If you are a contact for someone who might be jailed, there are important limitations you should know as the recipient of that call from jail or prison.
- Does your phone network provider even allow "collect" calls on your phone service plan? Check that detail first. Calls from jail are collect, meaning that the recipient must acknowledge they will accept the cost for any communication before it is connected.
https://fairpunishment.org/how-to-accept-collect-calls-from-jail-on-cell-phone-for-free/
- TURN OFF wifi calling on your smart phone, if you are expecting such a call. Collect service is limited to cellular network. If the call routes through wifi, they will NOT be able to reach you.
- Your phone number also cannot be called if it uses a transfer service like Google Phone and others. Prisons frown upon such transfers and they may disable those numbers as destinations. To be useful as an jail contact, you need to share with people the direct number to your phone, not the privacy-filtered number provided by a service. Prisoners at long-term facilities may have better options than short-term prisoners at county jail.
I don't know that any of these limitations are what prevented me from talking with anyone outside my cell. I just know that I repeatedly (!) used their phones to call 3 different outside destinations, but I never succeeded at reaching anyone that way. It was bothersome. |
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