How Can an ICE Detainee Call Family From Detention?

Having a family member held by ICE is a stressful and often confusing situation, especially when you are not sure how basic things like phone calls work. Here is what you need to know.

ICE detention facilities, including contract facilities like South Louisiana Correctional Center, use the same type of contracted phone systems found in most jails and prisons. Your brother can make outgoing calls, but he cannot receive incoming ones. All calls originate from his end.

To receive his calls, you have a few options depending on how the facility's phone system is set up.

Most ICE facilities use a prepaid or collect call system managed by a contracted phone provider. You can set up a prepaid account with that provider online, which allows your brother to call you without the call being billed at collect rates. To find out which phone company services South Louisiana Correctional Center, call the facility directly and ask. They will tell you which provider handles their phone system and how to set up an account.

If the facility uses a collect call system, you can also accept collect calls by enabling that option through your phone carrier, though the rates for collect calls from detention facilities can be very high.

InmateAid's discount telephone service can also help here. By setting up a local number for your brother to call, you can significantly reduce the per-minute cost of his calls regardless of which phone provider the facility uses. Once you have the facility's phone provider confirmed, reach out to InmateAid and we can walk you through getting a number set up.

The most important first step is calling South Louisiana Correctional Center directly to confirm your brother's status and find out exactly which phone system he has access to. From there everything else can be arranged.