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EZ Card & Kiosk has installed three kiosks in the Madera County (Calif.) Jail, including one that issues nonreloadable prepaid debit cards to inmates when they are about to be released. The kiosk accepts banknotes and coins from inmates when jail employees book suspects after they have been arrested. The kiosk deposits the funds into trust accounts, and the machine issues a receipt the inmates keep and another that stays with their personal belongings, says Frank Hofmeister, president and a co-founder of Fresno, Calif.-based Continental Prison Systems Inc., which does business as EZ Card & Kiosk. Inmates use the receipts while in jail to purchase products or services via debits from their accounts. Prisoners' relatives and friends also can use either of two kiosks located in the jail's lobby to deposit funds into the trust accounts using credit or debit cards or cash. They also can deposit funds from an EZ Card Web site, Hofmeister says. Relatives and friends also can pay an inmate's bail using the lobby kiosks or Web site. As prisoners are released from custody, jail employees load funds from prisoners' trust accounts into nonbranded prepaid debit cards issued by U.S. PayCard, a Las Vegas-based company that is an investor in EZ Card. U.S. PayCard also is EZ Card's merchant acquirer, Hofmeister says. Former prisoners can use the prepaid card, which requires a four-digit PIN, to withdraw money from ATMs or to make purchases at the point of sale. EZ Card earns revenue by charging kiosk users fees. The company charges debit or credit cardholders 7% of the transaction amount to deposit funds into inmates' trust accounts, and it charges former prisoners 75 cents to check their card-account balances plus a 99 cent monthly card fee. The company also charges cardholders a fee equal to 8% of the transaction amount to pay an inmate's bail.
