It adds up faster than most people on the outside expect, and the county jail is one of the most expensive environments an inmate can be in. Phone calls are almost always the biggest drain. County jail phone rates are notoriously high, and without a discount service in place, calls can run several dollars per minute. It is not hard to burn through hundreds of dollars a week on calls alone. In my first month away, my wife spent over $6,000...

Even after you put money on the phone, there are several reasons calls might not be coming through. The most common issue is that your number may not be on his approved call list. Most facilities require inmates to submit a list of approved numbers before any calls can be made. If your number was never added, or was added recently and has not been processed yet, he physically cannot call you regardless of how much money is on the account. The...

Not necessarily. There are a few reasons that message comes up, and another scheduled visit is only one of them. The most common explanation is simply that all the available time slots for that inmate have been booked, either by other approved visitors or by the facility itself for programming, counts, or other scheduled activities. Facilities limit the number of video visits an inmate can have in a given period, and once those slots are filled, the system blocks additional appointments. It...

No. Power of attorney does not give you access to an inmate's phone and messaging records, and neither does paying the bill. Inmates retain privacy rights over their communications, at least from other civilians. The facility monitors calls and messages as a matter of policy, and that is disclosed to everyone using the system. But that monitoring belongs to the institution, not to you. Being the person funding the account does not change that. The harder truth here is that if the...

You cannot control who he calls through the facility's general phone system, but you can control what you pay for. If you fund an InmateAid discount phone number, that number works for calls to you only. He cannot use it to reach anyone else. Whatever he does on the facility's regular system with money from other sources is outside your control, but at least you know your money is not financing it. Beyond that, the only real leverage you have is...