County to Crack Down on Prank Calls From Jail

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has unanimously approved a motion to study the viability of a County Jail telephone system that would announce when collect and third party calls are being placed by inmates.

The action Tuesday was in response to reports by KCBS-TV, Channel 2, that inmates were using jail telephones to answer lost pet ads and victimizing the pet owners with false news of pets being found, said Cam Currier, press deputy to Supervisor Mike D. Antonovich, who proposed the motion. In some cases of the prank calls, the pet owners would accept the collect call charges, he said. In other cases, inmates fraudulently obtained permission to use the pet owners’ phone number to bill third party calls.

“The degree to which this occurs is overwhelming,” said Currier.

The county study will look at the cost of installing a telephone identifier system similar to one currently at state prisons, which announces a specific jail location when a collect or third party call is attempted. The study will also look at the feasibility of prosecuting inmates who place these calls.