Federal prison FAQ # Phones, mail, and communication Three hundred minutes, five cents a minute, and every word of it recorded. How contact actually works, and the specific ways it breaks. The phone ## Minutes, limits, and the meter ### How many minutes do I get? Three hundred a month, and four hundred in November and December. Individual calls cut off at fifteen minutes, and after each one you wait thirty minutes before you can place another. Some institutions layer a daily cap on top of that. Your facility handbook is the authority on yours, and it is one of the few sections of that document worth reading on day one. The monthly allowance has moved more than once in the last several years. Treat the number above as current-but-checkable rather than carved anywhere. ### Why did my call cut off mid-sentence? You hit a limit — per call, per day, or per month. There are warnings before it happens. ### What happens if I burn through all my phone minutes? Can I just buy more? Unofficially, yes, and men who do not use theirs sell the remainder. It is one of the most common transactions on the compound. There is measurable risk in it. Use of another inmate's account is a prohibited act, so understand that you are trading a shot (a disciplinary write-up) for a phone call before you do it. What the rest of that market looks like is in [the economy](/going-in/while-youre-in/the-economy). ### Are calls recorded? All of them. Absolutely. And they get pulled. ### Can I three-way a call? Don't. It is a prohibited act, the system is specifically listening for it, and it is one of the easier things to get caught doing. Do not discuss it on a recorded line either, which is every line. ### Can I call my lawyer? Does that count against my minutes? You can, and yes, it comes out of your minutes. Your lawyer can also arrange a legal call through the facility, which does not. That route is unmonitored, which is the more important difference. [PS 1315.08, Inmate Legal Activities](/resources/program-statements/1315-08-inmate-legal-activities) is the policy your lawyer's office should be citing when they set it up. The other end ## When the call will not go through ### Why can't my mom's phone accept my calls? In my case, because my mom is dead. In yours, most likely because the number is not a real line. The system requires the person answering to press a key to accept the call, and some virtual number services do not pass that keypress through. Google Voice is the usual culprit. There are workarounds and they need to be set up before you go, not after. Have whoever is on the outside read [the phone and messages chapter of the family guide](/for-families/guide/phone-and-messages) and test the number before you report. ### What if someone won't accept my calls? Then they will not accept your calls. There is nothing to do about it and it will hurt. Everything else ## Email, mail, and the internet ### Can I email? What does it cost? It is technically a messaging system but everyone calls it email. Five cents a minute to read, five cents a minute to write. Your side is TRULINCS (the inmate email/phone/money system, all monitored), their side is CorrLinks (the app families use to message inside), you initiate the contact, and everything is reviewed in both directions before it lands. No attachments, no photos. The rules are annotated in [PS 5265.13](/resources/program-statements/5265-13-trulincs-electronic-messaging). ### Can I get on the internet? No. ### What's a tech service? No answer yet This one came in from a reader and my draft answer got cut off before I finished it, which is a bad reason to publish half of one. I would rather leave it open than guess at what the person asking meant. If you know the answer to this one, [send it to me](mailto:josh@federalprisondude.com?subject=FAQ%20answer) and I will write it up and credit nobody, which is how everyone seems to prefer it. Next section — part 6 of 16 ### [Money](/going-in/faq/money) The commissary cap, the store, two-for-one, and IFRP. There is no cash in here, which is why nearly everything you do economically becomes a debt. For your people ## Hand the rest of this site to your family You will not be able to look things up once you're inside. They can, and this is where: [everything written for the one waiting](/for-families) — a twelve-part guide to mail, visiting, money, and your release date, plus their own FAQ and checklist. Alongside it, a [guide to every facility](/resources/facilities) with [email alerts when visiting stops](/lockdown-alerts/subscribe), the [support group directory](/resources/support-groups), calculators for your release math, and [free answers](/contact) when they have questions. Send them the link before you report, not after they can't reach you. **Need help with this? Just ask.** These pages cover the general rules. Your situation has details they don't. Email me a question. **Answers are free** , and "you don't need to pay anyone for this" is my most common answer. [josh@federalprisondude.com](mailto:josh@federalprisondude.com?subject=FAQ%20question) I answer in the order received, usually within a couple of days. I have a day job. If your situation genuinely needs more than an email, I take a limited number of consults, so say so and we'll work it out.