Scott County jail to replace kiosks with one-to-one inmate tablets under no-cost CPC contract

The Scott County jail presented a recommended contract with CPC (and subsidiary CyberPath) to replace existing Securus kiosks and issue a tablet to each incoming inmate.

Jail administration said the contract carries no direct cost to the county and would provide tablets on a one-to-one basis so inmates would not have to wait in line for kiosks. The presentation listed several operational changes the county expects: mail will be scanned off-site and made available electronically, a vendor-managed library will replace the facility's paper book cart, tablets will permit video visits and limited email/texting, and the vendor will provide a customer-service number for inmates. On indigent needs, staff said the vendor will supply one free weekly phone call for inmates without funds and will accept pre-registered attorney phone numbers so those calls are free and unrecorded.

"Literally, every inmate as they come in is gonna be issued a tablet," the jailer said, describing the vendor's 1-to-1 approach and the management controls the county will retain. County staff emphasized the switch includes investigator tools accessible to law-enforcement partners and a single-switch ability to suspend outside communications when necessary.

The court raised legal and contractual points: one member flagged a waiver of subrogation and indemnification clause in the draft contract and said a governmental entity cannot provide that waiver; staff recommended adjusting the language to "to the extent allowed by law." The jailer also said the vendor's service-time commitments in the contract are tighter than what the county requested in the RFP, which staff considered an operational improvement over the current vendor.

The court asked staff to bring a final contract and a set of proposed inmate rules and supervisory procedures back for formal consideration, including how charging, headphone issuance and nightly tablet retrieval would be handled.