I don't know. I'm new to it all myself. My understanding here in Oklahoma is no phone cards, but other states are different. Call the prison your husband is in and ask. Our calls cost about $6.00 a day so far.. He just got moved the other day though, new prison might have new costs. But we can narrow it down to 2 calls a week now once visiting starts up.. Everytime my guy has been moved I call the prison to find out all the basic info I need such as how to get a letter to him, how much $$$ how to get it to him.. When I can visit and all that good stuff.. I also go on prisontalk.com and do a search. You have to sign up to search, but it's free and they cover all the states if I'm not mistaken. And you can post with people that have dealt with that particular prison and everything.. It's pretty good.

In Virginia its the same way phone calls are very expensive. My sons can have thier canteen debited for the calls though. We have decided to visit and write.

I have experienced the same high cost with phone calls. The only reason I think they might be that expensive is that they have to be monitored/recorded and that's why the extra cost.

Scott is in MA and I live in MA, so a 20 minute call is about $2.50. He does not have phone cards where he is either. Prison is a huge money maker, so I think that helps to explain the high costs.

I am in Michigan and our calls are about nine dollars for fifteen minutes. You have to set up a prepaid acct. through correctional billing for at least fifty dollars at a time. Its very expensive.

dennis is in tx. fed prison but he can get a phone card but im still paying for the phone card its about $7.00 for 15 min so they are still making money off of us weather they get a phone card or not

Clemon is in prison in Georgia. Our calls are 5.50 for 15 min. But you must set up an account that allows $100 credit account per month or you may pre-pay any account you choose.

PO spent 4 months in county this year on a techinical violation charge and it cost me over 2K in phone calls alone. Total with attorneys, canteen, legal fees, etc this violation is going to total close to 30K...I'm blessed to have him home with me but still shoudl we financially have to go broke over a technicality...what if he had picked up an actual charge.

My husband is in Duluth at a FPC and we are allowed 300 mins a month and 400 during the months of Nov. and Dec. I usually put 70.00 on his books that he transfers to his phone account. When I average it out we are paying roughly .234 cents a minute. Is there anyway for your loved ones to send a copy of their handbook page that relates to the phones? If they are not allowed phone cards there may be a way to put the money on their books for phones only. Just a thought.

I have to set up an account so my daughter can call collect. It is about 4.00 for 10 minutes. We keep to writing and our visits and she calls once a week or two weeks. We just try to do with what we have.

My son is in Ohio and we are in Illinois. Calls were costing us about $100 a week. It was awful because we don't have that kind of money. Finally, we bought a cell phone, the kind where you just add minutes as you need them - no contract. We gave a fake address in the town he's in and boy has that made a difference. They were about $15-20 per call before and now it's down to about $3-4 depending on the length of time. They, too cannot have phone cards.

They need to do what the state of NY did, fight it. We had MCI, they sold the contract to GTL, the calls in NY now are about half of what they were, used to be almost $9.00 dollars for 30 minutes, give or take their about $5.00 dollars now, but there was a Class Action Law Suit in the state of NY. They are trying for the phone cards, not happening so far. It takes a lot of gripes into legislation, and a few years to make possible changes.