SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR THE AUTOMATIC DISTRIBUTION OF INMATE PHONE RECORDINGS

• US 20090067587A1
• Filed: 09/10/2007
• Published: 03/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DSI-ITI, Inc.
• Original Assignee: DSI-ITI, Inc.
• Inventors: Rokosky, James P., Gerlach, Thomas C., Bambocci, Anthony R.
• Granted Patent: US 9,357,061 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/69
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/301 Management of recordings
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/303 Marking
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/558 Databases
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/6009 Personal information, e.g. profiles or personal directories being only provided to authorised persons
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2281 Call monitoring, e.g. for law enforcement purposes; Call tracing; Detection or prevention of malicious calls
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42221 Conversation recording systems at the subscriber's set H04M1/656
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53366 Message disposing or creating aspects

Abstract

A method of automatically distributing phone call recordings to interested parties generally includes associating one or more forwarding criteria with each of one or more interested parties, establishing a phone call from a calling party to a destination number through an institutional phone system, recording the phone call, and, if the phone call satisfies one or more forwarding criteria associated with one or more interested parties, automatically distributing the recording of the phone call to the at least one interested party associated with the satisfied one or more forwarding criteria. Distribution may be by e-mail, by uploading the recording to a website that interested parties (and preferably only interested parties) can access, by queuing the recordings for export to physical media, and/or through a voice mail system. Calls may be selected for distribution based on the caller, the called party, conversation content, call time, or any other suitable criteria.

Claims

1. A method of automatically distributing a recording of a phone call to at least one interested party, the phone call being placed by a calling party through an institutional phone system to a destination number, the method comprising:

associating one or more forwarding criteria with each of one or more interested parties;

establishing the phone call from the calling party to the destination number through the institutional phone system;

recording the phone call; and

if the phone call satisfies one or more forwarding criteria associated with one or more interested parties, automatically distributing the recording of the phone call to the at least one interested party associated with the satisfied one or more forwarding criteria.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of associating one or more forwarding criteria with each of one or more interested parties comprises associating at least one calling party identity with at least one interested party.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of associating one or more forwarding criteria with each of one or more interested parties comprises associating at least one destination number with at least one interested party.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of associating one or more forwarding criteria with each of one or more interested parties comprises associating at least one time of call with at least one interested party.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of associating one or more forwarding criteria with each of one or more interested parties comprises associating at least one conversation content item with at least one interested party.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of automatically distributing comprises:

setting a data flag when the recording of the phone call is complete; and

if the phone call satisfies one or more forwarding criteria associated with one or more interested parties, distributing the recording of the phone call in response to the data flag to the at least one interested party associated with the satisfied one or more forwarding criteria.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of associating one or more forwarding criteria with each of one or more interested parties comprises associating two or more of the following with at least one interested party:

calling party identity forwarding criteria, destination number forwarding criteria, time of call forwarding criteria, conversation content forwarding criteria, and combinations thereof.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of distributing the recording of the phone call to the at least one interested party associated with the satisfied one or more forwarding criteria comprises e-mailing a copy of the recorded phone call to the at least one interested party.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of distributing the recording of the phone call to the at least one interested party associated with the satisfied one or more forwarding criteria comprises:

exporting the recording of the phone call to one or more physical media; and

providing the at least one interested party with access to the one or more physical media.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the step of exporting the recording of the phone call to one or more physical media comprises:

placing the recording of the phone call in an export queue; and

exporting the recording of the phone call to one or more physical media from the export queue on a scheduled basis.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of distributing the recording of the phone call to the at least one interested party associated with the satisfied one or more forwarding criteria comprises uploading the recording of the phone call to a website.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of distributing the recording of the phone call to the at least one interested party associated with the satisfied one or more forwarding criteria comprises providing access to the recording of the phone call through a voice mail system.

13. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

establishing a second phone call from a calling party to a second destination number through the institutional phone system;

recording the second phone call;

determining that the second phone call does not satisfy any forwarding criteria associated with one or more interested parties; and

storing the recorded second phone call into memory without automatically forwarding it.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of associating one or more forwarding criteria with each of one or more interested parties comprises:

establishing a plurality of data records, each data record including at least contact information for an interested party and one forwarding criterion; and

storing the plurality of data records in a recipients database.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein each data record further includes one or more delivery criteria for the interested party.

16. The method according to claim 1, further comprising enclosing the recording of the phone call in a security wrapper prior to distributing the recording of the phone call to the at least one interested party.

17. A method of automatically distributing a phone call recording to one or more interested parties, the method comprising:

storing a plurality of recipient records in a recipients database, each recipient record including identity information for at least one recipient, forwarding criterion to specify the conditions for determining which recordings will be forwarded, and at least one delivery criterion to specify the delivery medium for forwarding recordings;

establishing a telephonic connection between a calling party and a called party;

recording a conversation between the calling party and the called party;

identifying one or more recipient records whose forwarding criterion are met by information associated with the conversation; and

distributing the recording of the conversation to the at least one recipient included therein according to the at least one delivery criterion associated with the at least one recipient.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of distributing the recording comprises:

setting a status flag to indicate that a recording of a conversation is available for forwarding; and

automatically distributing the recording of the conversation to the at least one recipient in response to a change in status of the status flag, whereby the distribution is accomplished using the at least one medium specified by the delivery criterion associated with the at least one recipient.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the step of distributing the recording comprises:

encrypting the recording of the phone call using an encryption key to create an encrypted recording; and

wherein the distribution step is carried out by distributing the encrypted recording.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the encryption key is a public key associated with a private/public key system.

21. A system for automatically distributing a recorded phone conversation to one or more interested parties, the system comprising:

at least one telephone device;

a recipients database, the recipients database including a plurality of recipient records, each recipient record including identity information for at least one recipient, forwarding criterion to specify the conditions for determining which recordings will be forwarded, and at least one delivery criterion to specify the delivery medium for forwarding recordings; and

a call recording distribution processor that identifies one or more recipient records whose forwarding criterion are met by information associated with the recording and distributes the recording to the at least one recipient identified therein according to the at least one delivery medium associated with the at least one recipient.

22. The system according to claim 21, further comprising at least one forwarding agent, wherein the call recording distribution processor invokes the at least one forwarding agent to distribute the recording to the at least one recipient.

23. The system according to claim 22, wherein the at least one forwarding agent is selected from the group consisting of email agents, web service agents, export queuing agents, voice mail agents, and any combinations thereof.

24. The system according to claim 21, further comprising at least one call recording archive in which is stored a plurality of recorded phone conversations.