Alachua County Commission approves new contract with Securus for jail phone calls, removes technology that helps detectives identify voices

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the February 27 Alachua County Commission meeting, the board approved a new contract with Securus that removes the voice biometrics software used by detectives to identify the individuals speaking on jail phone calls.

The approval of the agreement with Securus for a Jail Inmate Phone System was originally on the consent agenda, but Commissioner Anna Prizzia asked to have it placed on the regular agenda for discussion. She noted that the agreement requires that Investigator PRO, the voice biometrics software used by Securus, be removed from the inmate calling software platform, “but it doesn’t feel strong enough after reading a lot of the articles that have been in the news of late… how [large phone companies] have kind of gone around some of the issues related to people’s privacy and warrants and things like that, with regards to data and information. I really would like to see a provision about surveillance and recording generally.”

According to the Securus website, Investigator PRO’s “state-of-the art voice analysis technology exposes incarcerated individuals who try to hide their identities and commit crimes using their legal telephone system. Investigator Pro tools narrow the investigator’s search for clues, reducing the time needed to spend listening to incarcerated individual calls and pinpointing those most likely to help build a case.”

First motion

Prizzia made a motion “that the provision related to phone call recording–eliminate the use of voice recognition and identification, and disallow the use of any surveillance software, AI, or other tools to monitor, track, scan, or otherwise use phone or video call data without a warrant; to only allow access to any call or video data with a warrant or other, like, legal framework for getting that data; and clear, easy use process to ensure attorney-client calls are not being recorded.” She said several attorneys had spoken with her about concerns that their calls are being recorded.

Instead of seconding the motion, Commissioner Ken Cornell said he’d like to hear what the Sheriff’s Office thought about her proposal, and the motion eventually died for lack of a second.

Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler asked Prizzia for more information about her concerns, and Prizzia described situations where “people have subverted warrants and gone directly to Securus and asked for data and information. They’ve been using location tracking on people’s phones; they’ve given out that data… And while I understand the importance of having a recorded phone call, so that if there is any criminal activity on the phones, we can go back and find that criminal activity, I believe that people have the right to their privacy, and… just because they’re in custody and they’ve lost some of their Fourth Amendment rights doesn’t mean they should lose all of them.”

Jail phone calls have tripled since the County Commission made them free

Sheriff Emery Gainey said that phone calls in the two-month period of January and February have increased from 73,000 in 2022 and 2023 to 193,000 in 2024 due to phone calls now being free, and “we simply don’t have the staff and the time to listen to all those phone calls, nor are we interested.” He said they look for key words to protect victims from being threatened by inmates or to make sure they’re aware of inmates using the phones to plan other crimes. Gainey said they “know for a fact” that they have prevented homicides by monitoring phone calls made to and from the jail. He said that’s all they’re interested in doing.

Prizzia replied, “I’m not concerned about what you’re interested in doing. I’m concerned about what Securus is doing… Anybody can have access to that data if they request it right… And my interest is in making sure that… there would be a warrant required in order for them to gain that information and that we’re not surveilling people or using any kind of software to gather information or voice imprint people, with or without consent, that have no criminal history.”

Gainey said, “They don’t have access to that data.”

“It’s not being done.”

A detective who works with the phone system at the jail said the data is “kept with Securus” and that any attorney who needs a private line that is not recorded can contact him. He added, “All the things that you mentioned earlier, as far as GPS and all that, it’s not being done.”

Prizzia responded, “Well, it’s being done by Securus in other parts of the country, and I’m interested in making sure that it’s not going to happen in Alachua County.”

Voice biometrics aid in proving cases involving jail phone calls

The detective said Securus’ voice biometric technology, which is being discontinued under the new agreement, is “the highest technology that you can have… So if we don’t want to falsely accuse somebody of saying something on the phone, I would rather have a system that is related to that do the work for us.”

Major Jeff Cloutier, Director of the Jail, told Alachua Chronicle that without the voice biometrics technology, it’s much harder to prove who is speaking on a phone call or detect crimes being committed on the phones. As one example, he said that instead of being notified by the system that witness tampering may be occurring, the Sheriff’s Office might not find out unless the victim reported the calls to the State Attorney’s office. He also said the feature was already removed several months ago by Securus to demonstrate that the company was responsive to the County Commission.

Second motion

Cornell said, “I move staff recommendation,” and Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler seconded the motion. The staff recommendation was to approve the agreement as presented.

How are the free phone calls going?

Cornell asked Sheriff Gainey how things were going at the jail since their last meeting, when the board asked Gainey to stop limiting phone calls at the jail; he had previously limited them to three calls per inmate per day in an effort to make sure all inmates had a chance to use the phone after the County stopped collecting fees for phone calls.

Gainey said, “Well, it’s going good. I mean, we still have some issues, but we implemented the Commission’s direction.” He said the situation changes as the inmate population changes, “so those things change from month to month… but all in all, it’s been implemented, our staff is working with it, and we’re good.”

Cornell thanked him for implementing the board’s direction.

Jail and Sheriff’s Office staffing levels

Prizzia asked about staffing levels at the jail. Gainey said they are “hiring very actively,” but employees are leaving for other organizations to avoid the mandatory overtime that is currently required for jail employees. He said the staffing increases at the jail are “nowhere near what we want,” but on the law enforcement side (the Sheriff’s Office), staffing is “going in a great direction.”

Alford’s visit to the jail

Chair Mary Alford said she made an unannounced visit to the jail: “I’m sure you probably heard about it.” Gainey responded, “As soon as you hit the door,” and Alford countered, “You did not hear when I hit the door; you heard about it later,” and Gainey said, “You’d be surprised.”

She said she was “very well impressed” with what she saw. Gainey invited all of the commissioners to visit the jail.

Maintenance issues

Prizzia said she had heard about “issues with the water system in the jail,” and Cloutier responded, “We have a lot of maintenance-related issues at the County Jail. A lot. Pretty significant… I know there’s discussion, long-term, about a new jail, but until that time, and that’s probably going to be many, many years down the road, we’ve got some serious maintenance issues out there that tend to affect the inmate population morale, and that concerns me.”

Prizzia asked whether the problems are due more to maintenance issues or sanitation issues, and Cloutier responded, “The maintenance issues beget sanitation issues when toilets back up. It’s hard to keep it clean when they continually back up… We’re chasing our tails, so to speak. We’ve got to fix those issues, but we’re putting band-aids on gashes. We’ve got serious problems out there, we really do.” 

“We protected victims by using the [voice biometrics] system.”

Cloutier added that Securus transitioned the video visitation kiosks to be inmate phones, to allow an additional increase in phone availability. He also emphasized that listening to jail phone calls has prevented suicides and inmate assaults; “we protected victims by using the system. We protected witness tampering by the use of that system. We have solved homicides by the use of that system. If we stop doing what we do, we’re going to create bigger problems downstream; that’s what concerns me greatly.”

County Manager Michele Lieberman confirmed that the agreement eliminated the voice identification feature that was used in the situations discussed by Cloutier. The contract states that the feature “will
only be reactivated at the direction of the County, which may be given by the County Manager.”

“Bottom line,… it’s time to start planning a new jail.”

Wheeler said she was concerned that she hadn’t heard anything about the maintenance problems at the jail “in terms of making sure that that’s part of the budget talks… And I’m kind of alarmed by that, to tell you the truth… So, you know, commissioners, we’ll need to make sure that we got that conversation going.”

Gainey said his staff has had that conversation with the County’s facilities staff: “Bottom line, your jail is old enough that it’s time to start planning a new jail… It’s really, really time.”

State Attorney’s Office supports keeping voice biometrics feature

Chief Assistant State Attorney Heather Jones told the board that the State Attorney supports retaining the voice biometrics feature that was removed from the agreement being discussed. She said, “There have been countless numbers of horrific crimes solved by the use of Securus and their additional technology.”

Cornell’s motion to approve the agreement as presented (removing the voice biometrics feature) passed 4-0, with Commissioner Chuck Chestnut absent.