Computer-based method and apparatus for controlling, monitoring
Contents
1. 7 1993 12 1993 1 1994 4 1994 5 1994 5 1994 6 1994 Brikerhoff et al Theis et al Matthews et al Freudberg et al Doerry et al Maybach et al Arbabzadah et al Billinger et al Kosich et al Shirakawa Grantland et al Bauer et al Carter et al Daudelin Bernard et al Kosich Hird et al Lo et al Hellwarth et al Kosich Poisenka et al Grover et al Novas Shipman Stern et al Kwon Morganstein Pugh et al Hopner et al Dowden et al Swaim et al Gaukel et al Jeffus et al McLeod et al Matchett et al Jang Arbel et al Fornek et al Szlam et al Bennett et al Kitchin et al 5 325 427 5 327 489 5 329 578 5 345 595 5 351 287 5 355 403 5 375 161 5 442 696 5 452 347 5 465 293 5 471 519 5 483 582 5 483 593 5 535 261 5 539 812 5 566 229 5 583 934 5 606 604 5 617 471 5 627 887 5 651 056 5 655 013 5 722 418 5 724 404 5 745 553 5 796 811 5 799 068 5 805 685 5 809 125 5 844 978 5 883 945 5 926 533 5 943 403 5 960 064 6 052 454 6 072 860 6 141 406 RE37 073 6 188 751 6 560 323 6 611 583 6 1994 7 1994 7 1994 9 1994 9 1994 10 1994 12 1994 8 1995 9 1995 11 1995 11 1995 1 1996 1 1996 7 1996 7 1996 10 1996 12 1996 2 1997 4 1997 5 1997 7 997 8 1997 3 1998 3 1998 4 1998 8 1998 8 1998 9 1998 9 1998 12 1998 3 1999 7 1999 8 1999 9 1999 4 2000 6 2000 10 2000 2 2001 B1 2 2001 B2 5 2003 B1 8 2003 mp p p p p gt gt gt p gt gt p gt gt gt gt2. Telephone System Users Manual 1998 1997 now Pat No 6 560 323 which is a continuation of application No 08 510 327 filed on Aug 2 1995 now Pat MUT M des ai oe Tel Link Lazer No 5 655 013 which is a continuation of application No One Seb s SESIOD a bs 08 229 517 filed on Apr 19 1994 now abandoned LazerPhone Powerful Performance Uncompromising Stan 51 Int Cl 3 00 9 95 1998 LazerPhone Technical M 1 System O cas 52 U S Cl aaa 379 188 379 199 379 049 er NORE CUCA Manua System Mverview 58 Field of Search 379 91 01 91 62 Primary Examiner Roland G Foster 379 112 143 144 145 101 108 189 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Fenwick amp West LLP 196 198 199 200 34 35 207 01 207 02 207 11 211 01 211 02 216 02 211 03 ABSTRACT 114 01 114 41 112 01 TA A method and apparatus for managing institutional tele 188 24 phone activity utilizes a computer control unit to control a 56 References Cited trunk management unit which connects institutional tele U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 3 851 121 A 11 1974 Marvin 4 001 513 A 1 1977 Naylor 4 002 848 A 1 1977 Stein 4 054 756 A 10 1977 Comella et al 4 188 508 A 2 1980 Rogers et al 4 310 726 A 1 1982 Asmuth 4 405 833 A 9 1983 Cave et al Continued EQUIPMENT LOCATED IN TELEPHONE ROOM H phones to outside telephone lines The computer control unit c
3. gt gt gt p gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt p gt gt gt p gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt Dighe Anderson et al Brennan et al Johnson et al Bhattacharyya et al Richardson Jr et al Fuller et al Lindberg et al Iglehart et al Chiller et al Howe et al Pugh et al Gupta et al Brown et al Kitchin et al Hou et al Zhou Rosenblatt Rogers et al Freedman Eting et al Gainsboro Bro Garcia et al Mirville et al McFarlen Kikinis et al McFarlen Gammino Reuss et al Richardson et al Gainsboro Richardson Jr et al Foladare et al Kek et al Kek et al Johnson Hammond Scherer Gainsboro Gainsboro US 6 920 209 B1 Sheet 1 of 5 Jul 19 2005 U S Patent 310033 300 0096 0092 06 z Shy 2 Ca b SIWNINUSL 3ALLVULTSININQV L2 u x XJ lt d 2 2 a lt w v 4 K 4 v v ee 530094313 S3NOHd3 13k 31VHNI TWId3s uiINIUd JOVSSIN 39104 391340 WaLN39 07131 01 U S Patent Jul 19 2005 Sheet 2 of 5 US 6 920 209 B1 OT SOFTWARE SQL MENU 501 FORMS ORACLE DBMS ORACLE INTERFACE REALTIME CON TROL TMU FIRMWARE UNIX OPERATING SYSTEM FIG 2 US 6 920 209 B1 Sheet 3 of 5 Jul 19 2005 U S Patent 9V 1938151 1N00 8 JLYWNI 3H1 30 438WRN 93151939 JHL U31N3 000519 lVNIW
4. 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 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 com
5. 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 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 pay 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 parole 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
6. re dialing via various alternate common carriers many of whom now offer 1 800 or local telephone number e g 4950 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 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 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 redialing or just a normal speech or voice pattern US 6 920 209 B1 5 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 t
7. telephone number by the telephony equipment that placed the telephone call the call blocking mes sage 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 11 The method of claim 10 wherein receiving a tone based call blocking instruction further comprises receiving DTMF tones 12 The method of claim 11 further comprising decoding the received DTMF tones by the telephony equipment associated with the calling party 13 The method of claim 12 further comprising compar ing the decoded DTMF tones to a predetermined DTMF control code sequence to determine whether to prohibit the institutional calling party from calling the destination party in the future 14 The method of claim 10 further comprising storing data representative of calling privileges of the institutional calling party in a database 15 The method of claim 10 wherein blocking the mouth piece of the telephony equipment is performed by a trunk management unit controlled by a microprocessor
8. 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 ie 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 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
9. U3I 1109 84 G3 NNJN 4 d13H 13 bf Q N 6695 0650 tt q N a ATIY N PINUS Q N legc bbb 10 G N 1819 118 ALLY ANT dAl YIWAN ANONG SUJAWNN 3NOHd 0 JONv vg JOVAQNY I peel 1809 16 230 20 310 AH1N3 313140 39H 16 230 00 318YN3 N STIV9 AN30 N 1 3000 v SA1YIS XOSTIYN LINN 066111981 537 331 N 31 3WYN JNOHd WWI S 3009 NOILVWYOINI 3IVHNI 06 Nf4I pIE 9 J i US 6 920 209 B1 Sheet 4 of 5 Jul 19 2005 U S Patent 6p STO Je 119183 2 09908 20104 OL YOLOINNOD 960 0 195 08 YaMSHY pas O T NVR 208 01 YOLOINNOD 0 931531 ov wow b m 26 1001007 PIA VIS 100 09 NI NONWOD Cb 3901 0 Qh wor ma 4 08 OL 390A m LEM EIN d 18089 Olp NC 35 310 rea ye 9p ALLY 00 4 LH ums 02777 a VIS ogy 1301098809 MI pyy 02 2b 0b ER 30b VIS NI IJONA 80123130 GNNOWD 130 9N13 ur T3011 LININ pie Lo U S Patent Jul 19 2005 Sheet 5 of 5 US 6 920 209 B1 TRUNK MANAGEMENT UNIT Ter DATE DESTINATION ALER NUMBER INMATE CALLER GOES OFF ENFORCER SYSTEM PERFORMS ITS HOOK AND ENTER PIGH STANDARD INMATE ACCOUNT REPRESENTING A PARAMETER CHECKS AND IF PRE APPROVED DESTINATION VALIDATED CONNECTS CALL TO PHONE NUMBER am
10. United States Patent US006920209B1 12 10 Patent No US 6 920 209 B1 Gainsboro 45 Date of Patent Jul 19 2005 54 COMPUTER BASED METHOD AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING u o MONITORING RECORDING AND Bahl L A Maximum Likelihood Approach to Continuous REPORTING TELEPHONE ACCESS Speech Recovery Readings in Speech Recognition Ed A Waibel and K Lee Morgan Kaufmann Publishers pp 75 Inventor Jay L Gainsboro Framingham MA S E Mp PRERE US atten A Personal Communications Service and the Intel 05 ligent Network British Telecommunications Engineering 73 Assignee T Netix Inc Carrollton TX US vol 9 pp 85 91 Aug 1990 Lee K Large Vocabulary Speaker Independent Continu Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this ous Speech Recognition Using HMM Carnegie Mellon patent is extended or adjusted under 35 University Department of Electrical and Computer Engi U S C 154 b by 136 days neering CMU CS 88 148 Apr 1988 System 20 Nov 1992 21 Appl No 10 327 248 Telematic ConQuest III Intimate Telephone System Nov 1992 22 Filed Dec 19 2002 LazerVoice Digital Recording System Inmate Services 1997 98 Schlumberger Technologies Inc LazerVoice Related U S Application Data STIL V0222 LazerVoice User s Manual Version 2 22 LazerPhone User Reference Manual 63 Continuation of application No 08 904 784 filed on Aug 1 LazerPhone Inmate
11. 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 pre recorded 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 would 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
12. 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 10 15 20 25 30 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 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 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 individual inmate tele phones for example 1 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 c
13. bed 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 from an institution comprising receiving a telephone number associated with a destina tion party outside the institution over an institutional telephone from an institutional caller for placing a telephone call to the destination party and US 6 920 209 B1 11 blocking a mouthpiece of the institutional telephone and while the institutional telephone is blocked calling the telephone number associated with the des tination party identifying the institutional caller to the destination party and providing the destination party with call blocking directions wherein the call blocking directions describe how to block future calls from an institu tional caller set that comprises at least one of the institutional caller a portion of calling parties within the institution or a portion of calling parties from within more than one institution 2 The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the insti tutional caller to the destination party further comprises providing a name of the institutional caller 3 The method of claim 1 wherein providing the desti nation party with call bloc
14. 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 and 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 US 6 920 209 B1 7 a particular telephone communication never occurred e g a b
15. ce 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 US 6 920 209 B1 9 Referring now to FIG 5 the method of connecting an inmate call can now be discussed TMU 2 continuously 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 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
16. d as U S Pat No 5 655 013 which is a continuation of application Ser No 08 229 517 filed Apr 19 1994 which was aban doned The above applications are incorporated by reference in their entirety 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 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 an
17. d 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 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 10 15 20 25 30 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 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
18. e 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 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
19. herein 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 verification 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
20. ime a particular inmate places a call or calls a certain person allow officials to determine when live 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 sequence 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 w
21. king directions further comprises providing the destination party with a voice message describing how to block future calls from the institutional caller set 4 The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving dual tone multi frequency tones from the desti nation party the DTMF tones indicative of whether to prohibit the institutional caller from calling the destination party in the future 5 The method of claim 4 further comprising decoding the received DTMF tones by the institutional telephone system 6 The method of claim 5 further comprising comparing the decoded DTMF tones to a predetermined DTMF control code sequence 7 The method of claim 1 further comprising storing data representative of calling privileges of the institutional caller in a database 8 The method of claim 1 wherein blocking of the institutional telephone is performed by a trunk management unit controlled by a microprocessor 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 12 9 The method of claim 1 wherein providing the desti nation party with call blocking directions is performed by a computer system 10 A method of managing telephonic communications comprising placing a telephone call to a telephone number associated with a destination party by telephony equipment blocking a mouthpiece of the telephony equipment asso ciated with the institutional calling party inserting a call blocking message into the telephone call to the
22. line 40 is switched to local line 42a A hold relay 46a selectively connects hold circuit 46 to outside line 42b 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 42b Ground start relay 47f connects a ground start circuit to the ring wire of outside lines 48a and 485 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 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 voi
23. 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 also 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
24. mercially 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 the 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 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 destination caller as to whether he she would like to prohibit all future calls from inmates within the particular prison or 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
25. mpt menu of prohibiting any future calls from the particular 10 15 20 25 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 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 sequence Any multitude of call prohibitions can be estab lished as to any particular inmate by the prison administra tion or the called party including 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 th
26. 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 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 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 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 41 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
27. ontains 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 15 Claims 5 Drawing Sheets PRINTER E 727959727 z US 6 920 209 B1 Page 2 4 518 825 4 559 416 4 602 129 4 696 031 4 726 057 4 782 516 4 794 642 4 799 255 4 815 120 4 885 765 4 896 348 4 899 375 4 901 341 4 922 519 4 922 520 4 024 488 4 933 966 4 933 967 4 935 956 4 937 862 4 993 068 5 023 869 5 023 906 5 033 088 5 054 059 5 063 593 5 109 405 5 131 024 5 150 357 5 163 083 5 187 740 5 200 995 5 210 789 5 222 120 5 229 764 5 274 698 5 276 731 5 305 312 5 309 505 5 311 589 5 319 702 U S PATENT DOCUMENTS gt gt p gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt gt 5 1985 12 1985 7 1986 9 1987 2 1988 11 1988 12 1988 1 1989 3 1989 12 1989 1 1990 2 1990 2 1990 5 1990 5 1990 5 1990 6 1990 6 1990 6 1990 6 1990 2 1991 6 1991 6 1991 7 1991 10 1991 11 1991 4 1992 7 1992 9 1992 11 1992 2 1993 4 1993 5 1993 6 1993
28. ould 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 replenish 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
29. p PIN PRE APPR VED GEST NATION PARTY THE DIGITS ARE TRANSMITTED 52 vie FOND Cis AND RECEIVED THE ENFORCER SYSTEM IF CALL 15 FORWARDED WHERE THE SISTE IDENTIFY THE ORIGINAL ROVED PHONE NUMBER 4 INNATE S en DESTINATION PARTY FORWARDS DESTINATION PARTY AT H THE CAL THE CALL USING 3 WAY PRE APPROVED PHONE NUMBER CODE Fo CALLING OR CONFERENCE a PH sa M PHONE NUMBER WHCH CE NATION NUMBER RECOGNIZE AS BEING A R PHONE NUNBER WHICH THE INMATE IS BLOCKED FROM MAKING FURTHER CALL ATTEMPTS REPORT THE HUMBER 25 THE PARTY DETERMINES THAT THEY OO WOT VANT TO BE CALLED NEN EY RCRD BY THAT PIN NUMBER AGAIN i NEW PARTY RECEIVES CALL THE PARTY ENTER GOT U DIGIT AND DETERMINES THAT THEY CODE INTO TELEPHONE KEY PAD WANT TO THEN HANGS UP 1 DISCONTINUE THE CURRENT CALL AND OR 2 PREVENT CALLER FROM CALLING THEM AGAIN f FIG 5 US 6 920 209 B1 1 COMPUTER BASED METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING MONITORING RECORDING AND REPORTING TELEPHONE ACCESS CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation of application Ser No 08 904 784 entitled Computer Based Method and Appa ratus for Controlling Monitoring Recording and Reporting Telephone Access filed Aug 1 1997 now U S Pat No 6 560 323 which is a continuation of application Ser No 08 510 327 filed Aug 2 1995 which was issue
30. phone 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 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 pro
31. spikes appear on the line Techniques for voice identification are known i e U S Pat No 4 993 068 entitled UNFORGEABLE PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM and U S Pat No 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 calls 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 tele
32. t 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 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 descri
33. 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 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 tha
34. 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 attorney or non attorney Likewise it may be desirable that US 6 920 209 B1 3 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 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
35. usy 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 e g a credit is due telephone system repair is required 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 status information An SQL forms generator provides access to the stored configuration and status information An SQL 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
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