Does InmateAid Add Extra Fees to the Prison Phone Service?

No. InmateAid does not charge activation fees or add costs on top of what the prison's phone carrier already charges. The only fee InmateAid charges is the monthly cost for the local phone number itself.

Here is the distinction that matters. Every jail and prison has an exclusive contract with a phone carrier, such as GTL, Securus, or CityTeleCoin. That carrier records all calls, manages the approved contact list, and bills for every call placed. You cannot opt out of their system. Anyone receiving calls from an inmate is using that carrier whether they want to or not.

What InmateAid does is provide a local phone number that sits in front of that system. Instead of your inmate dialing a long distance number and triggering long distance rates through the carrier, they dial a local number. The carrier still handles the call the same way, but because the number is local, the rate drops to the local tariff. The carrier cannot charge long distance rates on a local call.

The result is that you pay InmateAid's monthly fee for the local number, and you pay the carrier's local rate per call instead of their long distance rate. In most cases the savings per call far exceed the monthly InmateAid fee. You are not adding a layer of costs, you are replacing an expensive rate with a much cheaper one.