Best Third Party Provider for Federal Prison Phone Calls?

The honest answer is that the provider matters less than the number, and the number matters because of how the BOP prices calls.

Local calls in the federal system run $0.06 per minute. Long-distance calls run $0.21 per minute. That $0.15 per minute difference is where the money goes, and if your inmate is on the phone regularly, it goes fast. Three hundred minutes at long-distance rates costs $63. Three hundred minutes at the local rate costs $18. Same conversations, same phone, same facility. Just a different number on the other end.

InmateAid's phone line gives your inmate a local number to dial no matter where you actually live. The line costs $5 a month, no hidden fees, no contracts, no gotchas. On 300 minutes, the rate difference saves you $45, minus the $5 line fee, and you are walking away $40 ahead every single month.

I spent 66 months in federal prison. Forty dollars a month back in someone's commissary account instead of padding a phone carrier's contract is not a small thing. That is food, hygiene, maybe some new sneakers. It is the best deal going in the federal system right now, and I have not seen anything come close to it.