing proposals received for a given contract. The document may or may not score or rank the offers received.
• Bid protest: a protest by an unsuccessful bidder challenging an agency’s decision to award a contract to another company. This category includes actual bid protests, administrative decisions, and court documents or rulings.
• Miscellaneous: procurement-related documents that do not fit in the above categories

Some entries have multiple document types. For example, contracts frequently attach the vendor’s proposal as an exhibit — in these situations, the entry will be marked as both a Contract and a Proposal. If the agency’s request for proposals is also attached, it will be marked as a Solicitation as well. Another common example occurs when requests for proposals include historical call-volume reports so that bidders can anticipate the amount of revenue they might receive. In these situations, the entry will be coded as both a Solicitation and a Commission Report.

Covered Services

The database contains documents associated with 15 different kinds of services:

• Commissary: this covers contracts for third-party management of a prison or jail commissary and contracts simply for purchasing inventory. Also included are contracts for companies that ship “care packages” ordered by families of incarcerated people.
• Electronic messaging (“email”): text-based communication where the incarcerated user can send and receive written messages transmitted electronically. This category does not include messaging services that use SMS (this is a separate category below)
• Facility management (private prison contracts): this covers contracts for the private management of an entire prison or jail. These contracts are not a focus of this database, but we include them when we come across them.
• Facility management software: software used by correctional facilities to track incarcerated people admitted to, housed in, and released from the facility.
• Food service: this category includes management of a correctional facility cafeteria and purchasing food for use in the cafeteria. This category does not include commissary services (this is a separate category above).
• Healthcare services: professional medical care, whether rendered inside a facility or off-site.
• Inmate banking software: management of trust accounts. This does not include money-transfer services (this is a separate category below).
• Mail scanning: scanning or photocopying of incoming postal mail.
• Money transfer: services that allow people to send money to an incarcerated friend or relative.
• Release cards: prepaid debit cards issued to people when released from prison or jail.
• Tablets: hand-held computer devices for use by incarcerated people. These devices might be shared or individually assigned, and they may be provided to incarcerated people “free,” for purchase, or for rental.
• Telephone (voice calling): real-time audio communication, regardless of the hardware used.
• Text messaging (SMS): written communication that the non-incarcerated user sends or receives on a mobile phone using SMS protocol.
• Video calling: real-time communication that includes both audio and video, regardless of the hardware used.
• Voicemail: incoming or outgoing voicemail

Many contracts cover multiple services that are “bundled” under one agreement negotiated by the correctional facility and vendor. In these situations, we code the record with all applicable services.

We code records with any services that were ever provided under the contract, even if this changes over time. For example, if a contract is initially for voice telephone service and a later amendment that adds video calling, the database record will be coded as voice telephone and video. Similarly, if the original contract was for voice telephone and video calling, but a later amendment removes the video calling, the contract will still be coded for both services.

Some contracts include specialized services not included on this list. These services may be noted in the “remarks” field.

Vendor name

We use the name that appears in the contract (omissions or minor variations in entity designations like “Inc.” or “LLC” are disregarded).

If a vendor name changes, either through a formal name change, or a merger/acquisition, we create a new vendor name and link the old one as an alias. WE also use aliases for corporate trade names (for example, “Turnkey Corrections” is a trade name used by T.W. Vending, Inc.)

For bid evaluation documents or joint-venture contracts, there may be more than one vendor listed.

What if I don’t see the company name I’m looking for?
The search menu only contains the primary name for each company. So, for example, if you want to search for Turnkey Corrections contracts, you will have to search under the primary name, T.W. Vending, Inc. If you don’t see the name you are interested in on the search menu, you can either use your browser’s find function (ctrl-F) or you can browse this table of all the aliases in our database (note this table includes companies for which we do not yet have documents).

Name	Alias of
3CInteractive	Securus Technologies, LLC
AMTEL	ATN, Inc.
Archonix Systems, LLC	Securus Technologies, LLC
Aventiv	Securus Technologies, LLC
BellSouth	AT&T
CTEL	Consolidated Telecom
DSI-ITI, Inc.	Global Tel*Link Corp.
Edovo	Jail Education Solutions, Inc.
Evercom Systems, Inc.	Securus Technologies, LLC
Food Express USA	Union Supply Group, Inc.
FSH Communications, LLC	Global Tel*Link Corp.
GTL	Global Tel*Link Corp.
Legacy Inmate Communications	Jail Education Solutions, Inc.
Legacy Inmate Solutions	Jail Education Solutions, Inc.
Message Link	Global Tel*Link Corp.
NCIC Inmate Communications	Network Communications International Corp.
Primonics, Inc.	Securus Technologies, LLC
Public Communications Services, Inc.	Global Tel*Link Corp.
Renovo	Global Tel*Link Corp.
SmartJailMail	Smart Communications Holding, Inc.
Telmate, LLC	Global Tel*Link Corp.
TKC TeleCom, LLC	T.W. Vending, Inc.
T-NETIX, Inc.	Securus Technologies, LLC
Touchpay	Global Tel*Link Corp.
TurnKey Corrections	T.W. Vending, Inc.
Value-Added Communications, Inc.	Global Tel*Link Corp.

Dates

Document date is our best guess when services were first provided under the contract. If not specified, we use the last date that a party signed the contract.

• For RFPs, we use the date of issuance if known (if not known, then we use the submission deadline).

Estimated expiration date is our best guess as to when the contract might expire, but it is just an estimate that should be treated as a guide toward the likely expiration date rather than a definitive statement that a contract did or will expire on a particular date. Additionally:

• If a contract provides services from a beginning date to an end date, we will list the end date as the estimated expiration date. More commonly, contracts consist of a “base period” plus one or more optional “extension periods.” In these situations, if the contract is still in its base period when we enter it into this database, we typically list the end of the base period as the estimated expiration date. If the base period has ended, we will either list the end of the last extension period as the estimated expiration date or leave this field blank.
• Correctional facilities and vendors often negotiate extensions of contract terms as part of an amendment. In these cases, we don’t always know about the amendment. But, if we have a copy of the amendment, we will list the amended expiration date as the estimated expiration date.
• Correctional facilities and vendors sometimes informally agree to extend a contract without signing an amendment. In these cases, we might request a currently operative contract from an agency and receive an agreement that has already expired. In these situations, we will leave the estimated expiration date field blank and possibly make a note in the remarks field.

A date might be a specific day in YYYY-MM-DD format, or it could just be a year.

Facility type

Correctional facilities are classified as: state prison, jail, federal prison, immigration detention, juvenile, tribal, mental health, military, or privately owned.