How Does Phone Time Work at USP Beaumont?

Phone time in the federal Bureau of Prisons system works differently than most families expect, and USP Beaumont follows the same national BOP rules.

In the federal system, inmates do not purchase phone time the way you might buy minutes on a prepaid plan. Phone access is available during designated hours and draws from the inmate's trust fund account automatically when calls are placed. There is no separate phone time to order or activate.

BOP phone hours nationwide run from 6:00 AM to 3:30 PM and again from 5:00 PM to 9:30 PM. Each call is limited to 15 minutes, and inmates are allotted 300 minutes per month. During November and December that allowance increases to 400 minutes.

When you send money to your inmate's account, it becomes available relatively quickly, often within a few hours. Once funds are there, they can be used for calls during any open phone period. There is no waiting period tied to when money was deposited.

What does require a waiting period is getting a new phone number approved. In the federal system, inmates submit new numbers on a telephone request form, and a counselor or case manager has to authorize each number before it can be dialed. That approval process can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks depending on the facility's workload.

Phone access can also be restricted at any time at the facility's discretion, whether for an individual or for the unit as a whole.

As for call rates, federal long distance runs 21 cents per minute. Local calls are 6 cents per minute, which is exactly why an InmateAid local number makes a significant difference in what families pay over the course of a sentence.