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Global Tel-Link Sues State over Prison Phones

2 min read

A company that responded to the state prison system’s request for proposals for an inmate call system has filed a lawsuit against the state, arguing it was not fairly evaluated.

Jamie Huffman Jones, an attorney for Global Tel-Link Corp. of Reston, Virginia, wrote in the lawsuit that the company submitted a “technically superior proposal,” but that its bid was dismissed because of “coordinated scoring” by the evaluation committee.

Jones wrote that the two other companies that submitted proposals — Securus Technologies of Dallas and CenturyLink of Monroe, Louisiana — both failed to provide on-site call storage as was required in the RFP and should have been rejected. But in April 2014, the state notified the companies that it planned to award the contract to Securus.

After obtaining documents about the evaluation under the Freedom of Information Act, the company filed an objection with the Office of State Procurement.

The department responded with a new RFP, and GTL said it submitted another “technically superior” proposal, which was again rejected for the Securus proposal.

GTL again reviewed the evaluations and found “the scoring was not done in an objective or impartial manner.” The department denied the allegations and told GTL the award was final.

GTL is seeking a hearing on its objections and has asked the court for a temporary restraining order and mandatory injunction to prevent the state from implementing any other company’s services.

The department has not yet responded to the lawsuit in court, and a spokesman last week declined to comment on the case.

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