According to the Laramie County Sheriff’s Department in Wyoming, a request for its contract with inmate phone service provider Inmate Calling Solutions (ICSolutions) cannot be made public because the agreement itself is consider a “trade secret.”

As part of a nationwide MuckRock survey, the request under the Wyoming Public Records Act was looking for the contract between the Sheriff’s Office, which oversees the local jail, and the company providing telephone services to its inmates. Many local and state jails contract the provision of these services to companies like Securus, Global Tel Link, and ICSolutions; these contracts often include a commission for the Sheriff’s Department or prison, allowing the agency to receive a portion of the charges shouldered by inmates, sometimes as high as 70 to 80% of total costs.

The rejection from Wyoming is one of the first of its kind that we’ve received on these requests. It’s generally accepted as public record the agreement between a public entity and a company with which it is doing business, even where other redactions may apply.

MuckRock is following up on this and other requests throughout Wyoming. Read the full rejection embedded below, or on the request page.

Interested in how much the Sheriff is making from prison phone calls in your state? Let us know via the form below.

Image via Laramie County Sheriff’s Office Facebook