Federal receive 300 minutes a month but do they have to have money in order to use those 300 minutes or is that what is given to them and then they have to pay for more phone time?

Federal inmates must pay for their calls though Trulincs, the BOP's version of an "inmate's bank". From Trulincs, the inmate directs the money to their commissary, email (Corrlinks) and phone calls. The phone calls cost either 21 cents per minute or 6 cents per minute (if you are local to the prison). If you are not local and want the calls to be 6 cents per minute, InmateAid gets the local lines for only $8.95. On 300 minutes, the local line saves the inmate $45 per month.