News

Vending kiosks booked in Ohio county jail

August 7, 2014

New vending and kiosk systems installed at the Eaton, Ohio, Preble County Jail are functioning as self-service commissaries for inmates, according to the Register Herald.

The kiosks were installed as part of a larger project to save time, money and paper, the article said.

"I think at first it's fair to say we weren't real wild about the idea," Preble County Sheriff's Department Major Joe Renner in the article. "We're not going to get rich off of it, we're not supposed to get rich off of it. We wanted to reduce our paper shuffle and we wanted to reduce employee time that it takes to do all of these things."

Any increased revenue from the kiosk solution is to be used to stock the commissary for inmate items, which according to Renner, "saves the taxpayers from buying that stuff."

Commissary rates are decided by the number of inmates housed in the jail and the amount of money each has when booked, which is either given back on release or placed in the inmate's account.

Inmates are given access to their money via a debit card that allows them to order electronically from a list of approved items, should the kiosks not have what they need.

In the future, the department plans to allows credit card transactions and family and friends to transfer money electronically. Also with the new system, inmates can receive their money immediately upon release, instead of waiting until the next business day if they were discharged after hours, the article said.