Texas to install 4,000 new phones in prison facilities

The cost of calls from a prison has not been determined. Plans call for the vendor to install and manage the system and the state will get a portion of the revenue. The first $10 million each year from commissions generated by the calls is to go to the state Crime Victims Compensation Fund. Above the $10 million, 50 percent will go to the compensation fund and the other 50 percent to the state's General Fund.

Texas is believed to be one of the last states to install such a system in its prisons. Lyons said prison officials having telephones available will allow inmates to keep in touch with relatives.

"We also see it as an incentive for good behavior by a convict," she said. "Inmates who misbehave are put into a higher category of incarceration and won't have access to the phones. It will hopefully help with the problem of inmates using smuggled cell phones within the prison. Cell phones are considered contraband inside our prisons."

TDCJ officials expect to begin installing the phones no later than August.