MDOC Inmate Services RFS- QA ROUND 1- Questions 1-101.docx

MDOC Inmate Network, Applications & Services RFS Request for Solution No. 171-250000002079

State Answers to Vendor Questions: ROUND 1 Document 1 of 3

NOTE: The State will be publishing revised requirements documents to address revisions to the requirements and formatting fixes.

1. Format: Use a lossless or high-quality format such as WAV or FLAC. Compressed formats like MP3 may degrade quality and raise questions about authenticity.

2. Sample Rate: Minimum of 44.1 kHz (CD quality) or higher (e.g., 48 kHz or 96 kHz).

3. Bit Depth: At least 16-bit, preferably 24-bit.

4. Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR): Ensure a high SNR (low background noise) to make voices or critical sounds distinguishable.

5. Mono vs. Stereo: Stereo is preferred if the recording captures spatial information (e.g., multiple speakers), but mono may suffice for single-source recordings.

6. Embedded Metadata: The audio file should include metadata such as recording date, time, device used, and location (if available).

7. Original Device Information: Retain details about the recording device (e.g., model, firmware version, and settings).

8. Timestamping: Use a device that automatically embeds accurate timestamps or synchronize with a trusted time source (e.g., GPS or NTP).

For Video Visitation Quality/Clarity, the following requirements should be met:

1. Resolution: Higher resolution (e.g., 1080p, 4K) is preferred to ensure details like faces, license plates, or actions are clearly visible. Low-resolution videos (e.g., 480p or below) may be challenged if critical details are unclear.

2. Frame Rate: A frame rate of at least 24–30 frames per second (fps) is ideal for smooth motion capture. Lower frame rates (e.g., 15 fps) may miss critical moments or appear choppy.

3. Compression: Use minimal compression to preserve detail. Highly compressed formats (e.g., low-bitrate MP4) may degrade quality, making it harder to discern details. Formats like H.264 or H.265 are common but should be high-bitrate.

4. Lighting and Focus: The video should be well-lit and in focus to clearly depict the scene. Night vision or low-light capabilities may be necessary for footage recorded in poor lighting conditions.

5. File Format: Use widely accepted, non-proprietary formats like MP4, AVI, or MOV to ensure compatibility with court playback systems. Avoid obscure or heavily edited formats.

6. Embedded Metadata: The video file should include metadata such as recording date, time, device used, and location (if available).

Specific voice metrics include but are not limited to:

1. Mean Opinion Score (MOS)

2. Jitter

3. Latency

4. Packet loss, and

5. codecs used.

Specific video metrics include but are not limited to:

1. Bit rate

2. Resolution

3. Frame rate

4. Codec

5. Buffer fill time

6. Lag length

7. VMAF or SSIM at a minimum.

b. Through the metrics listed above by the providing Contractor. Please include in your bid response how your would measure video and voice quality data as well as any options you are able to provide with your solution.

c. The Contractor awarded phone and video services would be responsible for measuring and recording voice and video quality and providing the data via reports as requested by MDOC.

b) Present their current/valid state bar card along with completing the CAJ-103 Visiting Application

c) As of now, you create an account and MDOC staff verifies through VTS (Vistor Tracking System) and then approves the ViaPath account. MDOC prefers the same process for professional visits. Once they are approved the visitor can schedule visits.

d) By Professional Only

e) One-time scheduled sessions.

f) Currently this done on an individual facility level. The State would be interested in a Statewide Professional Visitor Scheduling solution.

g) MDOC prefers this to be a system configuration.

h) The professional visits are to be during visiting hours, The individuals including Clergy and official representative of the legislative, judicial, or executive branch of government or consulate general on official business may visit outside of standard visiting hours with prior approval of the Warden or designee if extenuating circumstances exist (e.g., for clergy, the death of an immediate family member of the prisoner.)

b) The file formats that the current system are known to accept are: CVS, XML, JPEG, PDF and WAV.

c) The intelligence system is one of the services within this RFS. MDOC will require standard file formats and schemas as part of that implementation for current data as well as new data that will be generated and collected via the new network and its systems.

d) MDOC is looking for a central repository of the inmate/parolee data to be housed. This would be a vendor managed database that would allow MDOC to access this data in many ways. Bidders must provide in their bid response options for data types and categories

e) Ideally near real time, and on demand.

f) Yes, MDOC requires an API or SFTP push.

g) MDOC is not aware of any at this time and may be dependent on the resulting solution of this RFS. FTS transactions are billed on a per file basis regardless of size.

h) Bidders to provide options for testing environments in their bid responses to include options for both a State hosted, and a Contractor hosted testing environment.

i) It is not limited and must encompass all services provided.

j) Yes, please see Schedule E- Data Security Requirements. Please also see https://www.michigan.gov/dtmb/policies/it-policies.

TS- Global Tel Link VV- Global Tel Link Tablet- JPay

b) MDOC currently only has 2 mobile carts for phones total.

c) 57 Prisoner TTY/TDD devices are currently deployed.

d) 424 devices are currently installed for video visitation services.

e) MDOC currently only has 4 video visitation kiosks on mobile carts total.

f) None.

g) 18 registration kiosks are currently installed.

h) 18 deposit kiosks (Trust) are currently installed.

i) 2 intake kiosks are currently installed.

j) There are currently 21,652 tablets deployed but none of them are on a wireless network.

k) 507 kiosk stations are installed for connection and syncing but are not designated as "Charging stations". MDOC does not currently have any kiosks designated as charging stations.

l) The MDOC expects to have between 4,000-5,000

m) None

· Phone Calls since 2018- 825,964,890

· Video visits since 2020- 2,403,988

· E-messages sent/e-stamps purchased since 2017- 195,649,821 Multimedia purchased since 2017-

a) Albums-2,006,966

b) Single songs- 10,162,661

c) Games- 671,372

b) Level I: Eight per month Level II: Seven per month Level IV (GP and Protection): Five per month Level V (GP and Protection): Four per month Segregation (Administrative Four per month

c) Level I – Five Level II – Four Level IV-General Population and Protection – Three Level V and STG I – Two Segregation and STG II – One These are a maximum of 20 mins.

d) No limit on calls per week

e) Visits are 2 hours time blocks on the weekends and 3 hours during weekdays (M-F). Calls limited to 15-minute max.

b) Currently prisoners purchase and own their own tablet/device.

c) N/A

d) e-messaging, multi-media (movies, TV, Games), Music).

b) All the above programs are currently available to our population at their discretion in designated housing units. The user chooses what program they would like to complete based on their interests.

c) Any offender that is housed in a unit that has the Edovo tablet can utilize them. They will work with Unit staff (normally a PC or RUM) to have an account set up. Once the account is set up, they can log onto a device and access the content. Any programs completed are tracked on a transcript for the student, and individual certificates can also be printed for the offender. Many will reach out to the school to have certificates printed to show the parole board what programs they have completed on the platform.

d) After the initial investment, there are monthly charges for internet service and tablets. Tablet leases, which include access to all content, are $1.48 per tablet per day currently.

b) 21,652 as of 4/24/25.

c) Currently, prisoners purchase and own their tablets.

d) N/A

e) e-messaging, Multi-media (movies, TV, Games), Music).

f) None, the current tablet solution requires prisoners to charge their tablets with their own charger. If kiosks are needed for your solution, contractors should use industry standards for determining number of needed kiosks for shared charging stations and/or kiosks needed to meet MDOC population needs.

• All mail is electronically scanned by JPay for security issues and then sent to the Michigan Department of Corrections where it is reviewed again prior to being released to the prisoner."

Source: https://www.michigan.gov/corrections/for-families/electronic-messages-sending-to-prisoners.

This information implies that the MDOC currently has an inmate “mail” scanning service in place. Will the MDOC please provide details regarding all inmate mail scanning services that are currently utilized and how contractors should include these services as a part of their RFS response.

For electronic messaging this is a technical process not a physical one. MDOC's current solution includes the Contractor’s system scanning for key words and phrases and flagging for further MDOC review. Currently all electronic mail is released directly to the prisoner unless it is flagged based on a keyword or phrase by the Contractor’s system that requires as physical review by MDOC staff before being released.

Current contracts outline current technical support requirements. Currently support is regionally based to assigned technicians. The State is not currently interested in an on-site technician due to lack of space.

MDOC would like a full audit trail of what the inmate is doing within any multimedia service solution.

The file formats that the current system are known to accept are: CVS, XML, JPEG, PDF and WAV

The State anticipates the ability to take raw data generated from the solutions awarded from this RFS and be able to upload or integrate it with the new IA solution.

The State does not know the file formats for the future intelligence system.

b) Music, Messages, Videos

c) The current service provider will cooperate with the new contractor in the migration process and there is an existing contract in place that requires their participation in this process.

d) The state is unable to provide a per inmate amount of data. For total, there is approximately 20.4 TiB (tebibyte) of prisoner music files and 13.5 TiB (tebibyte) of prisoner messaging files.

e) No, the state was directed that there is no DRM restrictions on existing media content that will impact the ability to transfer or play files on new device/system.

B) Based on a solution where the State owns the devices, it anticipates a need for individual inmate content to be stored in separate containers or user specific directories that they can access via a login process from any device that they check out to use. Please provide the state options for how this can be provided.

C) The State anticipates a transition period where data will need to be saved until the new solution is in place and it can be moved into the prisoner’s account where they would then be able to access it by the new solution until they delete it. Contractor should provide options for different data retention or backup requirements with applicable pricing.

b) Yes, the document creation must be limited to text documents.

c) Yes. Please provide what options are available for restricting access to this service and any associated price differences.

d) Please provide any options in your bid response for integration of the word document creation application. MDOC may want to integrate with Legal Library or kites.

b) Prisoners must have ability to request printing from any device or from a kiosk as long as that prisoner is “approved” to have access to this service/process. Plese provide in your response options for providing this service.

c) MDOC staff must have ability to review the request to ensure prisoner has available funds before printing can be completed (this review may be outside of the solution, but they need the ability to queue a job request until it is confirmed they can release it to be completed). Prisoner must only be able to request printed materials from the law library application or their document creation application only. Staff should have the ability to review the content of the document before releasing for print.

d) Currently most MDOC facilities have a multi-function device on the State network (non-prisoner network that is managed by the State with firewalls). The State is also considering a process where facilities would purchase prisoner network accessed printers specifically for this service. Please include in your bid response any potential issues or preference for this issue.

e) All printing should be in black and white and should limit the pages per request to 50.

b) Public. Anyone other than an MDOC employee. The solution must not allow for 3rd party calling.

c) Currently the state attempts to control this by approved call lists. There is no current control over who they are speaking with. Contractor should include in their bid proposal any solutions for this issue.

d) Contractors are required to meet all local, state, and federal laws including any specific privacy considerations. Please include further details in your bid response.

B) Yes C) Yes, all devices that inmates are using. Additionally any device that the vendor suggests will need to be reviewed/approved by MDOC.

b) Ethernet-based connection would be preferred, but the State is open to considering additional options that meet the State’s standards. Bidders should provide options for this connection in their bid response.

c) Only in cases where software explicitly cannot operate over wireless networks. For a solution that includes ownership by the State, and a check out process by prisoners, the State anticipates that docking stations or carts will be required for at least charging purposes.

d) Any proposed device from this RFS as well as laptops that are currently available to MDOC’s Education division.

e) As an example, the current requirement is that the Contractor must provide a minimum of one kiosk per every 100 prisoners, or a minimum of two kiosks for units with 150 or more prisoners as approved by MODC. Additional kiosks may be necessary depending on housing unit restrictions and to accommodate larger/smaller populations to meet special population needs. Please provide direction and options for kiosk requirements in your bid solution that are based on industry standards.

b) There is no priority at this time.

c) Yes, potentially with JMS (MDOC’s COMS) as an example.

d) Either is acceptable, this would depend on services that are bid on and who they are awarded to. Third party integrated models would be considered but would be based on who is awarded and relationships they have with applicable subs and 3rd party providers.

e-p) MDOC has no requirements for these services at this time, please provide any available options for these solutions in your bid response.

1.PROPOSAL PREPARATION.

Please confirm that where the vendor has provided the…