When Can Inmates Make Phone Calls: Schedule, Costs, and Cutoffs

Inmates can make phone calls during the daily hours their facility sets, which in most prisons and jails means a broad window during waking hours, seven days a week. They cannot receive incoming calls, they can only dial numbers already approved on their account, and someone outside has to set up a way to pay before any call connects. So the honest answer to when inmates can make phone calls is: during posted hours, to pre-cleared numbers, once the paperwork and payment are in place.

The Daily Schedule

Every facility sets its own phone hours. Federal prisons are required to publish specific telephone access times, including arrangements for inmates who work evening shifts or have days off.¹ In practice, phones are usually available for a long stretch of the day and remain available on weekends and holidays. The exact window depends on the institution’s security level, staffing, and daily routine.

Federal rules guarantee a floor, not a ceiling. An inmate who hasn’t lost phone privileges through discipline is entitled to at least one call per month.² Most facilities allow far more than that. All calls are outgoing, initiated by the incarcerated person from a facility phone using a personal access code or PIN. If you’re waiting on a call, you cannot dial in.

Who They Can Call

Before an inmate can dial your number, that number has to be on their approved telephone list. In federal prisons the list typically holds up to 30 numbers, though the associate warden can approve more for inmates with large families or similar circumstances.¹ State prisons and county jails set their own limits.

Adding a number is the inmate’s responsibility. They submit the name, number, and relationship to facility staff, who then verify the information and may screen it against law enforcement databases. Numbers tied to crime victims, witnesses in the inmate’s case, or people with active protective orders against the inmate are generally rejected. Verification can take days or weeks, so a call the same week someone is booked is unlikely.

Setting Up a Way to Pay

Being on the approved list isn’t enough on its own. Most facilities contract with a third-party telecommunications provider, and the two largest are Global Tel*Link (GTL) and Securus Technologies. You’ll need to identify which provider the facility uses and open an account.

There are three common billing arrangements:

Prepaid account funded by the person outside, with each call’s cost deducted automatically. This is the most reliable option.
Debit account funded from the inmate’s commissary or facility trust balance.
Collect calls billed to the recipient’s phone carrier.

Prepaid accounts can usually be funded through the provider’s website, app, or phone line. Federal rules now prohibit minimum balance requirements, per-call connection fees on top of per-minute rates, and ancillary charges like account setup fees or paper billing fees.³

Collect calls look like the simplest option but rarely work in practice. Most major wireless carriers, including Verizon, do not support collect call billing, because the third-party billing system collect calls rely on isn’t compatible with cell phone accounts. With most households no longer keeping a landline, collect calling is effectively unavailable to many families. A prepaid account with the facility’s provider is the workaround.

What a Call Actually Looks Like

When an inmate dials out, you hear an automated recording first. It identifies the facility, states that the call is from an incarcerated person, and warns that the call may be monitored and recorded. You then choose to accept or decline. A prepaid account deducts automatically; a collect call to a landline asks you to accept charges.

Calls are time-capped. In federal prisons the standard maximum is 15 minutes per call, with each warden setting the specific limit.¹ Some state facilities go up to 30 minutes. When the clock runs out the call drops. There’s no extending it mid-conversation; the inmate has to hang up and dial again, assuming phones are free and they haven’t hit a daily call limit.

What Calls Cost

Inmate phone calls were notoriously expensive for decades, sometimes topping $1 per minute. The Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act, signed into law in January 2023, gave the FCC authority to cap rates for interstate and intrastate calls and for video communications from correctional facilities.⁴

Under the FCC’s 2025 IPCS Order, these per-minute caps for audio calls took effect on April 6, 2026:⁵

Prisons of any size: $0.11 per minute
Large jails (1,000+ incarcerated people): $0.10 per minute
Medium jails (350–999): $0.12 per minute
Small jails (100–349): $0.13 per minute
Very small jails (50–99): $0.15 per minute
Extremely small jails (under 50): $0.19 per minute

Those caps include a $0.02 per minute allowance for “site commissions,” the payments providers make to facilities for the right to operate there. Where a provider pays no site commission, the caps drop by $0.02 across each tier.⁵ A 15-minute call from a large jail now costs no more than $1.50.

Video Calls

Many facilities now offer video calling, often through tablets issued to inmates. Video is subject to its own FCC rate caps under the same 2025 order, also effective April 6, 2026, ranging from $0.19 per minute in large jails and prisons at the lower end to $0.44 per minute in the smallest jails.⁵ Video typically runs through the same provider as audio, so the prepaid account you set up for phone calls usually covers it. Availability varies, and scheduling can be more restrictive than for voice calls.

Monitoring and the Attorney Exception

Every non-legal call from a correctional facility is monitored and recorded. The warden is required to establish monitoring procedures for security and orderly management of the institution.⁶ Recordings are stored and can be pulled by facility staff, investigators, or prosecutors, and anything said on a monitored call can be used in court. People forget this routinely, with real legal consequences.

Attorney calls are the one exception. Federal regulations prohibit staff from monitoring a properly placed call to an attorney.⁶ The warden also cannot limit the frequency of attorney calls when the inmate shows that mail or visits aren’t adequate substitutes.⁷ For the protection to apply, the attorney’s number must be properly identified and verified on the call system. Reaching a lawyer through a three-way call or an unregistered number does not trigger privilege, and the call will be recorded like any other.

When Phone Access Gets Cut Off

Phone access is treated as a privilege, and it can be taken away. The most common cause is a disciplinary violation: using another inmate’s PIN, dialing unauthorized numbers, attempting three-way calls, or using the phone in connection with criminal activity.⁸ Penalties range from short suspensions to long-term revocation, and drug-related violations can cost both phone and visiting privileges.²

Facility-wide events shut phones down too. Lockdowns triggered by security threats, fights, or investigations stop calls until the situation clears, and the facility has no obligation to notify families. If calls suddenly go quiet for a day or two, a lockdown is one of the likelier explanations.

1
Federal Bureau of Prisons. Program Statement P5264.08 – Inmate Telephone Regulations
2
Federal Bureau of Prisons. Program Statement 5264.07 – Telephone Regulations for Inmates
3
eCFR. 47 CFR Part 64 Subpart FF – Incarcerated Peoples Communications Services
4
Federal Register. Implementation of the Martha Wright-Reed Act – Rates for Interstate Incarcerated Peoples Communication Services
5
Federal Communications Commission. Incarcerated Peoples Communications Services
6
eCFR. 28 CFR 540.102 – Monitoring of Inmate Telephone Calls
7
eCFR. 28 CFR 540.103 – Inmate Telephone Calls to Attorneys
8
U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General. BOP Policy and Practice – Inmate Telephone Use