3. a. The Department of Corrections, each county correctional facility, and each private correctional facility shall make available either a prepaid or collect call system, or a combination thereof, for telephone services for inmates.

b. Under a prepaid system, funds may be deposited into an inmate account in order to pay for telephone calls, provided that nothing in this section shall require the department, county, or private correctional facility to provide or administer a prepaid system.

c. The provider of the inmate telephone service, as an additional means of payment, shall permit the recipient of inmate collect calls to establish an account with that provider in order to deposit funds for advance payment of those collect calls.

d. For the purposes of this section, a “collect call system” means a call system pursuant to which recipients are billed for the cost of an accepted telephone call initiated by an inmate.

L.2016, c.37, s.3.