Prison phone calls are one of the most important lifelines between an incarcerated person and their family, and one of the most expensive. The prison phone industry has historically operated as a near-monopoly charging rates that few other consumer services would get away with. This section covers how the prison phone system works, why rates are so high and what has changed in recent years, how debit calling accounts function, how to get a number approved on an inmate's call list, how InmateAid's local number service reduces call costs by up to 70 percent, and what international callers need to know about reaching a US facility from another country. The questions answered here come from families who are paying too much for calls and from inmates trying to navigate phone access from inside. Understanding how the system works is the first step toward getting the most contact for the least cost. See also our sections on Money Transfer and Commissary.
Related InmateAid Services
Subject: Inmate phone calls
Yes they do for Haywood County Detention in Waynesville NC. Inmate telephone service is provided by Combined Public Communications. InmateAid can reduce the call price from $7.50 to $3.15. If you are paying $7.50 we can help, if you're already paying $3.15 we cannot get it any lower.
Subject: Inmate phone calls
You have to notify the inmate of the new numbe to use. Email us a request for a coupon code, you can use our Postcard or Letter Service to send the number to them.
Subject: Inmate phone calls
County jail and state prison inmates can call as much as they want. As long as there is money on their books they can make calls. In federal prison, the inmates are limited to 300 minutes per month (400 per month in Nov and Dec as a holiday bonus). InmateAid can make the calls less expensive if you talk often. Plans start at $8.95 per month, no contract, no hidden fees.
Subject: Inmate phone calls
You must notify the inmate that you now have a phone number that they are to use to call you only. Using this phone number will make their call to you, less expensive. If you are paying for the call anyway, it might as well be at the lowest possible rate offered.
Subject: Inmate phone calls
This first depends on where yopur inmate is incarcerated. InmateAid has a listing of the correct phone service matched to every facility. Remember, there are no replacements for the services at the prison or jail, the company with the contract is running the phone system with competition. They get to make the rates. That is where InmateAid comes in. We have done the hard work of knowing what phone line gets the lowest price.
It used to be that local lines were...
Read moreSubject: Inmate phone calls
The number is there, it just may not be where you looked first. Here are the two places to check.
The first is your MyAccount area on the InmateAid website. Log in and navigate to your account dashboard. The phone number assigned to your account is listed there and is accessible any time you need to reference it.
The second place is your email inbox. An automated email with your number was sent at the time of signup. If you do not...
Read moreSubject: Inmate phone calls
Yes, and that is exactly how it is supposed to work.
InmateAid does not replace IC Solutions. It never does. Whatever carrier holds the contract at your son's facility, whether that is IC Solutions, Securus, GTL, or any of the others, that carrier stays in place. Every call your son makes still runs through IC Solutions because they are the exclusive provider at that facility. That monopoly does not change.
What InmateAid changes is the number your son dials to reach you....
Read moreSubject: Inmate phone calls
Once your account is set up and the number is active, the next step is simply getting that number into his hands, because he cannot use it until he knows what to dial.
There are two straightforward ways to do that. The first is through InmateAid's letter service. You can send him a letter directly through the platform with the new number included, and it will arrive through regular mail within a few days. The second option is to mail it...
Read moreSubject: Inmate phone calls
Depends on the three-way...:) if we are tlking about a 3-way call, then my advice would be to NEVER attempt it. The phone companies provide the prisons with the latest detection technology that sniffs out three-way calling. It is 100% against the rules of all institutions and loss of phone privilege for six months or more is the penalty. The people that get away with it do so for only a few calls before getting caught.
With InmateAid's Discount Calling Service, we...
Read moreSubject: Inmate phone calls
The process is simple. You wait in the parking lot and he comes out to you.
There is no check-in process, no paperwork for you to complete, and no reason to go inside the facility. Release processing happens entirely on the inside. Staff complete the discharge paperwork, return his personal property, issue any remaining account balance, and walk him through the final administrative steps before he is released. When everything is finalized he walks out the door and you are right...
Read moreSubject: Inmate phone calls
There is no limit. It's a privilege, not a right therefore they could restrict phone calls the entire sentence.
Subject: Inmate phone calls
Yes. The Fire Camps are minimum security facilities within the CDCR, the California state prison system. The inmates are absolutely allowed to make phone calls seven days per week. These inmates actually serve the counties that they are in by fighting fires and providing selfless forestry safety. They are trusted to be in the public domain while serving their sentence. Their model behavior is awarded by receiving all the privileges afforded inmates. The phone service is Global*Tel Link-Offender Connect. The calls...
Read moreSubject: Inmate phone calls
Yes, the call still runs through the facility's phone system and the cost comes out of the inmate's account just as it always has. What InmateAid changes is the price of that call.
Here is how the system works. Every jail and prison has a single contract with one phone carrier. Securus, GTL, IC Solutions, Telmate, Paytel, Reliance, CityTeleCoin, and more than twenty others compete to win that contract, and once they have it, they are the only option at that...
Read moreSubject: Inmate phone calls
Phone and commissary accounts remain active and functional right up until the moment of release. There is no early shutdown or wind-down period in the days leading up to a release date.
Whatever balance remains in the account continues to be available for calls, commissary purchases, and other approved uses until the inmate actually walks out. On the day of release, any remaining balance in the trust or commissary account is returned to the inmate in the form of a check...
Read moreSubject: Inmate phone calls
It will take a few days. You wil need to contact the counselor at the facility and explain what you would like them to do. You might have to fax a written and signed letter requesting the block be removed.
