Jails and juvenile facilities: telephone service contracts.

Existing law imposes specified procedural and substantive content requirements on contracts entered into by local agencies, including cities and counties. This bill would require any contract to provide telephone services to any person detained or sentenced to a jail or juvenile facility to be negotiated and awarded to an entity that meets the jail or juvenile facility's technical, functional, and security requirements for services, and that provides the lowest cost of service to any person who pays for the telephone service. The bill would prohibit any contract to provide telephone services to any person detained or sentenced to a jail or juvenile facility from including any commission or other payment, as defined, to the entity operating the jail or juvenile facility. The bill would further require that telephone rates affected by these provisions be reduced in response to the elimination of commission fees and require that current contracts for these telephone services, as specified, be amended to eliminate commission fees or other payments by a specified date. Because this bill would require new actions by local jail officials, it would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.