Children and Incarceration in New York: A Complete Guide

On August 1, 2025, New York State made phone calls from its state prisons free. The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision did not wait for the state legislature to act; previous bills to eliminate phone call costs had stalled in Albany for years. Commissioner Daniel Martuscello made the change administratively, announcing that DOCCS would pay Securus Technologies 1.5 cents per minute on behalf of incarcerated individuals and their families, at a cost of roughly $9 million per year.

When the announcement came, Manhattan Assemblymember Harvey Epstein said: "No one should be profiting off a child's phone call to their parent. This is a commonsense, compassionate policy and long overdue." That sentence names what this article is about. The financial barrier between an incarcerated parent in a New York state facility and the child waiting at home is now gone. The question is what both parents do with the access that created.

I went into the federal system, not DOCCS. I went in when my kids were 9, 11, 12, 15, 18, and 20. What I know from 66 months is that removing the cost barrier is the first step. What the parent does with the access is the step that actually reaches the child.

The NYC to upstate axis

New York State has 44 to 54 active correctional facilities, most of them upstate. Clinton Correctional Facility is in Dannemora, near the Canadian border, roughly 300 miles north of New York City. Attica Correctional Facility is in Wyoming County, near Buffalo, close to 400 miles from the Bronx. More than half of DOCCS' population comes from New York City. The Correctional Association of New York found that people convicted in New York City tend to be placed farther from their commitment counties than people convicted in other parts of the state.

This is the same pattern that appears in Illinois, Maryland, and Georgia in this series: the largest concentration of families at one end of the state, the facilities at the other. In New York, the distance is extreme by eastern standards. A mother in East Flatbush whose son is at Clinton near the Canadian border is looking at a bus ride or a drive that takes most of a day each way. For a family without a car, the bus to northern New York is a genuine logistical undertaking.

There are exceptions. Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining is 30 miles north of Midtown Manhattan, accessible by Metro-North rail. Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, the state's maximum-security women's facility, is in Westchester County, an hour from the city by train. These are the facilities where the NYC family base can visit more regularly. They are the exception, not the rule.

What the free calls made possible and what they did not

August 1, 2025, eliminated the cost of the call. It did not eliminate the 300 miles to Clinton. It did not change the bus schedule to Attica. It did not make the North Country closer to the South Bronx.

What it did is remove the most common excuse for not calling. Before August 2025, a DOCCS family managing a tight budget had a financial reason to ration calls. After August 2025, the financial reason is gone. Calls from facility wall phones and from Securus tablets are both free. There is no cap on the number of calls.

Video visits and electronic messaging were explicitly not included in the free call policy. Those remain fee-based through Securus. The free access is for voice calls only.

What this means for a child in the Bronx whose parent is at Clinton: the parent can call every day, at no cost, from a facility in the North Country. The child can hear the parent's voice every day if the parent initiates it. That parent who does not call the 9-year-old, now that the call is free, is making a choice that has nothing to do with money.

The decision New York's distance does not make for either parent

My wife never said a word against me to our six children during 66 months. She had every reason. She had six kids in a situation I had created. She chose to let them love me without penalty. What I have with my adult children today is the direct result of that choice.

The parent inside a New York state facility carries the same obligation. The free Securus call from Clinton or Attica or Green Haven or wherever DOCCS has placed them is the contact the child gets if the parent makes it happen. Use it. Call on a consistent schedule. Ask what happened at school. Remember what the child said last time. Ask about it by name this time.

New York removed the last financial excuse for silence. The remaining choice is entirely the parent's.

What the ages mean in New York

My children were 9, 11, 12, 15, 18, and 20 when I went in.

The 9-year-old in the South Bronx or East Flatbush or Jamaica, Queens, whose parent is at a facility 300 miles north, needs the same thing every 9-year-old in this series needs: to hear directly and often that none of what happened is their fault. Children under 10 build private, silent explanations for a parent's absence. The explanation they most often reach is that they caused it. In New York, where the call is now free and unlimited, there is no cost reason to not say it every day. Say it on every call: this is not your fault. I love you. I am still your parent. The North Country is far from Brooklyn. The call is not.

The 11 and 12-year-old in New York City is navigating middle school in one of the most complex and stratified cities in the world, where the visible fact of inequality is present in every school cafeteria. A parent's incarceration at this age, in this context, is a fact the child carries into school environments that are already demanding. That child may be in a school where other children also have incarcerated parents, where the experience is not invisible in the way it might be in a wealthy suburb. But the normalization of the experience in the community does not reduce what the child specifically needs from the incarcerated parent: to feel that their parent is tracking their specific life, not just checking in on the general situation. The incarcerated parent who uses DOCCS' free call to contact the child daily, who asks real questions and remembers the answers week to week, who demonstrates consistent attention to the child's specific world across the miles, is maintaining a presence that the 300 miles were designed to eliminate. Do not let the distance win.

The 15-year-old in New York City has likely been navigating the situation for years. They know both parents clearly. They know whether the calls are genuine or obligatory. A free call that is used for obligation looks exactly like a paid call used for obligation. Call to listen. Ask and stay with the answer. The teenager who believes the incarcerated parent is genuinely present will answer. The one who does not will stop.

The 18 and 20-year-old is an adult making choices. Show up as someone worth the choice they make.

What the outside parent carries in New York

The outside parent in New York City is managing children, a household, and the logistics of incarceration in one of the most expensive cities in the world, while the incarcerated parent may be in a facility eight hours away by car or bus. They are navigating the DOCCS visitation system, managing children's questions about when the parent is coming home, and making the trip upstate when the finances and the schedule allow.

What they need from the incarcerated parent is acknowledgment. One free call where the person inside names specifically what they see the outside parent carrying and says thank you for it, in genuine and specific terms, is worth more than any instruction delivered from Clinton or Attica. My wife carried six children through 66 months. She deserved to hear that I saw it. I said so as often as the access allowed.

For the outside parent: in New York, where the calls are now free and the channel is always open, what you say in front of the children about the incarcerated parent is the choice that still costs something. The bus to Clinton is eight hours. The call to Clinton is free and takes as long as the conversation lasts. Between those contacts, in the apartment or the house or wherever the family lives, what the children hear you say about the incarcerated parent is what they will believe. Choose carefully. My wife never said anything against me. What I have now is what that made possible.

How communication works in New York

Phone calls from all DOCCS facilities have been free since August 1, 2025. Calls from both facility wall phones and Securus tablets are included. There is no cap on number of calls. The state pays Securus 1.5 cents per minute. Families do not need a funded Securus account to receive calls, but may need to set up a Securus account at securustech.net or 1-800-844-6591. Note: video visits and electronic messaging are NOT included in the free call policy and remain fee-based through Securus.

DOCCS also increased gate money from $40 to $200 for people upon release, eliminated work release program fees, and expanded Wi-Fi access and secure messaging on tablets.

For in-person visitation: visit the DOCCS website at doccs.ny.gov for facility-specific visiting schedules, rules, and visitor registration requirements. Children under 18 must be accompanied by an authorized adult.

DOCCS inmate lookup: doccs.ny.gov. DOCCS headquarters: 1220 Washington Avenue, Harriman State Campus, Albany, NY 12226. Phone: (518) 457-8126.

Key facilities near NYC: Sing Sing Correctional Facility (Ossining; 30 miles north of Midtown; maximum; Metro-North accessible). Bedford Hills Correctional Facility (Westchester County; maximum; women; Metro-North accessible).

Federal inmates in New York fall under BOP jurisdiction. BOP communication uses TRULINCS for email via CORRLINKS and TRUFONE for phone. FCC rate caps apply; First Step Act programming offers 300 free minutes per month.

Where this leaves you

New York made phone calls free. Commissioner Martuscello said the department recognizes the critical role that strong family bonds play in rehabilitation and long-term success. Assemblymember Epstein said no one should be profiting off a child's phone call to their parent.

Both of those statements are about what was being paid for before August 2025. What they do not address is what the parent does with the free call now that it is available. That question is entirely the parent's.

Call every day. That is available now in New York in a way it was not before August 2025. Call on a consistent schedule so the child knows when to expect to hear from you. Say what the 9-year-old needs to hear. Track the middle schooler week by week, asking about the specific things in the specific child's specific life. Listen to the teenager without a lecture prepared. Acknowledge what the outside parent is carrying across the 300 miles and the bus schedule and the years, and say thank you for it directly and specifically.

The distance from Clinton to the Bronx has not changed. The cost of the call has. The call is free. The attention is the remaining choice. Make it.