California Prison and Your Kids: What Families Face

I did not serve my time in California. I served 66 months in the federal system, at FCI Miami, and I want to be honest about that from the first sentence. What I know about California comes from thirteen years of helping families navigate incarceration from the outside, not from a cell in any CDCR facility.

I want to start, though, with something about California that I genuinely wish had been true in my case: the phone calls are free.

Since January 1, 2023, all voice calls placed from California state prisons are free -- to the person inside and to the family on the outside. No per-minute charges. A 15-minute call to your child does not cost anyone anything. This was ordered by the state legislature and made real through the CDCR's phone system, and it is one of the most significant things any state has done for incarcerated families in recent years. If your person is in a California state prison, use that. Call as often as you are allowed. The call that used to have to be rationed because of cost does not have to be rationed anymore.

That said, the system is in the middle of a major vendor transition right now, and if your information is more than a few months old, some of what you know about the platform may already be out of date. California families need to know what is changing and what to do about it.

Here is what I know about California, and here is what I know about the part that never changes.

What the California system looks like

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation -- the CDCR -- operates one of the largest prison systems in the world, with more than 30 state prisons and a population of over 90,000 incarcerated people. That scale means the system is more complex to navigate than smaller state systems, but it also means it has resources and services that smaller states do not.

The CDCR main website is cdcr.ca.gov. To locate an incarcerated person, use the California Incarcerated Records and Information Search -- CIRIS -- at the CDCR website or through ca.gov. The main CDCR phone number for family inquiries is 916-445-6713.

The most important thing happening in the California system right now is the transition from ViaPath (formerly GTL) to Securus Technologies for phone and tablet services. Here is what that means for families.

California awarded a new telecommunications contract to Securus in February 2025. The transition from ViaPath to Securus began at individual institutions starting in February 2026 and is rolling out facility by facility through 2026. If your person's institution has already transitioned, you will need to use Securus going forward. If it has not yet transitioned, you are still on ViaPath for now -- but check the transition schedule at cdcr.ca.gov/family-resources/tablets/ because your institution's date may be coming.

One thing that will not transfer is critical: ViaPath messages, photos, and media stored on tablets do not move to the Securus platform. When an institution transitions, incarcerated individuals lose access to the ViaPath content they have accumulated. If your person has saved messages, photos, or media on a ViaPath tablet, they need to print them or download them BEFORE their institution's transition date. They can do this from the tablet or a kiosk. Once the transition happens, that content is gone. Do not wait.

Even through the transition, the core fact holds: phone calls remain free. The calls from CDCR state prisons do not cost the family anything, and that does not change with the vendor.

For commissary and trust account deposits, use ConnectNetwork (ViaPath's platform) until your institution transitions, then switch to Securus. Both platforms are accessible online; check cdcr.ca.gov for current deposit instructions as the transition rolls out.

For visitation, all CDCR visitors must be approved through Form CDCR 106 before any visit. You can submit the form online or by mail. Background checks are conducted. Visitation generally takes place on weekends and state holidays, with visits usually beginning between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m. and ending in the afternoon. The specific schedule and any appointment requirements vary by institution. California also offers something most states do not: extended family visits at select facilities -- 30 to 40 hours in apartment-like visiting units for qualifying incarcerated people and close relatives. Check cdcr.ca.gov/visitors for your institution's current visiting status and schedule.

To schedule a visit, use the CDCR visitation scheduling application at cdcr.gtlvisitme.com/app.

The children in it

California is a large state, and CDCR facilities are spread from San Diego County to the Oregon border. Depending on where your family is located and which institution holds your person, the drive to visit can be long. Families in Los Angeles visiting someone at Pelican Bay, or families in the Central Valley visiting someone at San Quentin, may be looking at several hours of travel each way.

I know what those drives cost a family -- not in California, but in the same fundamental way. My family drove 90 minutes each way to visit me for 66 months. What I also know, and what I would not have believed then, is what those drives built. A doctor who knew us told my wife that when this was over, we would be better off than we were before -- because of all those hours in the car with our children, no screens, just talking. He turned out to be right. The hours that felt like a burden turned into the thing that held the family together.

If you are making long drives in California to see your person, you are not just making a visit. You are building something in your children, hour by hour, in a car where the only thing anyone can do is be present with each other. That is worth naming, even when it is hard.

Now let me say what I know about the children themselves.

My kids ranged from 9 to 20 when I went in, six of them, and what incarceration does to a child depends on their age in ways that are predictable once you know them.

The youngest ones -- 9, 10, 11 -- do not have the cognitive framework to place the blame for a parent's absence outside themselves. Without a clear explanation that is repeated often, they build one, and the one they build usually involves something they did or something they are. You have to say the words plainly and say them every single time: this is not your fault. I love you. I am still your parent. Say it until they believe it over the story they have told themselves. Then say it again.

The middle-school ones are managing a social world where being different from everyone else is expensive. They need you to show up as a parent who is interested in their actual life -- who remembers the name of the teacher they mentioned, who asks about the friend they referenced on the last call. They need ordinary, not tragic.

The teenagers see everything clearly and are watching to see if you are real. The lecture from inside is the fastest way to lose them. Ask questions. Listen to the whole answer. Sit with the opinions you cannot act on. The relationship is worth more than being right.

The young adults are making a decision. You earn your place in it by what you do, not what you say.

The outside-parent angle in California

California's free phone calls change something important for outside parents. In most states, money is a constant variable in how often a family can maintain contact. In California it is not. The financial barrier to calling is gone at the state prison level, which means the only remaining barriers are logistical -- getting on the approved list, managing visit schedules, dealing with the tablet transition -- rather than financial. That is a meaningful difference.

What does not change is the emotional weight on the outside parent. The invisible second sentence that the parent who stays home serves alongside the official one -- managing the children's grief, fielding their questions, holding the household together, deciding every day what to tell them and what to keep from them until they are old enough to carry it.

My wife never said a word against me to our children across 66 months. She had every reason to. She chose not to, and she protected the relationship between me and our kids as if it were worth saving. I came home to children who still wanted me because she made that choice every single day.

If you are the outside parent in California, using the free calls, making the drive to whichever facility holds your person, explaining things to kids at different ages in different ways, doing all of it without a manual -- that work is not invisible, even when it feels like it is. What you are building will be there when the sentence ends.

The practical list for California families

Phone calls: Free from CDCR state prisons since January 1, 2023. No cost to the family. Calls placed through the CDCR's phone platform (currently transitioning from ViaPath to Securus facility by facility starting February 2026).

Platform transition (ViaPath to Securus): Check the transition schedule at cdcr.ca.gov/family-resources/tablets/ for your institution's date. ViaPath messages, photos, and media do NOT transfer -- your person needs to print or save content before the transition date. After transition, use Securus for calls and deposits.

Commissary/trust deposits: Through ConnectNetwork (ViaPath) pre-transition; Securus post-transition. Check cdcr.ca.gov for current deposit instructions.

Visitation: Form CDCR 106 required for approval (online or by mail). Background check conducted. Generally weekends and state holidays. Schedule at cdcr.gtlvisitme.com/app. Check visiting status at cdcr.ca.gov/visitors/visiting-status/.

Extended family visits: Available at select facilities for qualifying incarcerated people and close relatives. 30-40 hours in designated visiting units. Check cdcr.ca.gov for eligibility and availability.

Inmate search: CIRIS at cdcr.ca.gov or 916-445-6713.

Where this leaves you

California has done something important for families: it made the calls free. That matters. Use it. Call on a schedule your children can count on, not just when you can. Consistency is what tells a child you are still their parent from inside.

The tablet transition is the current thing to stay on top of. If your person's institution is moving from ViaPath to Securus, make sure they save everything they want to keep before the transition date. That content does not come back once it is gone.

The visit requires advance approval and a drive that, depending on where you are and where your person is, may be long. Make the drive. Do not skip a visit because it is hard. The hours are not wasted.

I came home from 66 months inside to a family that was still there, still whole, still wanting me. That was not luck. It was work, done on both sides, across the distance, for the entire length of the sentence. California gives you better tools than most states -- free calls, tablets, extended family visits at some facilities. Use all of them. The sentence ends. What you have on the other side of it is built right now.

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