telephones i_____________a__ _.
Contents
1. 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 As depicted in FIG 4 a channel of TMU 2 connects to an inmate telephone 1 at a station input line 40 A record blocking circuit 41 connects station input line 40 to record ing equipment not depicted via line 41a which line can also be used for live call monitoring CCU 3 automati cally controls an attorney relay 41b and in the case of an inmate to attorney call switches line 41a to a tone generator 41c thereby blocking improper attempts to record or moni tor inmate to attorney calls A split relay 42 switches the inmate telephone between a local line 42a and an outside line 42b Initially i e before the inmate initiates a call split relay 42 connects station input line 40 via local line 42a to a monitor circuit 43 which monitors the inmate s telephone Monitor circuit 43 supplies a battery feed to the inmate s telephone and performs pulse digit recognition and current detection as well A dial tone generator 43a which is preferably common to all channels of the TMU supplies a dial tone to the inmate s phone A relay 44a switches a DTMF receiver 44 to decode tones on the local line 42a or the outside line 42b A voice out station line 45a supplies voice messages to the inmate s telephone CCU 3 controls the decoder portion of an integrated coder decoder CODEC circuit to generate the messages fed to line 45a The decoder portion of a second CODEC als2. 12 United States Patent Gainsboro US006560323B2 10 Patent No US 6 560 323 B2 45 Date of Patent May 6 2003 54 75 73 21 22 65 63 51 52 58 56 JP COMPUTER BASED METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING MONITORING RECORDING AND REPORTING TELEPHONE ACCESS Inventor Jay L Gainsboro Framingham MA US Assignee T Netix Inc Carrollton TX US Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U S C 154 b by 0 days Appl No 08 904 784 Filed Aug 1 1997 Prior Publication Data US 2002 0071537 A1 Jun 13 2002 Related U S Application Data Continuation of application No 08 510 327 filed on Aug 2 1995 now Pat No 5 655 013 which is a continuation of application No 08 229 517 filed on Apr 19 1994 now abandoned Int Cl S saa ania H04M 3 00 USC 2x6 ccd 9 188 379 249 379 199 Field of Search 379 91 01 91 02 379 112 143 144 145 101 108 189 196 198 199 200 34 35 207 01 207 02 207 11 211 01 211 02 210 02 211 03 114 01 114 14 112 01 144 01 85 16 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 3 851 121 A 11 1974 Marvin 4 001 513 1 1977 Naylor 379 115 4 002 848 A 1 1977 Stein 379 119 List continued next page FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS 5 30193 5 1993 EQUIPMENT LOCATED iN TELEPHONE
3. Fuller et al 4 799 255 A 1 1989 Billinger et al 5 442 696 A 8 1995 Lindberg et al 4 815 120 A 3 1989 Kosich et al 5 452 347 A 9 1995 Iglehart et al 4 885 765 12 1989 Shirakawa 379 93 23 ee T a 1 4 896 348 A 1 1990 Grantland et al neers is x 4 899 375 A 2 1990 Bauer et al pod js Pp a gh el i 4 901 341 A 2 1990 Carter et al 199 upta et al 4 922 519 A 5 1990 Daudelin 5 535 261 A 7 1996 Brown et al 4 922 520 A 5 1990 Bernard et al 5 539 812 A 7 1996 Kitchin et al 4 924 488 A 5 1990 Kosich 5 566 229 A 10 1996 Hou et al 4 933 966 A 6 1990 Hird et al 5 583 934 12 1996 Zhou 4 933 967 A 6 1990 Lo et al 5 606 604 A 2 1997 Rosenblatt 4 935 956 A 6 1990 Hellwarth et al 5 617 471 A 4 1997 Rogers et al 4 937 862 A 6 1990 Kosich 5 627 887 A 5 1997 Freedman 4 993 068 A 2 1991 Poisenka et al 5 651 056 A 7 1997 Eting et al 5 023 869 A 6 1991 Grover et al 5 655 013 A 8 1997 Gainsboro 379 188 5 023 906 A 6 1991 Novas 379 372 5 722 418 A 3 1998 Bro 5 033 088 A 7 1991 Shipman 5 724404 A 3 1998 Garcia et al 5 054 059 A 10 1991 Stern et al 5 745 553 A 4 1998 Mirville et al 5 063593 A 11 1991 Kwon _ 5 796 811 A 8 1998 McFarlen 5 109 405 A 4 1992 Morganstein 5 799 068 A 8 1998 Kikinis et al 5 131 024 A 7 1992 Pugh et al 5 805 685 A 9 1998 McFarlen 5 150 357 A 9 1992 Hopner et al 5 809 125 A 9 1998 Gammino 379 189 5 163 083 A 11 1992 DOR et al 5 883 945 A 3 1999 Richard
4. GOTU feature also finds use in a standard i e non institutional telephone system For example a local tele phone company may provide a service whereby a called party after picking up the telephone and receiving a call from an undesired caller dials a predetermined sequence e g GOTU to prohibit the current undesirable caller from ever calling again from the same line Implementation of this feature at the local phone company level is straightforward and can easily be accomplished using exist ing technology and equipment associated with the telephone circuit of the calling party While the invention has been described with reference to one or more preferred embodiments such embodiments are merely exemplary and are not intended to be limiting or represent an exhaustive enumeration of all aspects of the invention The scope of the invention therefore shall be defined solely by the following claims What is claimed is 1 A method of managing telephone activity provided by an institutional telephone system comprising a local exchange in an institution the method comprising receiving a telephone number associated with a destina tion party outside the institutional telephone system s local exchange over an institutional telephone from an institutional caller for placing a telephone call to the destination party US 6 560 323 B2 11 blocking the institutional telephone and while the insti tutional telephone is block
5. by the trunk management unit from the caller set to the first telephone number 15 The system of claim 14 wherein the caller set com prises at least one of an institutional calling party who requested the telephone connection more than one institu tional calling party within an institution or more than one institutional calling party within a set of institutions 16 The system of claim 14 wherein the computerized control unit is further configured to authorize the telephone connection by reviewing previously retained call blocking instructions to determine if the first telephone number has been blocked for the caller set and wherein the trunk management unit is further configured to wait for authori zation from the computerized control unit before telephon ing the first telephone number US 6 560 323 B2 13 17 The system of claim 14 wherein the telephone con nection is forwarded from the first telephone number to a second telephone number and wherein the trunk manage ment unit is further configured to receive the call blocking instruction for the first telephone number from the telephone connection associated with the second telephone number 18 A system for managing telephonic communications provided by an institutional telephone system comprising a local exchange in an institution the system comprising call blocking examination means for determining if a calling party in an institution has been previously blocked from cal
6. destination party using telephony equipment associ ated with the institution receiving a control code from the destination party and determining in response to the control code whether to prohibit calls from a calling party group from calling the destination party in the future 22 The method of claim 21 wherein the calling party group comprises at least one of the institutional caller a plurality of callers from within the institution or a plurality of callers from related institutions
7. inmate is allowed to a use the par ticular telephone extension b place calls at the given time of day or c has exceeded a maximum number of calls or calling minutes within a given period of time and 3 based upon the number to be called whether the number is approved or prohibited whether the number to be called corresponds to the inmate s attorney in which case the conversation will not be recorded or live monitored and whether there are any time of day or call frequency or other restrictions on the number to be called If the call is rejected on the basis of 1 3 above CCU 3 directs TMU 2 to play a message to the inmate in the inmate s preferred language determined by his her PIN and established when the prisoner first enters the facility explaining the reason that the call has been rejected Assum ing that the requested call has passed these initial screening tests CCU 2 directs TMU 2 to call the destination party Until completion of step 53 or 55 the inmate s earpiece and mouthpiece remain blocked with respect to the called party thereby eliminating the inmate s opportunity to inter ject offensive or harassing remarks In step 52 the destina tion or called party receives the call and hears a prerecorded message which identifies the institution caller and gives instructions as to how the called party may elect to receive the call and how the party may block future calls if desired The message may
8. lines in an institutional environment is well recognized In order to prevent individuals from incurring large unac countable telephone costs which the institution ultimately bears one must either restrict access to outside telephone lines or institute accounting controls whereby the costs of unauthorized calls can be billed to the responsible individu als Telephone systems in correctional environments require additional security considerations Without appropriate con trols on telephone access inmates have been known to use the telephones to harass outside parties such as witnesses who testified against them attorneys who prosecuted their case employees of the courts etc to perpetrate fraudulent schemes and to participate in criminal conspiracies such as arranging the smuggling of contraband into the prison directing an outside criminal enterprise plotting escape attempts or credit card fraud Therefore it is critically important for correctional management officials to carefully plan control monitor and record inmate access to outside telephone lines One of the most fundamental problems which exists both in correctional and other business oriented institutions is cost control To achieve cost control it is critical that there be individual accountability for each call that incurs a charge to the institution Such accountability is typically achieved through use of personal identification numbers pins Before
9. mouthpiece remains blocked a calling said out side recipient called party b providing the identity of said institutional caller to said outside recipient and c receiving a control code from said outside recipient and 3 determining in response to said control code whether to connect the institutional caller to the outside recipient and optionally whether to indicate any of a plurality of messages to the calling party e g an inmate The control code preferably comprises a series of DTMF tones for example the sequence 4688 which spells the pneumonic GOTU In response to the recognition of a control code the outside recipient is provided with the option via a voice prompt menu of prohibiting any future calls from the particular institutional caller or if desired prohibiting calls from any person within the institution and or related institutions Alternatively if voice prompting or voice menus are not available or not desired then the public at large can be informed that the GOTU feature is available in their area and with respect to certain institutions in their area and then upon receipt of undesired calls from such institutions the called party can enter the GOTU touchtone or keypad 10 15 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 sequence Any multitude of call prohibitions can be estab lished as to any particular inmate by the prison administra tion or the called party includin
10. various information regarding an inmate s debit account calling privileges and calling activity The FIG 3 form includes a title segment 31 which displays the current date title of the form and form code Below the title segment is a header segment 32 which typically displays such information as the inmate s name registration number preferred language selection prisoner account code PAC or PIN certain calling privilege information and account balance Below the header are a plurality of data blocks 33 which show the inmate s transactions both accounting transactions and phone calls as well as his her calling privileges and restrictions i e numbers the inmate is allowed to call the inmate s attorney s number numbers the inmate is prohibited from calling and numbers which should trigger an alert on the system terminals when a call is attempted The system allows the user to scroll through the data blocks in order to bring any particular transaction or restriction into view A help line 34 lists the commands available to the user A bottom positioned status line 35 completes the form Referring now to FIG 4 a block diagram of one channel of a multichannel TMU 2 is shown Generally TMU 2 includes circuitry to selectively connect inmate phones with outside lines to selectively monitor and record the connection and to generate appropriate voice instructions or prompts to the inmate and or the outside call recipient 10
11. within more than one institution 8 The method of claim 6 wherein the telephone number is associated with a first telephone and the first telephone has been forwarded to a second telephone having another tele phone number such that the telephone call is established with the second telephone and wherein the call blocking 20 25 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 12 instruction blocks future telephone calls to the telephone number associated with the first telephone 9 The method of claim 6 further comprising storing the call blocking instruction for the telephone number in a data repository 10 The method of claim 6 further comprising identifying a calling party to a destination party associated with the telephone number prior to inserting the call blocking message 11 A method of managing telephonic communications provided by an institutional telephone system comprising a local exchange in an institution the method comprising determining if a calling party has been blocked from calling a first telephone number before placing a call to the first telephone number outside the institutional telephone system s local exchange calling the first telephone number to establish a telephone connection if the calling party has been determined to have not been blocked from calling the first telephone number and inserting call accepting options and a call blocking mes sage by the institutional telephony system into t
12. OHH 2 OINI NWI S 3009 WYO NOILVWMO NI 3IVHNI 26 NT41 310 he 9 J j US 6 560 323 B2 Sheet 4 of 5 May 6 2003 U S Patent 6 140d Jep IVINS e uV0g 35104 01 80133NN0 36b P T ISIN 3019 W 431531 WOVE 06 POIs 26 1081N02 Obb 0 09 HONOWHL 334 OCT 193130 1N3WW802 VIS N 13239 LISIQ b JIM o 99 INOL WIG 0333 A31 1V8 quvog JGp 100 V3NSNY OL Q 300 T JS PEN za 1S 009 9t NOWWOS 019 T 5081 _ PN au ALI xnv 09 4 ib we EH 097r TH VIS ogp 130 pgp 02 2b 2 32 VIS NI INOA 80123130 0N0089 130 SNI 19 13017 009009 pit lt U S Patent May 6 2003 Sheet 5 of 5 US 6 560 323 B2 TRUNK MANAGEMENT UNIT GEBOREN DATE DESTINATION NUMBER INMATE CAL LER GOES OFF ENFORCER SYSTEM PERFORMS 175 HOOK AND ENTERS DIGITS STA NDARD INMATE ACCOUNT REPRESENTING A PARAMETER CHECKS AND 28 PRE APPROVED DESTINATION VALIDATED CONNECTS CALL PHONE NUMBER amp PIN PRE APPROVED DESTINATION ani THE DIGITS TRANSMITTED 52 HIA AOE LS WHERE THE SYSTEM INTERPRETS THE DIGITS AS AN ACTION 10 IDENTI FY THE PPROVED PHONE NUMBER IN i WIES ACCOUN TO CH THE CALL WAS MADE PASSEN AN ALERT CODE TO IF CALL 1S FORWARDED DESTINATION PARTY FORWARDS DESTINATION PARTY AT THE CALL USING 3 WAY PRE APPROVED PHONE NUMBER CALLING OR C
13. ONFERENCE RECEIVES Ya CE ee WHICH CALLING TO ANOTHER 33 THE SYSTEM W tt DESTINATION NUMBER RECOGNIZE AS BEING A PHONE NUMBER WHICH THE INMATE S BLOCKED FROM MAKING FURTHER CALL ATTEMPTS 3 REPORT AS BEING BLOCKED AS AN ACTION TAKEN BY A CALLED THE PARTY DETERMINES THAT THEY DO NOT WANT T BE CALLED BY THAT PN NUMBER AGAIN PARTY NEW PARTY RECEIVES CALL THE PARTY ENTER GOT U DIGIT AND DETERMINES THAT THEY CODE RU d KEY PAD WANT TO 1 DISCONTINUE THE CURRENT CALL AND OR 2 PREVENT CALLER FROM CALLING THEM AGAIN F IG 5 US 6 560 323 B2 1 COMPUTER BASED METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING MONITORING RECORDING AND REPORTING TELEPHONE ACCESS This is a continuation of application Ser No 08 510 327 filed Aug 2 1995 U S Pat No 5 655 013 which is a continuation of application Ser No 08 229 517 filed Apr 19 1994 now abandoned FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to the fields of telecommunications and penal institution management More particularly the invention relates to a computer based method and apparatus for controlling monitoring recording and reporting access to outside telephone lines in a controlled institutional environment such as a prison mili tary base hospital school business or government organi zation BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Generally the need to control access to outside telephone
14. ROOM INMATE TELEPHONES OTHER PUBLICATIONS Bahl L A Maximum Likelihood Approach to Continuous Speech Recovery Readings in Speech Recognition Ed A Waibel and K Lee Morgan Kaufmann Publishers pp 308 319 IEEE 1983 Batten A Personal Communications Service and the Intel ligent Network British Telecommunications Engineering vol 9 pp 88 91 Aug 1990 Lee K Large Vocabulary Speaker Independent Continu ous Speech Recognition Using HMM Carnegie Mellon University Department of Electrical and Computer Engi neering CMU CS 88 148 Apr 1988 System 20 Nov 1992 Telematic ConQuest III Intimate Telephone System Nov 1992 LazerVoice Digital Recording System Inmate Services 1997 98 Schlumberger Technologies Inc LazerVoice STIL V0222 LazerVoice User s Manual Version 2 22 LazerPhone User Reference Manual LazerPhone Inmate Telephone System Users Manual 1998 Schlumberger Technologies Inc Global Tel Link Lazer Phone User s Manual Version 1 0 LazerPhone Powerful Performance Uncompromising Stan dards 1998 LazerPhone Technical Manual System Overview Primary Examiner Fan Tsang Assistant Examiner Roland G Foster 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Fenwick amp West LLP 57 ABSTRACT A method and apparatus for managing institutional tele phone activity utilizes a computer control unit to control a trunk management unit which connects institutional tele phones to outs
15. b Ground start relay 47f connects a ground start circuit to the ring wire of outside lines 48a and 485b to start ground start type lines A line relay 48 switches outside line 42b between a central office main line 48a and a central office auxiliary line 48b In addition to the channel circuitry described above TMU 2 is controlled by a microprocessor 49a which interfaces with a watchdog timer 49b and with a memory 49c channel I O 49d miscellaneous I O 49e and dual serial ports 49f via data or so called glue logic 49g TMU 2 also includes a jack tester circuit 49 1 and connectors 49 and 49j to answer and voice boards respectively The voice board contains a plurality of integrated CODECS preferably two per TMU channel as well as circuitry needed to permit CCU control of the CODECs including I O circuitry and voice data buffers Referring now to FIG 5 the method of connecting an inmate call can now be discussed TMU 2 continuously US 6 560 323 B2 9 monitors the inmate telephones 1 To place a call in step 50 an inmate picks up a phone and enters two numbers in any order established by the facility 1 his her personal iden tification number PIN and 2 the number to be called TMU 2 forwards both numbers to CCU 3 which in step 51 queries the inmate s account to check whether 1 there are sufficient funds in the inmate s debit account to make the call unless the call is a collect call 2 the particular
16. d be highly desirable to provide an institutional tele phone system that automatically prohibits inmates from attempting to call certain outside persons Moreover it would also be highly desirable to provide a method and apparatus for allowing a recipient of an undesired call from an inmate to easily and automatically prohibit all future calls from that particular inmate or from all inmates generally Still another concern in correctional institutions is the regulation of access to telephone systems For various security and management reasons it often desirable to restrict a given inmate s telephone access to particular phones calling times and to limit the length of calls number of calls and number of calls to the same number Also to enhance security and discipline it should be pos sible to instantaneously revoke an inmate s calling privileges or to otherwise modify the extent of a particular inmate s calling privileges Correctional institutions also typically wish to monitor and or record outgoing calls Inmate to attorney calls however cannot legally be monitored or recorded Moreover certain inmates those who represent particular security risks deserve live monitoring as opposed to mere recording Thus it would be highly desirable to have a system which automatically initiates the appropriate moni toring and or recording depending upon the identity of the inmate placing a call and the recipient of the call i e attorn
17. ed calling the telephone number associated with the des tination party outside the institution identifying the institutional caller to the destination party and providing the destination party with call accepting options and call blocking directions wherein the call blocking directions describe how to block future calls from an institutional caller set that comprises at least one of the institutional caller at least a portion of calling parties within the institution or at least a portion of calling parties from within more than one institution 2 The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving a control code from the destination party while the institutional telephone is blocked and determining in response to the received control code whether to prohibit the institutional caller from calling the destination party in the future 3 The method of claim 2 wherein the received control code comprises a sequence of dual tone multi frequency DTMF tones and wherein determining whether to pro hibit the institutional caller from calling the destination party in the future comprises matching the received DTMF tones to a predetermined DTMF control code sequence for call blocking 4 The method of claim 3 wherein the predetermined DTMF control code sequence for call blocking comprises at least one of GOTU or 4688 5 The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving a control code from the destination party while the institu
18. ey or non attorney Likewise it may be desirable that calls to certain numbers are to be monitored live while others need only be recorded Because the message content of inmate to attorney calls cannot be legally recorded or monitored such calls can serve as a conduit for the inmate s illegal telephone activity Therefore it would be highly desirable to have a system which could passively that is without in any way moni toring or recording what is actually being said monitor US 6 560 323 B2 3 inmate to attorney calls to ensure that 1 the only two people speaking on the line are the inmate and attorney and or 2 no DTMF tones rapid line impedance changes off hook conditions or voltage spikes appear on the line Techniques for voice identification are known i e U S Pat Nos 4 993 068 entitled UNFORGEABLE PER SONAL IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM and 5 150 357 entitled INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM both incorporated herein by reference but have not been previously used in penal telecommunications applications SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In light of the above one object of the invention is a method of managing telephone activity in an institutional environment to achieve improved security and reduced cost Another object of the invention is a system adapted to perform such improved institutional telephone management Still another object of the invention is a method and apparatus for allowing outside recipients of ca
19. features of the TMU provide security and monitor ing functions The invention provides three levels of monitoring any or all of which may be active for any given call The first level is live call voice monitoring where the prison officials actively listen to a live call The second level is call recording The TMU can be programmed to enable associated recording equipment to record telephone calls The third level is passive line monitoring where the TMU detects for example DTMF tones off hook conditions voltage spikes and or sudden line impedance changes in order to thwart attempts at unauthorized three way calling call conferencing call transferring call for warding or re dialing via various alternate common carriers many of whom now offer 1 800 or local telephone number e g 950 access numbers Also care is taken to avoid disrupting calls that do not represent security breaches by preventing false triggering of the above passive line monitoring features For example with respect to DTMF tone blocking the TMU will look for any additional digits entered by an institutional caller such as an inmate to prevent the inmate from redialing to other telephone num bers that may not be authorized However to prevent talkoff whereby the normal telephone conversation can falsely trigger a disconnect signal because the TMU may interpret the conversation as DTMF dialing the TMU can be set to look at the number
20. fication would obviate this problem as the voice would be used to validate entry into any inmate account BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The detailed description below describes the preferred embodiments of the invention and is intended to be read in conjunction with the set of drawings in which FIG 1 is a block diagram showing the major components of a preferred apparatus including a plurality of institutional telephones a computer control unit CCU and a trunk management unit TMU FIG 2 is a block diagram showing the software and firmware architecture of the apparatus FIG 3 is an exemplary screen showing an institutional user s calling privileges and activity FIG 4 is a block diagram of a TMU and FIG 5 is a flow diagram depicting the operation of the call qualification process including the invention s prospective call screening or GOTU feature DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The preferred embodiment s will be described with ref erence to prison based call management This however should not be viewed as limiting since the invention is also applicable in other institutional settings such as military bases schools mental institutions and business organiza tions 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 Referring now to FIG 1 a call management system manages calls from a plurality of inmate telephones 1 A TMU 2 controls the connection of
21. for example state You are receiving a call from name of inmate at the name of institution If you wish to be connected please press a certain digit now and the call will be connected in number seconds If you wish to prohibit future calls from name of inmate or anyone at name of institution please press G O T U or 4688 Advantageously the pronunciation of inmate s name is stored once in the database and retrieved each time the message is generated This eliminates the risk of an inmate interjecting a short message in place of his her name The pronunciation of an inmate s name may be synthesized from well known commercially available electronic phoneme sets or may be reproduced from a voice data file created by the actual inmate or administrator For example when an inmate first enters a corrections facility he she may be instructed to recite his her name into a voice recorder via a microphone Then that voice can be stored permanently into a file associate with that inmate s calling account and or PIN and can be automatically replayed as desired In step 53 the destination party is allowed a specified time to determine whether to accept the call hang up or press GOTU to invoke the invention s prospective call screening feature During this period TMU 2 monitors the line and transmits any received DTMF tones to CCU 3 If in step 53 the destination party presses GOTU depicted as step 54 CCU 3 stores a record in t
22. g total blocking based on the called party s telephone number blocking during particular time periods blocking based on the class of the crime associated with a particular inmate etc In accordance with another aspect of the invention an apparatus for managing telephone activity in an institution includes a plurality of institutional telephones located within the institution a trunk management unit TMU for selectively connecting the institutional telephones to one or more outside telephone lines wherein the TMU includes means for decoding DTMF tones generated by the institu tional telephones or received from the outside telephone lines and a computer control unit CCU coupled to the TMU for controlling the connection of the institutional telephones to the outside telephone lines based upon DTMF tone s received from the outside telephone lines A database associated with the CCU contains information regarding the calling privileges of each person within the institution In a preferred embodiment the TMU prior to connecting the call plays an announcement to the called party identifying the institution and caller along with the options available to the called party In response the called party may enter the announced DTMF tone sequence preferably GOTU which modifies a record in the database thereby prohibiting the caller and or other similarly situated prospective callers from calling the called party in the future Other
23. he telephone connection that provides call blocking direc tions 12 The method of claim 11 further comprising receiving a call blocking instruction for the first telephone number for blocking the calling party from placing calls to the first telephone number 13 The method of claim 11 wherein the first telephone number has been forwarded to a second telephone number the method further comprising receiving a call blocking instruction for the first telephone number from a destination party associated with the second telephone number 14 A system of managing telephonic communications provided by an institutional telephone system comprising a local exchange in an institution the system by comprising a trunk management unit associated with the institution configured to receive a first telephone number associ ated with a destination party outside the institutional telephone system s local exchange call the destination party to establish a telephone connection insert call accepting options and a call blocking instruction mes sage into the telephone connection and receive the call accepting options and a tone based call blocking instruction for a caller set from the destination party and a computerized control unit configured to receive the call blocking instruction for the first telephone number from the trunk management unit and prepare a call blocking directive for the first telephone number that blocks future calls placed
24. he inmate s account that prohibits the inmate from calling the destination party in the future and optionally alerts prison officials of any future attempts to place such calls Optionally step 54 may also prompt the destination caller as to whether he she would like to prohibit all future calls from inmates within the particular prison or 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 any associated prison employing the same or similar call management technology Also the destination caller may be prompted by any number of other alternatives For example the called party may be instructed to press 1 to reject all future calls from that inmate press 2 to reject all future calls from that prison press 3 to generate a busy signal to the inmate in that event the calling party inmate would hear a busy signal in his her earpiece press 4 to state that The number you have dialed has been disconnected press 5 to enter certain times of the day or dates to block calls from this inmate in the future and so forth Also the called party can be given the phone number of the prison telephone system service bureau so that previously issued instructions to block calls from particular inmates or facilities can be erased In any event the called party s response is trans mitted to CCU 2 If the response represents a desire to prohibit calls from all inmates CCU 2 records a global calling
25. ide telephone lines The computer control unit contains a database for storing the calling privileges and restrictions of institutional users and for recording calling transactions made by the users The computer control unit implements a prospective call screening feature whereby outside recipients of undesired calls from the institution may enter a code that directs the computer control unit to prohibit similar calls in the future 22 Claims 5 Drawing Sheets woi ic dd 55952227 RR ABB 229222202 I I I I t I INMATE TELEPHONES 299997727 e w m e ae pm t 1 1 I I t 1 I I 1 l 1 L ADMINISTRATIVE TERMINALS COMPUTER PRINTER US 6 560 323 B2 Page 2 U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 5 311 589 A 5 1994 Bennett et al 4 054 756 A 10 1977 Comella et al 5 319 702 A 6 1994 Kitchin et al 379 89 aris Ie e sau 5 325 427 A 6 1994 Dighe 4 188 508 A 2 1980 Rogers et al 379 189 RE 4310726 A 1 1982 Asmuth 379 207 5 327 489 7 1994 Anderson et al 4 518 825 A 5 1985 Brinkhoff et al 5 329 578 A 7 1994 Brennan et al 4 550416 A 12 1985 Theis etal _ 5 345 595 A 9 1994 Johnson et al 4 602 129 A 7 1986 Matthews 1 5 351 287 A 9 1994 Bhattacharyya et al 379 03 02 R 9 1987 Freudberg et al 5 355 403 A 10 1994 Richardson Jr et al 4726 057 2 1988 Doerry RD 5 375 161 12 1994
26. individual inmate tele phones for example 1a to outside telephone lines 8 and electronically monitors connected calls A TMU 2 can optionally contain and or be connected to external voice messaging or voice synthesis equipment to facilitate fea tures such as over the phone voice prompting voice mail or any voice activated responsive or interactive telephone feature For example an inmate could enter his her PIN into a telephone 1 keypad and then access his her account In turn voice equipment associated with or contained within the TMU could inform the inmate of the exact balance available in his her account for future telephone calls Additionally the inmate could ascertain how much any prior telephone call has cost and further could dial an intended telephone call and ascertain how much that call will cost for the first time period e g the first minute or find out how many minutes the inmate can be connected to that telephone number given the cost of that call and the amount remaining in the inmate s account all prior to actually completing the call and becoming obligated to pay for it Obviously for debit based systems inmate calls will not be placed in the event that sufficient funds are not available Further if during a call connection inmate funds become nearly exhausted a warning tone could inform the inmate of that condition so that the inmate can terminate the conversation and take appropriate steps to reple
27. ling a first telephone number outside the institution call placement means for calling the first telephone num ber associated with a destination parry outside the institutional telephone system s local exchange to establish a telephone connection and call blocking message means for inserting a call blocking message into the telephone connection that provides call blocking directions to a called party associated with the first telephone number 19 The system of claim 18 further comprising call blocking instruction receiving means for receiving a call blocking instruction for the first telephone number 20 The system of claim 18 wherein the first telephone number has been forwarded to a second telephone number the system further comprising Un 25 14 call blocking instruction receiving means for receiving a call blocking instruction for the first telephone number from a destination party associated with the second telephone number 21 A method of managing telephone activity provided by an institutional telephone system comprising a local exchange in an institution the method comprising identifying an institutional caller who wishes to place an outside call to a destination party outside the institu tional telephone system s local exchange blocking the institutional caller and while the institutional caller s line remains blocked calling the destination party providing the identity of the institutional caller to the
28. lls from an institution to decide in advance of connecting the call whether to accept the given call and whether to block calls from that person and or others within the institution or related institutions in the future and optionally whether to indicate to the inmate that the call has been either tempo rarily or permanently blocked by a particular party includ ing the prison administration or the actual party called by the inmate or that the number called by the inmate can not be reached for any number of reasons as established by the prison administration or the actual party called by the inmate Yet another object of the invention is a method and apparatus for passively monitoring a telephone connection to detect security breaches A still further object of the invention is an institutional telephone management system wherein the parameters that control the operation of the system as well as the records of system activity are stored in a central database thereby permitting simple customization of system operation gen eration of reports and monitoring of status In accordance with one aspect of the invention a method of managing telephone activity in an institution includes the steps of 1 identifying an institutional caller the calling party who wishes to place an outside call to an outside recipient the called party 2 blocking the institutional caller and while the institutional caller s line earpiece and or
29. making a call from an institution telephone an individual must enter his PIN The telephone service provider is then able to deliver to the institution an end of the month telephone bill which lists in addition to the cost of each call the PIN or name of the individual who made the call From this information the institution can then collect reimbursement from individuals for the costs of certain calls While this system of end of the month call accounting functions reasonably effectively in a business like environment it does not work well in a penal institution The reason is that inmates show little concern for phone bills they can t afford to pay Thus the institution is often forced to absorb the costs of phone calls by its delinquent inmates Moreover the fact that account balances are only computed periodically i e every month week or even every day permits the inmate to accrue large uncollectible phone bills before his access to the phones can be terminated 10 15 20 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 Traditionally penal institutions have addressed this problem by restricting inmates to collect calls only This however still provides the inmates with relatively unlimited access to the outside world leaving open numerous opportunities for fraudulent and criminal activity as explained below Therefore in a penal environment it is highly desirable to regulate phone access on an individual pa
30. nd at a particular time Because prison administrators may not wish to charge inmates or in the case of collect calls called parties for certain calls for example calls the administrator deems incomplete it is critical that adminis trators have the ability to verify actual telephone commu nications Incomplete telephone calls may include for example busy signals calls that do not go through calls that are not answered as distinct from calls that reach answering machines which may be deemed complete etc Thus if an inmate or a called party subsequently claims that a particular telephone communication never occurred e g a busy signal was reached the called party never answered or no voices were spoken at all the prison administer can retrieve the voice verification record to evaluate whether US 6 560 323 B2 7 e g a credit is due telephone system repair is required or whether claims that certain calls were incomplete are false Referring now to FIG 2 CCU 3 is preferably a 486 personal computer or larger super mini type computer configured to operate under a suitable operating system such as UNIX System V Of course any number of operating systems will be suitable for the purpose of the present invention In addition to the operating system a database management system DBMS such as ORACLE which includes a structured query language SQL interface is used to store system configuration and
31. nish his her account Such warning tones could be made possible by a real time call cost monitoring system that compares inmate call costs and inmate account balances while each call is in progress A serial interface card 4 digitally interfaces TMU 2 to a CCU 3 one or more administrative terminals 5a b and via data modems 6a b to a remote terminal 7 Of course remote terminals 7 administrative terminals 5 and CCUs 3 can be connected via so called dedicated data telephone line services obviating the need for actual modems 6 TMU 2 communicates bi directionally with CCU 3 In one direction CCU 3 directs TMU 2 to connect record passively monitor and terminate calls and to download and or play prerecorded messages to an inmate or outside call recipient In the other direction TMU 2 monitors the real time status i e off hook DTMF tones voltage spikes and rapid impedance changes of institutional and outside telephone lines In addition TMU 2 can provide digitized voice samples to CCU 3 in order to record messages such as the inmate s name and to support biometric voice verification or monitoring functions Optionally TMU 2 or other comparable apparatus could be configured to provide digitized voice samples to for example CCU 3 for each call made whereby such samples are sufficient in length to provide verification that the inmate indeed participated in a conversation with a particular called party on a particular date a
32. o drives a voice out central office line 45c to play messages to outside line 42b A central office voice input line 47b connects to the coder portion of the CODEC circuit to support message recording voice monitoring and or verification functions Optionally voice in station 42c is used to record the name of an inmate Also optional answer board line 47g is used to detect called party answer conditions by detecting the presence or loss of call progress tones e g ringing busy special information tones SITs etc A hold circuit 46 is used to interact with the outside caller during the call qualification process during which the sta tion input line 40 is switched to local line 42a A hold relay 46a selectively connects hold circuit 46 to outside line 42b A DTMF generator 46c preferably common to all channels of the TMU is controlled by CCU 3 to for example place an outside call to a requested number Hold circuit 46 interfaces with DTMF receiver 44 to detect tones generated by the outside caller during the call qualification process The hold circuit 46 with its associated relay 46d can also pass audio information directly to the monitor circuit 43 as desired via audio feed through line 46b The hold circuit 46 can also be used for dial pulse dialing to the central office Line current detector 47a preferably implemented using an opto isolator ring detector 47e and tip ground detector 47d monitor the status of outside line 42
33. of digits dialed within a specified time period e g six 6 digits within a fifteen 15 second time period or any variation of the two parameters and thereby determine whether the audio information is indicative of unauthorized DTMF redialing or just a normal speech or voice pattern In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention all calls are passively monitored and all calls that can be legally recorded i e all but inmate to attorney calls are recorded At any time prison officials can selec tively invoke live monitoring to listen in on any call in progress except an inmate to attorney call System alarms which trigger any time a particular inmate places a call or calls a certain person allow officials to determine when live US 6 560 323 B2 5 call monitoring is appropriate Likewise the telephone sys tem of the present invention can be programmed to default in any manner For example the system can be set to place only those telephone calls that are among a preapproved list of telephone numbers Conversely the system can be set to place all telephone calls except those that are among a list of restricted telephone numbers Optionally the telephone sys tem of the present invention can include speed dialing whereby upon entering a PIN for example an inmate can enter 11 followed by the key In that case the prison administrator may have established that 11 is the speed dialing seq
34. restriction in the database associated with the par ticular institution and if appropriate transmits the restric tion to other related institutions via a computer network Step 55 handles forwarded calls in a similar manner Thus the GOTU feature serves to blocks calls from inmates based on the number that the inmate has dialed either by entering that number to a list of restricted numbers or by deleting that number from a list of preapproved numbers depending upon how the administrator has configured the inmate telephone system In any event the inmate will lose access to that telephone number in the future based on the fact that the called party has entered the GOTU 4688 keypad sequence Optionally the GOTU feature can also be con figured to control the costs of collect calls accepted by the destination party In that event the destination party could for example in response to a voice prompt enter a dollar value limit corresponding to the maximum permissible cost of the current inmate call As well any series of warning tones could be established to inform both parties that the call is approaching the dollar limit at which point the call could be terminated or alternatively the destination party given the opportunity to waive or extend the preset limit In light of the above one can appreciate how the GOTU feature of the present invention effectively eliminates the possibility of telephone harassment Advantageously the
35. son et al 5187740 A 2 1993 Swaim et al 5 960 064 A 9 1999 Foladare et al 5 200 995 A 4 1993 Gaukel et al E d on 5 222 420 A 6 1993 McLeod et al iren h 10 0000 es et al 5 229 764 A 7 1993 Matchett et al dia bi ool ean 5 276 731 A 1 1994 Arbel et al 199 cherer 5 305 312 A 4 1994 Fornet et al 5 309 505 A 5 1994 Szlam et al cited by examiner US 6 560 323 B2 Sheet 1 of 5 May 6 2003 U S Patent u3iNIUd U3LfidN0 m NOLLVJOT 310N3U Quv 191035 10d LLVUW CIVNOLLdO WAISAS JOVSSIW 3910A d d 4 q lt lt K I l Em wo S3NOHd3 131 3 wu 101440 1 N39 S3NOHd313L 0781 31VHNI 0l 4 4 d 4 lt lt lt U S Patent May 6 2003 Sheet 2 of 5 US 6 560 323 B2 OT SOL REPORT SOFTWARE WRITER SQL MENU SQL FORMS ORACLE DBMS ORACLE INTERFACE REALTIME CONTROL TMU FIRMWARE UNIX OPERATING SYSTEM FIG 2 US 6 560 323 B2 Sheet 3 of 5 May 6 2003 U S Patent 3901939201511 Inno tse JLYWNI 3HJ 30 W38WfIN 93151939 JHL 000S1d 1VNIWH3I 139NV9 81 1WWO CJ NN N 3 d 13H 13 bf O N f dN N Q N 18086 bbb 10 q N 1819 118 QUHO ALLY 1870 dAl u3gnN 3NOld SU38NQN 3NOHd cO IONE bee iNOS 16 930 20 31VQ AYINI 30 16 230 00 318VN3 N STIVO ANIA N 1 300 010915 8 XOSTYN VN LIND ONIAN 5 082681 95370 331 W j l ANOHd
36. status information An SQL forms generator provides access to the stored configuration and status information An SOL menu program allows users to easily navigate the database system An SQL report writer is used to generate reports of calling activity or other system usage TMU firmware controls the operation of TMU 2 TMU interface software in CCU 3 is configured to manage com munication between TMU 2 and CCU 3 ORACLE interface software provides a simple menu based interface to field users such as correctional officers and management officials Real time control software manages the real time activity of the system and responds to communications from TMU 2 and user inputs from CCU 3 or terminals 5a b and 7 From an administrator user perspective the CCU soft ware supports the following general functions 1 establishment and configuration of individual inmate data and monetary accounts 2 checking of inmate debit i e paid in advance accounts 3 setting of global i e institution wide and individual restrictions on telephone access 4 real time monitoring of inmate telephone calls and alerts based on call content security breaches etc along with the ability to cut off inmate calls individu ally or globally 5 storing and reporting of detailed inmate call details and account information and 6 storing and reporting of telephone usage data Referring now to FIG 3 an exemplary form 30 provides easy access to
37. tional telephone is blocked and determining in response to the received control code whether to prohibit future calls to the telephone number from at least one of a portion of callers within the institution or a portion of callers within a set of insti tutions 6 A method of managing telephonic communications provided by an institutional telephone system comprising a local exchange in an institution the method comprising placing a telephone call to a telephone number associated with a destination party outside the institutional tele phone system s local exchange by telephony equip ment associated with an institutional calling party inserting call accepting options and a call blocking mes sage into the telephone call to the telephone number by the telephony equipment that placed the telephone call the call blocking message including call blocking directions and receiving a tone based call blocking instruction in accor dance with the call blocking directions that requests blocking of future telephone calls to the telephone number for calls placed by an institutional caller set 7 The method of claim 6 wherein the call blocking instruction requests blocking of future telephone calls to the telephone number for calls placed by the institutional caller set comprising at least one of a calling party who placed the telephone call at least a portion of calling parties within the institution or at least a portion of calling parties from
38. uence for that inmate s mother Of course the system could be configured so that the inmates themselves can program the telephone system with speed dialing digits however a principal objective of speed dialing is to save time at the telephone thus making the telephones available to the largest number of inmates in the shortest possible time period In addition the invention may include biometric voice verification features The TMU for example may digitize a sample of the caller s voice The CCU then compares the digitized sample with a stored voice print to verify the identity of the caller Such biometric monitoring may also be used in a passive call monitoring mode wherein periodic samples of the caller s voice are provided to the CCU and checked against a list of authorized voice prints to ensure that no unauthorized callers are participating in a call and to ensure that inmates are not sharing or selling relatively liberal calling privileges associated with a particular PIN or inmate account to other inmates that are subject to more limited calling privileges The use of biometric voice veri fication or voice prints can prevent PIN abuse in general For example if a particular inmate with restricted calling privileges or no available funds attempted to force e g by threatening physical attack another inmate with relatively non restricted calling privileges or available funds to turn over his PIN biometric voice veri
39. y in advance basis and to immediately and automatically terminate an individual s phone access when his her paid up account reaches a zero balance Another problem in penal institutions is the inmates desire to make threatening or harassing phone calls to witnesses prosecutors police officers parol officers psychologists judges and the relatives and family of such persons Limiting the inmates access to collect calls only does not effectively address this problem since an inmate can easily identify himself to an operator as someone from whom the recipient would likely accept a collect call Rather one should at a minimum provide a means that permits a potential call recipient to identify the caller as an inmate before accepting the call whether that call is placed on a prepaid or collect basis Conventionally this is done by initially placing the inmate on hold and playing a prere corded message telling the recipient that a call has been placed from a correctional facility and that if the recipient wishes not to receive the call he she should hang up before the call is connected This approach mitigates but does not fully solve the harassment problem In particular it is still possible for an inmate to repetitively call an outside party even if the recipient hangs up after hearing the pre recorded message the harassing effect of receiving repetitive calls from inside the correctional institution remains Therefore it woul
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