How can inmates call cell phones

Gabby Aquino, a law student with the Toronto Prisoners' Rights Project, said the restrictions make it virtually impossible for some inmates to reach family and other contacts.

Kristy Denette, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of the Solicitor General, said the government is working on a procurement process for a new, modern inmate phone system that will include calls to cellphones and international numbers. The existing contract, with Bell, expires in June and the company said it has submitted a new proposal for services. He slammed Bell for promoting Bell Let's Talk day, but at the same time making it difficult for inmates suffering from mental health issues to access their support systems.

In , Spratt obtained documents under a Freedom of Information request that show Bell pays the ministry a certain amount of "gross revenue generated by all calls made from all telephones" in the offender telephone system.

Inmates have the option of placing collect calls to telephone numbers approved by the correctional facility. Collect calls are billed to the called party every month through their phone carrier company.

If you receive a high number of collect calls, you may have reached the billing limit allowed by your local phone company. Once you reach a maximum phone bill amount, you may be at a risk of being blocked from receiving future collect calls from an inmate. In such instances, you can call GTL at to sign up for a prepaid calling account and begin receiving calls again. Please note in order to receive calls to cell phones, inmates must call either prepaid collect or use their inmate debit calling account.

There are multiple ways to block calls from inmates as needed. The call will be disconnected and the inmate will be informed their call was not accepted. You will be asked to provide a 4-digit personal identification number PIN to confirm the block. This PIN will be required to remove the block in the future if needed. You can also call the GTL customer service department at , and they will be able to help block future calls from a facility. If you are being physically threatened, you should contact your local law enforcement agency to obtain a Personal Protection Order.

If you are receiving unwanted correspondence or telephone calls from an inmate, you should contact the Superintendent at the facility where the inmate is currently being housed.

We will make every effort to restrict contact from the inmate after your request is approved. Well the answer is complicated If the person just got arrested they will be allowed to call after the booking process happens. If they have been sentenced it could be a while before they are allowed to call anyone, to understand why you must first understand the process the inmate is going through.

Many years ago inmates were locked up and let out when their time was up, it was a model of incarceration based around punishment. Today, correctional facilities have adopted a model of rehabilitation, which focuses on figuring out why the inmate committed the crime in the first place, and then trying to recondition the inmate into being a productive member of society. To successfully rehabilitate inmates, they must first be classified and given a thorough medical, physical, and psychological examination during intake.

The intake and classification process, which can take a day to several weeks, restricts inmates from having visitors, making phone calls, and receiving mail. The inmates are observed and tested by staff who will classify the inmate into their proper category, resulting in the inmates permanent assigned location and treatment for whatever the panel deems to have been the root cause of the inmates crime.

All facilities have a set time that inmates are allowed to make calls, sometime between the hours of 8ampm but this time will vary depending on the facility. Inmates usually cannot start making outgoing calls until the morning roundup and count takes place, and if there are problems you can expect there to be a delay in the facility turning the phones on for use. During a lock-down inmates are not allowed to use telephones.

Inmates are allowed to make outgoing calls only, and under no circumstances are incoming calls allowed. The normal method of calling is by collect call cell phones cannot receive collect calls. Inmates can also use pre-paid phone accounts setup through third party vendors. The following are just some of the companies that provide phone services to inmate:.

Some facilities will require that you be on an inmate's approved telephone list. In most cases when the inmate is first admitted they will submit a list of phone numbers that go on this list.