System and method for proactively establishing a third-party payment account for services rendered to a resident of a controlled-environment facility

• US 9,026,468 B2
• Filed: 03/05/2008
• Issued: 05/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Securus Technologies Incorporated (Securus Special Investments LLC)
• Original Assignee: Securus Technologies Incorporated (Securus Special Investments LLC)
• Inventors: Martinez, Veronica, Hite, Marc, Keiser, Luke
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell, James
• Assistant Examiner(s): Malhotra, Sanjeev
• Application Number:
  US12/042,861
• Publication Number:
  US 20090228383A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,617 Days
• Field of Search: 705/35, 707/1, 379/114.13, 379/114.14, 379/114.21, 379/114.23, 379/133, 379/191, 379/309, 600/300, 600/595
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/28 Pre-payment schemes, e.g. "pay before"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/26 Government or public services business processes related to the transportation industry G06Q50/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/60 Business processes related to postal services shipping G06Q10/083; franking apparatus G07B17/00

Abstract

Systems and methods for proactively establishing a third-party payment account for services rendered to a resident of a controlled-environment facility (“CEF”). A campaign-triggering event is detected, which triggers contact of prospective third-party (“3^rd-party”) payers for a resident of a CEF in order to encourage such prospective 3^rd-party payers to establish 3^rd-party payment accounts for the resident. In this manner, the prospective 3^rd-party payers are proactively contacted prior to an expected future demand for service by the resident. A method thus comprises identifying at least one prospective third-party payer for a resident of a controlled-environment facility, and proactively contacting the identified at least one prospective third-party payer prior to demand for service by the resident to encourage the identified at least one prospective third-party payer to establish a third-party payment account for payment for future service expected for the resident.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying at least one prospective third-party payer for a resident of a controlled-environment facility;

detecting at least one campaign-triggering event; and

in response to the at least one campaign-triggering event, initiating a campaign to proactively contact the at least one prospective third-party payer prior to demand for service by the resident to encourage the at least one prospective third-party payer to establish a third-party payment account for payment for future service expected for the resident, the at least one prospective third-party payer contacted using an interactive voice response system.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said initiating said campaign to proactively contact the at least one prospective third-party payer comprises:

initiating an outbound calling campaign to call the at least one prospective third-party payer.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the demand for service and the future service expected for the resident comprise at least one selected from the group consisting of:

communication service, information access service, and provision of consumer goods to the resident.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the controlled-environment facility comprises a correctional facility.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said initiating said campaign is performed autonomously by a campaign system.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said identifying is performed autonomously by a third-party payer identification system.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a demand for said future service expected for the resident; and

paying for the provision of said service rendered to the resident by the third-party payment account.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said at least one campaign-triggering event comprises an event that is likely to lead to the at least one prospective third-party payer desiring to establish said third-party payment account for payment for future service expected for the resident.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said at least one campaign-triggering event comprises any one or more of the following:

the resident being identified as potentially becoming a resident of the controlled-environment facility, the resident being checked into the controlled-environment facility, and detection of an upcoming perishable date of interest for the resident or an associate of the resident.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one prospective third-party payer is contacted during the campaign via electronic mail, text message or social media.