With the swipe of a credit card, jailed individuals can make bond. It is new technology to the Tulsa County Jail. Inmates can use Touch Pay to bond out.
Their family members can use it to add money to their accounts for items they want, sold at the jail, but not provided for free. Touch Pay is expected to cut booking time in half, and eliminate a lot of paperwork.
"They can actually swipe the card, and it will pay their bonds, so unless its like a DUI or public intox they can walk right through," said Chief Michelle Robinette.
Some bail bondsmen say the new system is hurting their business. "It really does cut us out of a lot of business because people can use their credit cards now where you know, we used to get them to come into our office, and that's where we make our money is off of bailing people out," said bail bondsman Rocky Cutler.
The Touch Pay system is free to the county. The provider company gets paid by a $3 card swipe fee.
