Why Is Securus Charging Long Distance on My Local Number?

This is a known and deliberate practice by Securus, and understanding why it is happening helps explain what can be done about it.

Background: prison phone carriers like Securus were previously blocking local numbers from being used to receive inmate calls, effectively forcing families to use long distance numbers and pay the higher rates. A federal lawsuit challenged that practice and Securus lost. Rather than simply comply with the ruling, Securus shifted tactics. They are now classifying certain local numbers as long distance in their billing system regardless of the actual geographic rate center, which produces the same financial outcome for the company while technically claiming compliance with the court order.

This is a deliberate circumvention of state tariff rules and is exactly the kind of predatory practice that prison phone reform advocates have been fighting for years. The problem continues because regulatory enforcement is slow and the affected population has limited political leverage.

What InmateAid has found works in response is providing members with out-of-state area code numbers that Securus's system treats as local in the relevant rate center. It is a counterintuitive solution, an out-of-state number billed at local rates, but it produces the result that a genuinely local number should be producing and is not.

If you are currently being charged long distance rates on what should be a local number, contact InmateAid directly. We can assess your situation and get you a number that achieves the local rate regardless of how Securus is classifying the current one.