FERRIDAY, La. – In the last month, Beverly Merrill has gotten $162 worth of calls charged to her computer phone line — calls the telephone company has traced back to the Concordia Parish Correctional Facility.

&uot;The computer will act like it’s trying to receive a fax, but nothing will come through,&uot;&160;said Merrill, a Natchez resident. &uot;Instead, you hear the computer noise — but you hear the voices of people talking over the computer line as well.&uot;

In addition, Concordia Parish Sheriff Randy Maxwell said Tuesday that his office has gotten some calls from local residents complaining that inmates at the facility near Ferriday have been making collect calls to their homes.

&uot;We get one or two complaints every so often, … but I don’t know how we can do any more to keep it from happening,&uot; Maxwell said.

As far as Merrill’s charges are concerned, Maxwell said Tuesday he has not received any such complaints and said inmates do not have the capability to charge calls to a third party. &uot;I haven’t heard of any complaints like that,&uot;&160;Maxwell said.

Such third-party billing is not unheard of, although in recent years it has become more uncommon since it is now relatively easy for a person to block unwanted calls, said BellSouth District Manager Pat Howard.

&uot;I haven’t heard of any (collect call or third-party billing) complaints specific to correctional facilities,&uot; Howard said. She added that customers with unwanted calls or unwarranted billings involving long-distance numbers — as in the case of the Concordia Parish Correctional Facility — need to call their long-distance carrier.

&uot;In the meantime, no one’s going to turn their phone service off if the (billing) problem is with their long-distance carrier,&uot; Howard said. For unwanted calls or charges involving only local numbers, customers should call their nearest BellSouth business office.

As far as collect calls are concerned, Maxwell pointed out that when such calls are placed, a message asks the recipient whether he or she wishes to receive a collect call.

He also denied inmates are targeting children’s telephone numbers. &uot;Inmates don’t have access to any telephone books,&uot;&160;Maxwell said. &uot;And there’s nothing to keep them from pulling a number out of the air and calling it, which is what they’re doing. They have no clue who or what they’re calling.&uot;

Each cellblock at the facility has its own pay phones, and Maxwell’s office is able to track calls back to the cellblock from which they originated. Those who receive such unwanted calls are asked to call the Concordia Parish Correctional Facility to request that calls to their numbers be blocked, Maxwell said.

And that is exactly what Merrill did. On Monday, she visited the facility to ask officials to block calls from the facility from going to her number.

&uot;I hope that solves the problem — we’ll see,&uot;&160;Merrill said.