Collective purchasing systems and methods for controlled-environment facility residents via controlled-environment facility resident communication and/or media devices

Abstract

Systems or methods for collective purchasing by controlled-environment facility residents may employ a plurality of controlled-environment facility resident communication and/or media devices, each associated with a respective controlled-environment facility resident. These devices, disposed within one or more controlled-environment facilities, may each present an interface for purchasing goods and/or services via the device. The devices may each offer, via the interface, an option to collectively purchase a single good or service by a number of controlled-environment facility residents and may accept an indication of partial payment from the resident associated with the device. A controlled-environment facility management system, or similar functionality, may debit the partial payment from a respective controlled-environment facility trust account maintained to the benefit of each controlled-environment facility resident making a partial payment and may provision the collectively purchased good or service to these residents.