ONE FREE PHONE CALL FROM JAIL, VIDEO EVIDENCE, AND INMATE RELEASE NOTIFICATIONS - 072

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transcript:

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​​This week on the Writer's Detective Bureau, one free phone call from jail, video evidence, and inmate release notifications. I'm Adam Richardson and this is the Writer's Detective Bureau.

Welcome to episode number 72 of the Writer's Detective Bureau, the podcast dedicated to helping authors and screenwriters write professional quality crime related fiction. In this last episode of the decade, I'm answering your questions about your one free phone call from jail, obtaining video evidence from another department, and notifying victims of an offender's release from custody. But first, I need to thank Gold Shield patrons, Debra Dunbar from debradunbar.com, C.C. Jameson from ccjameson.com, Larry Keeton, Vicki Tharp of vickitharp.com, Chrysann, Larry Darter, Natalie Barelli of nataliebarelli.com, and Craig Kingsman of craigkingsman.com for their support. And I'd also like to send a huge thank you to my Coffee Club patrons, I really appreciate you guys. You can find links to all of the writers supporting this episode in the show notes at writersdetective.com/72 and to learn about setting up your own Patreon account for your author business or to support this show for as little as $2 per month, visit writersdetective.com/patreon. P-A-T-R-E-O-N.

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​Welcome to the last Writer's Detective Bureau episode of the decade. I hope you've had a wonderful holiday season and thanks for sticking with me after my unanticipated break. Santa brought me a sinus and upper respiratory infection that required three doctor's visits in three different rounds of medication and after recording episode 71, the infection caused bronchitis, which we were careful not to have turned into pneumonia fortunately. So, thanks for your understanding with me missing an episode last week. Fortunately, the hardcore antibiotics have... well, they've got me back to 100% now and it was just in time for me to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in order to allow my counterpart to have some Santa time with his young kids for the holiday.
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But all in all, it was a great holiday, so I hope you guys had one as well. I'm thankful for feeling so much better. Oh, and my wife knocked it out of the park with my Christmas gift this year. She got me a fricking cappuccino machine for as much as she says I'm hard to buy for, she proved how much she truly knows me. And I'd like to know the one thing you were most thankful for this holiday season. Post the picture on Instagram and tag me @writersdetective. And that way, as we wind down this decade, I'd love to be able to see of your holiday cheer and the things that made you smile. All right, so let's get into this week's first question.

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​Bec Hatch asked this question in the Facebook group, which if you haven't joined yet, you can find by going to writersdetectivebureau.com/facebook. So Bec writes, "I have a question about a recently arrested person, that single phone call they get to make. Is that recorded or listened to by the police? Can my guy make it completely in private or will the arresting officers be nearby? Thank you." Hey, Bec, your arrested person gets a free completed phone call upon arrest, and it may be as many as three free phone calls. But they can make additional calls after that, it's just that they're going to have to pay for them one way or another. Usually the person receiving the phone call will have to pay like an old-school collect call, and then we'll talk about calling cards and stuff in a minute. But all outbound phone calls from the jail are recorded with the exception of calls that are flagged as going to known local attorney's offices, like the phone number for the attorney's office is flagged in the system...                                                                                                                                    Continue reading...