Securus Technologies prison communication company Dallas Texas

My cousin was committed to the Illinois Department of Corrections.  He filed out a phone request and I had already set up an account opened with $75.00 through Securus Tech.  They are a third party calling service used by prisons accross the countries.  After 6 weeks his phone request was approved.  The problem is that it was the wrong phone number.  This is not supossed to happen according to Securus.

We figured out in early May that he had the wrong phone number and he submitted a corrected phone request list.  Eight weeks later I am still waiting for his phone request sheet to be approved.  I have spoken extensively to the staff at the prison.  They have absolutely no control over anything other than getting the request form to the Securus person who shows up every Tuesday.  That was done on May 12th. It still has not been approved.

I spent 6 hours exhausting every option on Securus website from the automated phone number and the live chat.  I am convinced that the live chat consists of someone sitting at the other end of the computer filling in preapproved responses to my requests.  I was told that my loved one would have to speak directly to the Securus Liaison (not likely) at the facility.  He shows up once a week to pick up phone requests and is NEVER in population with the inmates.  I asked for a phone number to speak to a live person and was repeatedly referred to the automated number.  I explained my options on the automated number and the response was the same.  That is the number for a live person.

Finally after much frustration, I did a little research and figured out their headquarters are in Dallas, TX.  Therefore, a simple search of the Dallas yellow pages gave me their corporate phone number.  I called the corporate phone number and spoke to the customer service supervisor.  After an uninspired conversation with her in which she could not give me a single answer/suggestion/or help, she recommended that I be forwarded to her supervisor. 

Her supervisor called me back (shocker) and told me that there was no way to track where his request was and that as far as she knew, the Securus Liaison who picks up the phone requests is supossed to help with these problems.  I assured her he absolutely did not help with these problems as several of the staff at the facility and I were on a first name basis.  Her only recommendation at the end of the call was to have my loved one fill out a THIRD phone request paper and wait another 8-12 weeks for approval through Securus. 

By the time my phone number is approved, he will be released.  We have things we need to work out.  I am his financial and medical power of attorney and his parents estate is being settled.  Having to deal with all of this through snail mail is making it difficult for the executrex of the estate to settle things quickly.  He had a major heart attack and surgery 4 weeks ago and I am still unable to speak with him.  I am in the process of speaking with his physician at the hospital and getting his records, so I know exactly what happened.  He has little memory but liked the heart surgeon and does remember him saying he was within 2 minutes of death when he hit the surgeon's table.  Obviously, I would like to speak with him.

Everywhere I look on the internet, I see shady stuff about Securus.  It appears that they are untouchable because no one cares about this population or their families and the prisons are in bed with Securus making money off of the inmates families.  Securus is accountable to no one for their behavior.  They still have my $75.00 and I can't even close the account because it must be open when a request comes through.  Thankfully, I opened the account with my credit card so I won't have the difficulty others have getting my money back.  I will be able to call my credit card company and allow them to fight that battle rather than have to go through the horrible refund process for the money I doubt I will ever use.