How Does Prison Debit Calling Work and How Long for Approval

Inmate debit calling works like any prepaid phone program. You fund an account through the facility's contracted phone carrier and your inmate uses that balance to make outgoing calls to approved numbers. As long as the account has funds and the number they are calling is on their approved list the calls go through.

Number approval timeline

How long it takes for a new number to be approved varies significantly by facility and phone carrier. In the best case approval is immediate and your inmate can call the new number the same day it is submitted. In other cases approval takes 3 to 4 days depending on the carrier and the facility's processing speed. There is no standard timeline across all facilities.

The cost problem

The number your inmate calls is almost always treated as a long distance call by the facility's phone carrier regardless of where you actually live. This is not an accident. Correctional facilities operate under contracts with phone carriers that give those carriers significant pricing power over a captive audience. The result is that debit accounts deplete rapidly and families end up spending far more than they expect on phone calls.

The InmateAid solution

InmateAid offers a local number service that works around the long distance pricing problem without replacing the facility's phone system. Here is how it works.

InmateAid provides you with a local phone number in the same area as the facility. Your inmate adds that local number to their approved call list and calls it instead of your regular number. Because the number is local rather than long distance the per minute rate drops dramatically. In many cases families reduce their calling costs by up to 70%.

The InmateAid service does not interfere with the facility's phone system in any way. It simply ensures your inmate is calling a local number so you receive the lowest per minute rate available for that facility.

To find out whether InmateAid's local number service can save you money on calls from your loved one's specific facility visit the discount calls page on InmateAid.com. If we cannot save you money we issue a full refund.