Although payphones are increasingly unpopular and are no longer profitable for the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), they still remain in hospitals, EBAIS (Equipos Básicos de Atención Integral en Salud), indigenous areas, schools, public roads with a great number of users and prisons.
Twelve percent of public telephones installed throughout the country are destined for prisoners. That quantity is equivalent to 623 out of the 5,240 booths in the entire country. These phones are similar to the park public telephones, but they need phone cards.
Although they are installed to meet prisoners’ communication requirements, there is no doubt that payphones could become allies in cases of fraud. On several occasions the Judicial Investigation Organization (OIJ) has warned that being imprisoned is not an impediment to commit crimes.