Securus Technologies Granted Additional Eight (8) Patents for Law Enforcement and Corrections

DALLAS, TX October 18, 2017/Business Wire/ — Securus Technologies, a leading provider of civil and criminal justice technology solutions for public safety, investigation, corrections and monitoring, announced today that the United States Patent Office recently issued eight (8) new Securus patents, granted 40 patents in the last 4 years, and Securus has filed 100 new patent applications in the last 4 years. “We received word from the United States Patent Office that we were issued eight (8) additional new patents in the last six (6) months,” said Richard A. (“Rick”) Smith, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Securus Technologies, Inc. “That increases our total patent portfolio to 288, the largest in our industry by far. The entire rest of the industry has 176 patents compared to our 288 patents, so we lead by 112 patents – and that number is distributed among 7 different competitors.” Securus’ eight (8) new patents are outlined as follows:

Patent Number	Title	Description
9,621,713	Identical Conversation Detection Method and Apparatus	An automated system for detecting situations in which identical segments of conversation appear within two different recordings. The system automatically detects where within each of two audio recordings an identical conversation segment begins and ends, thus enabling detection of conversations where multiple prison Incarcerated Individuals participated in a conference call.
9,628,756	Emergency Communications within Controlled-Environment Facilities	Systems and methods for providing emergency communications via a communication platform within controlled-environment facilities. The communication platform may be configured to, in a first mode of operation, enable communications between residents of a controlled environment facility and friends and families. The method may also include switching the communication platform from the first mode of operation to an emergency mode of operation. In the emergency mode of operation, the communication platform may be configured to enable an emergency communication from resident of the controlled environment facility to a second device controlled by emergency response personnel (e.g., hostage negotiator, counselor, police officer, etc.).
9,654,620	Systems and Methods for Call Treatment Using a Third Party Database	Systems and methods which detect unauthorized, impermissible, or otherwise undesired call activity through the use of one or more third party databases. For example, a controlled environment facility information management system may access an external database, such as a victim notification database, which is created and maintained by a third party unrelated to the controlled environment facility. Such third party database access may be accomplished at the point of call validation or caller verification for determining the treatment of the call (e.g., allowed, blocked, allowed with limitations, etcetera). Such call treatment determinations may be made with respect a particular prisoner or other resident of the controlled environment facility making the call, may be made with respect to all calls made from a particular controlled environment facility, may be made with respect to a group of controlled environment facilities, etc.
9,667,763	Family Communications in a Controlled-Environment Facility	Systems and methods for facilitating family communications in a controlled-environment facility. In some embodiments, a method may include receiving a request for an electronic communication between a resident and a non-resident of a controlled-environment facility, identifying that the non-resident is the resident’s child or parent and, in response to the identification, enabling a family counseling provider to access the electronic communication. The method may also include, after completion of the follow-up counseling session between the resident and the family counseling provider, providing an incentive to the resident. For example, the incentive may be selected from the group consisting of: electronic content, commissary item, increased number or amount of communication, increased number or amount of electronic communications, increased leisure time, increased pay, and credit for good behavior.
9,680,903	Delivery of Video Mail to Controlled-Environment Facility Residents via Podcasts	Intelligent facility devices for use in controlled facility environments are described. In various embodiments, the intelligent facility devices provide limited or controlled access to data networks for Incarcerated Individuals of a controlled facility. An embodiment of a method may include receiving a request for access to a network from a user interface device. The method may also include determining an authorized duration of network access for the user interface device. Additionally, the method may include establishing a temporary network access session between the user interface device and the network for the authorized duration of network access.
9,729,709	Location Based Services	Systems and methods for developing, deploying, providing, and/or operating location-based services for controlled-environment facilities. In some embodiments, a method may include receiving, from a resident of a controlled-environment facility, a request to establish a remote communication with a mobile device operated by a non-resident of the controlled-environment facility. The method may also include allowing or denying the request depending, at least in part, upon a physical location of the mobile device at the time of the request to establish the remote communication and subsequent monitoring during the allowed communication. The method may also include terminating an allowed remote communication based on the monitored location of the mobile device during the remote communication. In some cases, the method may also include comparing an indication of the physical location with a geo-fencing rule and taking a predetermined action in response to the comparison.
9,736,428	Providing Remote communication and Other Services to Non-Residents of Controlled-Environment Facilities via Display Devices	Systems and methods for providing remote communication and other services to non-residents of controlled-environment facilities via display devices. A method may include performing, by one or more computer systems, receiving a command to initiate a remote communication session between a resident and a non-resident of a controlled-environment facility, and enabling the non-resident’s participation in the remote communication session, wherein the non-resident participates in the remote communication session using a display device selected from the group consisting of: a television set, a display device set, a projector, and a monitor.
9,742,910	Inbound Calls to Intelligent Controlled-Environment Facility Resident Media and/or Communications Devices	Inbound call processing systems and methods for processing inbound calls to controlled-environment facility resident media and/or communications devices employ an inbound resident call server. The call server is configured to host inbound calling accounts established by non-residents, receive inbound calls from the non-residents, route the inbound calls to an authenticating server, confirm that the resident device is active, and connect the inbound resident call system with the resident device if active or inform the non-resident the resident is not available if not. The inbound resident call server also connects the non-resident inbound call with the resident device if the non-resident is associated with the inbound calling account, the inbound calling account is associated with an address identifier of the resident device and the resident’s personal identification number is associated with the address identifier of the resident device, all of which may be authenticated by the authenticating server.

  Mr. Smith continued, “We currently have approximately 300 software developers, over 100 field service technicians, and a large marketing and R & D Team that have good ideas – things that our prison and jail customers want, things that are unique, and we routinely turn those ideas into patents. It’s our biggest, most valuable asset – good people with ideas that are solving our customers’ problems. “Our patent portfolio includes patents in most areas of corrections communications and operations including audio calling, video calling, fraud detection, call platform architecture, call storage, Incarcerated Individual purchasing, billing, call throughput, Incarcerated Individual monitoring, word spotting, voice biometrics, and commissary services, and there are many other areas as well. “We issued a formal ‘Patent Portfolio Bake Off’ Challenge to the former leading competitor in our sector that went unanswered so we did something that was even better, I believe,” said Smith. “We used our outside counsel to engage three (3) independent, well-known, intellectual property consulting firms to compare and contrast our patent portfolio with our competitor’s patent portfolio. Outside counsel did not disclose who their client was, so the comparison was independent, intellectually honest, and non-biased. Counsel didn’t even tell the consulting firms what the list of patents was for each company. Securus didn’t provide any help or assistance to aid their analysis at all. “The three (3) independent patent portfolio analyses clearly show that by virtually any qualitative or quantitative measurement, Securus’ patent portfolio is much stronger, broader, and more valuable than the other company’s portfolio,” Smith said. “We did this work, spent this time, and paid a significant amount of money to make clear to everyone that we have the largest and best patent portfolio that exists in the industry today – period. “We build patents around products that our customers want – and that is good for Incarcerated Individuals, friends and family, officers, investigators, victims of crimes, and society – I am proud of what we have contributed to our industry and society. We improve Incarcerated Individual communications, reduce recidivism, help solve and prevent crimes – and ultimately save lives,” said Smith. “Our patent count is wonderful – but that is not the point of our business. We exist to ‘serve and protect’ – Incarcerated Individuals, friends, family members, law enforcement, corrections, and all of society. Saving lives, solving crimes, preventing crimes, allowing Incarcerated Individuals to communicate more and at a lower cost, provide an ability for them to learn and have entertainment, thereby reducing recidivism – those are much more important than our patent portfolio,” concluded Smith.