Parenting From Prison in Montana

INMATEAID EDITORIAL ARTICLE

Schema: Article + FAQPage

Internal links: Montana inmate search, send money, visitation guide (MTDOC), Staying Connected hub, Montana reentry resources

SOURCING NOTE: MTDOC tablets/GettingOut (official cor.mt.gov/FriendsandFamily/StayingConnected page; every DOC-run facility provides inmates with a tablet; all communication through tablet - phone calls, messaging, video via GettingOut ICS Solutions platform; ALL communication through tablets INITIATED by inmate via email invitation; family/friends should NOT create GettingOut account until they receive invitation from inmate; tablet access may be turned off without warning for security reasons for hours to days); video visits (official cor.mt.gov; one FREE 10-minute video visit per week per inmate; after that $0.25/minute; initiated from tablets connected to docking stations in units; online scheduling of video visits is NO LONGER AVAILABLE; visits happen through tablet system); phone calls (ICS Solutions/ICS Corrections; debit calling to any approved number); mail (ICS Corrections page; include full facility name and state, inmate's name and AO number; sender's full name and physical address on top left envelope; all personal mail reviewed; delivery not guaranteed if violates MTDOC policy); in-person visitation (official cor.mt.gov/FriendsandFamily/In-Person-Visitation; online Okta account required FIRST before applying; review process up to 90 days usually less; one visit per week max; high side up to 5 visitors; low side up to 3 visitors; Low Side MSP moved to different location April 19 2025 due to space restrictions fewer slots available; schedule online via ICS Solutions website first come first served; Montana Women's Prison all visits must be scheduled online since August 1 2025; MWP visiting hours Tue/Fri 7-8:30 PM, Sat/Sun 8:30-10:30 AM and 1:30-3:30 PM; no regular visitation third Saturday of each month); Constituent Services Manager Renee Seiller-McDaniel (406) 444-1680 RMcDaniel@mt.gov; MTDOC uses "inmates"; structure (MSP Deer Lodge; MWP Billings; Pine Hills CF Miles City youth+adults; Riverside Special Needs Unit; Crossroads CC private Shelby; Dawson County CF private Glendive; HQ 5 South Last Chance Gulch Helena MT 59620; 406-444-3930); geography (large sparsely populated state; MSP in Deer Lodge 4+ hours from Billings; MWP in Billings; Pine Hills in Miles City; families scattered across MT plains and mountains); BOP federal Montana (no major BOP facility in Montana; federal cases go to regional facilities; BOP TRULINCS/CorrLinks 300 min/month, 15-min call cap, $0.06/min audio per FCC Jan 2025, TRULINCS $0.05/min compose, 30 contacts max, no attachments); county jails (56 Montana counties; vary by vendor; confirm with specific facility).

SAFETY/EDITORIAL GUARDRAILS: Voice = knowledgeable formerly-incarcerated parent, warm, direct, personal. Montana structural hooks: (1) tablet-first system - inmate sends invitation, family creates GettingOut account ONLY after receiving invitation; (2) one FREE 10-min video visit per week; (3) online video scheduling no longer available - happens through tablet docking station; (4) Okta account required before visitation application; (5) 90-day approval timeline among longest in series. MTDOC uses "inmates." Scott's firsthand woven as narrative. No em dashes, no smart quotes, no double hyphens.

Parenting From Prison in Montana

Montana runs its correctional communication through a tablet-first system, and the tablet comes with something worth knowing from the first day: every inmate at a Montana Department of Corrections facility receives one free 10-minute video visit per week. Not a discount. Not a reduced rate. Free, once a week, every week.

After that first 10 minutes, video visits cost $0.25 per minute. But the weekly free window exists and it belongs to you. For a parent who has children scattered across a state that is the fourth largest in the country by area, a free video visit that can happen every week is not a small thing. It is the regular face-to-face contact that keeps a child connected to the parent they cannot easily drive to see.

There is a specific sequence your family needs to follow to use this system, and knowing the sequence before you try to navigate it is how you avoid the most common weeks of lost contact. This guide covers the sequence, the system, and what you do with the access once you have it.

The GettingOut Tablet: How the Invitation Works

Every DOC-run facility in Montana provides inmates with a tablet. Phone calls, messaging, and video visits all run through the GettingOut platform on that tablet. The key rule that families most often do not know until something goes wrong: **all communication through the tablets is initiated by the inmate via an email invitation.** Your family should NOT create a GettingOut account until they receive that invitation from you.

This is not how most platforms work. In most states, the family creates an account first, searches for the inmate, and requests contact. In Montana, the inmate sends the invitation. The family receives it. Then the family creates the GettingOut account. If the family creates a GettingOut account before the invitation arrives and then tries to connect, the process may not link correctly.

Write to your family as soon as you can. Tell them: do not create a GettingOut account yet. Wait for the email invitation from me. When it arrives, follow the instructions in the invitation to create the account. From that point, messaging, phone calls, and video visits are all accessible through GettingOut.

One other reality to prepare your family for: tablet access can be turned off at any time, for hours or even days, without warning, for security reasons. MTDOC instructs families not to contact facilities to ask when tablets will be available. The access is real and available most of the time, but it is not guaranteed at any specific hour, and your family needs to know that a gap in communication does not necessarily mean something has happened to you.

The Free Weekly Video Visit: Using 10 Minutes Well

Every week, you receive one free 10-minute video visit. Initiate it from your tablet when it is connected to a docking station in your unit. **Online scheduling of video visits is no longer available** - the visit does not require advance scheduling through a website. It happens through the tablet when you connect to the docking station and initiate the call.

For a parent, 10 free minutes per week is a precise allocation. It is enough to make one child feel they were the focus of the week's video contact. Not two children, not the whole family - one call where one child sees your face, hears your voice, and has your undivided attention for 10 minutes.

Know before you initiate the video call which child this week's free visit belongs to. Know what you want to ask them. Know what you want them to see in your face: that you are okay, that you are present, that you are thinking about them. Ten minutes goes quickly when the child starts talking and the conversation opens up. Let it open up. Ask the real question and then listen. The 10 minutes should belong to them, not to you.

If you need more video time, additional video after the free 10 minutes costs $0.25 per minute. A 30-minute video call costs an additional $5.00 beyond the free portion. Keep the commissary account funded if extended video visits are something the family wants to use.

Phone Calls Through ICS Solutions

Voice calls in Montana go through ICS Solutions (ICS Corrections), also accessible through the tablet platform. Calls are outgoing only, to approved numbers, and all calls are monitored. Debit calling allows calls to any number approved by the facility.

For parents, the phone call runs on a different rhythm from the video visit. The video call lets your child see your face. The phone call is your voice in their ear, available any time the calling window is open rather than only during the weekly free video window. Use both.

The phone call to your child follows the same discipline described throughout this series: one child, one specific question, full attention, I love you at the end. Montana is a large state with children scattered across plains and mountains and small cities, and a phone call that arrives on a Tuesday evening after school is a form of presence that the geography cannot erase.

In-Person Visiting: The Okta Step, the 90-Day Wait, and the Drive

Montana's visitor application process has a step that most families do not expect: before you can apply to visit, you must create an **Okta account**. Okta is the identity management platform MTDOC uses for its online application portal. MTDOC provides Okta Account Creation Instructions on its website. Without an Okta account, you cannot access the visitor application at all.

Once the Okta account is created, the visitor application can be submitted online. The review process may take up to 90 days, though MTDOC notes it is usually less. That 90-day window is among the longest in this series. Start the application early, not when a visit is being planned.

**One visit per week maximum.** High side facilities allow up to five visitors per visit; low side allows up to three. At Montana State Prison, visitation on the low side moved to a new location within the prison starting April 19, 2025 due to space restrictions, and fewer visiting slots are available for the foreseeable future. Visits are scheduled online through the ICS Solutions website on a first-come, first-served basis. Scheduling is still required even though the location changed.

**Montana Women's Prison** requires all visits to be scheduled online in advance since August 1, 2025. Visiting hours: Tuesdays and Fridays 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM, Saturdays and Sundays 8:30 to 10:30 AM and 1:30 to 3:30 PM. No regular visitation on the third Saturday of each month.

**The geographic reality.** Montana is vast. Montana State Prison is in Deer Lodge, in the Rocky Mountain foothills. Montana Women's Prison is in Billings, in the eastern plains. Pine Hills Correctional Facility is in Miles City, even farther east. A family in Billings visiting someone at MSP faces a 4-plus hour drive. A family in Missoula visiting someone at MWP faces a comparable drive in the other direction.

For those families, the weekly free video visit and the GettingOut messaging channel are not supplements to the in-person visit. They are the primary relationship. Use them as such.

Mail in Montana: The AO Number and What Must Be on the Envelope

Sending mail to a Montana state inmate requires specific information on the envelope: the inmate's full name and their **AO number** (their Montana DOC ID), the facility's full name and state, and the sender's full name and physical address clearly written in the top left corner.

All personal mail is reviewed. Delivery is not guaranteed if it violates MTDOC policy. Make sure the content is appropriate and the format is followed, because a letter that does not arrive because of an envelope error is a gap in the contact your child was counting on.

The handwritten letter remains available and still does something the GettingOut message cannot: it arrives as a physical object with your handwriting. For a child in Billings or Miles City or Great Falls, a letter from Deer Lodge or whatever facility holds their parent is proof that a human being sat down and thought about them specifically. That proof is worth the effort even when the tablet system makes messaging more convenient.

Write to each child individually. One letter per child, their name at the top, their world inside it. Ask the real question. Give them something to respond to. The mail travels separately from the GettingOut system, and a child who receives both a message through GettingOut and a physical letter through the mail gets both forms of presence, each doing what only it can do.

School in Montana: Writing to the Season

Montana's school year, its winter sports culture, its ag community connections, its open sky and specific weather - all of that is the calendar your children live inside. A letter that arrives the week before the school science fair, or the morning after a Thursday night basketball game, or the last week of school in May before the long summer break, is a letter from a parent who knows where their child is in time.

Use the GettingOut messaging system for the daily thread. Use the weekly video visit for the face-to-face moment that only video provides. Use the phone call for the voice that grounds them. And use the letter for the thing that lingers: the specific challenge, the real question, the drawing in the margin that proves you were thinking about this particular child on this particular day.

That combination, across weeks and months and years, builds the record of a parent who showed up. From Deer Lodge or Billings or Miles City, that record is what your children carry.

For the Family Holding Montana Together

Three things before anything else: wait for the GettingOut invitation before creating an account. Create the Okta account now so you can access the visitor application. Start the visitor application early because the review can take up to 90 days.

Then: keep the commissary account funded for paid communication services beyond the free weekly video visit. Schedule in-person visits through the ICS Solutions website when you are approved. Confirm MWP's specific schedule if that is where your person is housed.

If you have questions about the process, Constituent Services Manager Renee Seiller-McDaniel is reachable at (406) 444-1680 or RMcDaniel@mt.gov. That is a specific person at a specific number, not a general helpline. Use it.

And do the harder work that no system can mandate. The free weekly video visit is only as useful as what happens in those 10 minutes. The GettingOut message only matters if it says something real. The letter only lands if it was written to a specific child about their specific life. Montana has given you a tablet, a free video window, and a messaging system. What makes it parenting is the intention you bring to every minute of it.

Federal Inmates From Montana: The Regional BOP

Montana does not have a major Bureau of Prisons facility. Federal defendants from Montana are generally housed at regional BOP facilities in the Northwest or elsewhere in the West, depending on security level and classification. If you are in federal custody and housed out of state, the national BOP standard applies.

**Phone.** Three hundred minutes per month, 15-minute call caps at $0.06 per minute, plus 100 extra minutes in November and December. Unlike Montana state's tablet-based free video visit, federal calls cost money from the first minute. Make every call count.

**TRULINCS and CorrLinks.** The BOP email platform costs $0.05 per minute to compose on your end and is free for the family. Up to 30 approved contacts, text only, no attachments. For a Montana family with a loved one housed across the country in a federal facility, the TRULINCS email is the daily contact that fills the weeks between the scheduled phone calls.

FAQ

**How does the GettingOut tablet system work in Montana?** Every inmate at a Montana DOC-run facility receives a tablet. All communication runs through GettingOut on the tablet. The inmate initiates contact by sending an email invitation to family and friends. Family should NOT create a GettingOut account until they receive that invitation. After creating an account, they can exchange messages, phone calls, and video visits through GettingOut.

**Does Montana offer free video visits?** Yes. Each inmate receives one free 10-minute video visit per week. After the free 10 minutes, video visits cost $0.25 per minute. Video visits are initiated from the tablet through a docking station in the unit. Online scheduling of video visits is no longer available.

**Can tablet access be interrupted?** Yes. MTDOC states that tablet access may be turned off at any time, for hours to days, without warning for security reasons. Families should not contact facilities to ask when tablets will be available. A gap in contact does not necessarily mean something has gone wrong.

**How do I apply to visit someone at a Montana state prison?** You must first create an Okta account through MTDOC's website. Once you have the Okta account, you can submit the online visitor application. The review process may take up to 90 days. Visits are limited to one per week. Schedule through the ICS Solutions website on a first-come, first-served basis.

**What are the visiting hours at Montana Women's Prison?** Since August 1, 2025, all MWP visits must be scheduled online in advance. Visiting hours are Tuesdays and Fridays from 7:00 to 8:30 PM, and Saturdays and Sundays from 8:30 to 10:30 AM and 1:30 to 3:30 PM. There is no regular visitation on the third Saturday of each month.

**What information is required on mail sent to a Montana state inmate?** The envelope must include the inmate's full name and AO number, the full name of the facility and state, and the sender's full name and physical address on the top left corner. All personal mail is reviewed and delivery is not guaranteed if it violates MTDOC policy.

**Who do I contact if I have questions about the Montana system?** Constituent Services Manager Renee Seiller-McDaniel is available at (406) 444-1680 or RMcDaniel@mt.gov. MTDOC's main number is (406) 444-3930.

[Affiliate handling: Product-light parenting spoke - NO external affiliate links. Internal CTAs only (standard 5): Montana inmate search, send money, visitation guide MTDOC, Staying Connected hub, Montana reentry resources. SOURCING: MTDOC tablets/GettingOut (official cor.mt.gov/FriendsandFamily/StayingConnected; every DOC-run facility provides tablet; all communication initiated by inmate via email invitation; family should NOT create GettingOut account until invitation received; tablet access may be turned off without warning hours to days; GettingOut ICS Solutions platform); video visits (official cor.mt.gov; one FREE 10-min video visit per week; after that $0.25/min; initiated from tablets at docking stations; online scheduling NO LONGER AVAILABLE); phone calls (ICS Solutions/ICS Corrections; debit calling to approved numbers); mail (ICS Corrections MTDOC page; full facility name and state, inmate name and AO number, sender full name and physical address top left; all personal mail reviewed; delivery not guaranteed if violates policy); in-person visitation (official cor.mt.gov/FriendsandFamily/In-Person-Visitation; Okta account required FIRST; visitor application after Okta; review up to 90 days usually less; one visit/week max; high side up to 5 visitors; low side up to 3; Low Side MSP moved new location April 19 2025 fewer slots; schedule online ICS Solutions website first come first served; MWP all visits online since August 1 2025; MWP Tue/Fri 7-8:30 PM, Sat/Sun 8:30-10:30 AM and 1:30-3:30 PM; no regular visitation third Saturday); Constituent Services Manager Renee Seiller-McDaniel (406) 444-1680 RMcDaniel@mt.gov; MTDOC uses "inmates"; structure (MSP Deer Lodge; MWP Billings 701 S 27th St; Pine Hills Miles City; Riverside Special Needs Unit; Crossroads CC private Shelby; Dawson County CF private Glendive; HQ 5 South Last Chance Gulch Helena MT 59620; 406-444-3930); geography (large state; MSP Deer Lodge 4+ hours from Billings; MWP Billings; Pine Hills Miles City; families across MT plains/mountains); BOP federal Montana (no major BOP facility; regional BOP facilities; TRULINCS/CorrLinks 300 min/month + 100 Nov-Dec, 15-min cap, $0.06/min audio per FCC Jan 2025, TRULINCS $0.05/min compose, 30 contacts max, no attachments); county jails (56 Montana counties; vary by vendor). GUARDRAILS: no em dashes, no smart quotes, no double hyphens; warm/direct/personal voice; tablet-first system + invitation sequence + free weekly video as structural hooks; Okta requirement + 90-day approval timeline as practical urgency; "inmates" used in MTDOC context. Scott firsthand woven as narrative. NOTE for Poorwa: verify free 10-min weekly video visit still in effect per current cor.mt.gov; verify GettingOut/ICS Solutions still MTDOC tablet platform; verify inmate-sends-invitation sequence is still current; verify Okta account required for visitor application; verify 90-day review timeline; verify MWP visiting hours + online-only requirement since Aug 1 2025; verify Low Side MSP space restriction; verify Constituent Services Renee Seiller-McDaniel (406) 444-1680 RMcDaniel@mt.gov current; len()/character check before publish.]