Problems In The Court
Copyright 2011 Renegade Marketing Systems. Terms of use
What Our Clients Are Saying:
"After an officer was caught taking cash from an inmate in the booking room we installed a booking kiosk from EZ Card and Kiosk. It's made our booking process much faster and efficient and took the liability from us. Our facility is a 3 day holding facility only. My officers were constantly being called to the lobby to handle bonds. With the EZ Payment kiosk, now they just pay at the kiosk and pay automatically. This payment system is a game changer! "
Mitchell Huston, Aurora CO
“Our staff no longer need to collect, count, transport and
physically bank these funds. We've saved hundreds of man hours. Our new money management system is
actually an improved public service”.
In addition, the by-product of this technology is that the
public can deposit funds into this kiosk system through remote locations – home
computer, local library or other
remote
locations – family of inmates now have an easier way to get funds on inmates’
books."
Commander Bruce Haas, CO
EZ Card and Kiosk In The News!
SAN FRANCISCO -- The San Francisco Superior Court announced Monday that it's laying off more than 40 percent of its staff and shuttering 25 courtrooms because of budget cuts.
Presiding Judge Katherine Feinstein said the actions were necessary to close a $13.75 million budget deficit caused by state budget cuts. She said the cuts mean it will take many more hours to pay a traffic ticket in person, up to 18 months to finalize a divorce and five years for a lawsuit to go to trial.
"The civil justice system in San Francisco is collapsing," Feinstein said.
Some 200 of the court's 480 workers will be let go by Sept. 30, including 11 of 12 commissioners who preside over a variety of cases. And she said it could get worse if optimistic revenue projections don't materialize by January.
"The future is very, very bleak for our courts," Feinstein said at a Monday press conference. Feinstein said criminal cases would remain largely unaffected because of constitutional guarantees of speedy trials. Every other type of court, though, is facing significant cutbacks.
The San Francisco courts aren't the only courts facing cutbacks, only the most dramatic. The Judicial Council, which manages the judicial branch's budget, will decide Friday whether to cut funding of local courts by 8.8 percent or about $305 million.
Other courts are considering unpaid furloughs for workers, shorter hours for clerks and other cost-cutting measures. None are going as far as San Francisco, but the budget woes have caused discord within the judiciary.
The Alliance of California Judges was formed almost three years ago by judges unhappy with the Judicial Council's fiscal management. In particular, the Alliance is demanding administrators scrap plans for a new computer system projected to cost $2 billion to fully install state wide.
Instead, court administrators are proposing delaying the project for a year, which would save $100 million.
Get Out Of Jail Not Free Card
DURANGO (AP) - A tank of gas: $37. A night at the bars: $80. Bail for drunken driving: $750.
Not every trip to jail is planned. For those wild nights, there's a kiosk at the La Plata County jail where jailbirds can swipe a card and go free.
"It's just giving people a few more options," said Capt. Michael Slade with the Sheriff's Office. "I don't know why it is, but people just don't want to enjoy our hospitality if they can avoid it."
It used to be that prisoners had two options for posting bail: They could call a bail bondsman or arrange for a friend or family member to bring cash or a certified check to the jail.
Now prisoners can use a credit card or debit card to post bail.
People often have a credit or debit card when they are arrested, said Sgt. Holley Ezzell with the Sheriff's Office.
"We are seeing an increase in inmates coming in and using a credit card to bond themselves out," Ezzell said.
The kiosk was installed in August to relieve jail deputies from having to deal with large sums of money and allow them to focus more on inmates, Slade said.
Some bails cost $5,000 or more, which is a lot of cash to have on hand. And the more cash in hand, the greater the risk of it being lost or miscounted, Slade said.
Before installing the kiosks, deputies had to make bank runs twice a week. Now they go to the bank once every other week.
The kiosk also takes cash. It can hold up to 1,200 bills and accepts all denominations from $1 to $100 bills. It is owned by EZ Card & Kiosk LLC, which empties the machine twice a week.
The company did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Kiosk customers are charged a $10 service fee plus 7 percent of the bail amount. If the bail is more than $2,000, the $10 fee is waived.
By comparison, bondsmen typically keep 10 to 15 percent of the bail.
"The bondsmen were pretty upset about this to begin with, but we really haven't seen a decrease in the surety bonds," Ezzell said, referring to the promissory bonds inmates pay bondsmen if they can't afford the entire bail amount.
A bondsman for Bill May Bail Bonding, the largest bonding company in La Plata County, declined to comment for this story.
In addition to collecting bail fees, the kiosk allows inmates or family members to add money to an inmate's commissary fund. The commissary fund can be used to purchase a variety of items inside the jail, including food, clothing, stationery and hygiene products. The jail provides basics, but extras such as candy bars and shower shoes cost money.
The kiosk is similar to ATMs or credit card machines in the checkout line at grocery stores. It quickly verifies an account and charges the card holder. A camera records each transaction.
Waiting for a friend or family member to secure bail money can take hours or days; banks are closed on the weekends, and ATMs have preset limits ranging from $300 to $1,000.
Going through a bail bondsman can take 12 to 24 hours, whereas the kiosk is virtually instantaneous.
The kiosk has allowed more low-level offenders to go free sooner, Slade said.
"There are definitely people getting out right away who wouldn't have before," he said.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Presiding Judge Katherine Feinstein said the actions were necessary to close a $13.75 million budget deficit caused by state budget cuts. She said the cuts mean it will take many more hours to pay a traffic ticket in person, up to 18 months to finalize a divorce and five years for a lawsuit to go to trial.
"The civil justice system in San Francisco is collapsing," Feinstein said.
Some 200 of the court's 480 workers will be let go by Sept. 30, including 11 of 12 commissioners who preside over a variety of cases. And she said it could get worse if optimistic revenue projections don't materialize by January.
"The future is very, very bleak for our courts," Feinstein said at a Monday press conference. Feinstein said criminal cases would remain largely unaffected because of constitutional guarantees of speedy trials. Every other type of court, though, is facing significant cutbacks.
The San Francisco courts aren't the only courts facing cutbacks, only the most dramatic. The Judicial Council, which manages the judicial branch's budget, will decide Friday whether to cut funding of local courts by 8.8 percent or about $305 million.
Other courts are considering unpaid furloughs for workers, shorter hours for clerks and other cost-cutting measures. None are going as far as San Francisco, but the budget woes have caused discord within the judiciary.
The Alliance of California Judges was formed almost three years ago by judges unhappy with the Judicial Council's fiscal management. In particular, the Alliance is demanding administrators scrap plans for a new computer system projected to cost $2 billion to fully install state wide.
Instead, court administrators are proposing delaying the project for a year, which would save $100 million.
Get Out Of Jail Not Free Card
DURANGO (AP) - A tank of gas: $37. A night at the bars: $80. Bail for drunken driving: $750.
Not every trip to jail is planned. For those wild nights, there's a kiosk at the La Plata County jail where jailbirds can swipe a card and go free.
"It's just giving people a few more options," said Capt. Michael Slade with the Sheriff's Office. "I don't know why it is, but people just don't want to enjoy our hospitality if they can avoid it."
It used to be that prisoners had two options for posting bail: They could call a bail bondsman or arrange for a friend or family member to bring cash or a certified check to the jail.
Now prisoners can use a credit card or debit card to post bail.
People often have a credit or debit card when they are arrested, said Sgt. Holley Ezzell with the Sheriff's Office.
"We are seeing an increase in inmates coming in and using a credit card to bond themselves out," Ezzell said.
The kiosk was installed in August to relieve jail deputies from having to deal with large sums of money and allow them to focus more on inmates, Slade said.
Some bails cost $5,000 or more, which is a lot of cash to have on hand. And the more cash in hand, the greater the risk of it being lost or miscounted, Slade said.
Before installing the kiosks, deputies had to make bank runs twice a week. Now they go to the bank once every other week.
The kiosk also takes cash. It can hold up to 1,200 bills and accepts all denominations from $1 to $100 bills. It is owned by EZ Card & Kiosk LLC, which empties the machine twice a week.
The company did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Kiosk customers are charged a $10 service fee plus 7 percent of the bail amount. If the bail is more than $2,000, the $10 fee is waived.
By comparison, bondsmen typically keep 10 to 15 percent of the bail.
"The bondsmen were pretty upset about this to begin with, but we really haven't seen a decrease in the surety bonds," Ezzell said, referring to the promissory bonds inmates pay bondsmen if they can't afford the entire bail amount.
A bondsman for Bill May Bail Bonding, the largest bonding company in La Plata County, declined to comment for this story.
In addition to collecting bail fees, the kiosk allows inmates or family members to add money to an inmate's commissary fund. The commissary fund can be used to purchase a variety of items inside the jail, including food, clothing, stationery and hygiene products. The jail provides basics, but extras such as candy bars and shower shoes cost money.
The kiosk is similar to ATMs or credit card machines in the checkout line at grocery stores. It quickly verifies an account and charges the card holder. A camera records each transaction.
Waiting for a friend or family member to secure bail money can take hours or days; banks are closed on the weekends, and ATMs have preset limits ranging from $300 to $1,000.
Going through a bail bondsman can take 12 to 24 hours, whereas the kiosk is virtually instantaneous.
The kiosk has allowed more low-level offenders to go free sooner, Slade said.
"There are definitely people getting out right away who wouldn't have before," he said.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
