How can prisoners call cell phones

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.

The percentage is redacted. Part of the new phone system should be to allow inmates to make free calls to an approved list of people, Spratt said.

About 70 per cent of inmates in Ontario's adult correctional facilities are on remand, Ontario's auditor general said in her recent annual report, meaning those people haven't been convicted or sentenced.

Once verified a prisoner will be able to make authorised phone calls to loved ones. Prisoners can transfer money from their prisoner account to their telephone account. This can be set up to happen weekly or monthly. The telephone account can also be topped up.

Prisoners can change the numbers listed by requesting the form from their case officer. Prisoners can also change their PIN number. Prisoners can change the numbers listed by requesting the form from their case officer or unit staff. Numbers can be substituted but prisoners are unable to have more than 10 numbers of their contact list. These numbers are already entered into the telephone system and are accessed by a quick dial code. To make call prisoners must have money in their telephone account.

When the prisoner calls a number the recipient will get a recorded message asking if they want to accept the call. You can remove a block on your telephone number by calling the GTL customer service department at Please note there are other reasons why your phone number may be blocked from receiving collect calls from correctional facilities.

These include:. Funding Prepaid Accounts via Lobby Kiosk. Funding is not limited to accounts that receive calls from these facilities. Browsers that can not handle javascript will not be able to access some features of this site. Some functions of this site are disabled for browsers blocking jQuery. Prisoners can make telephone calls using the following options: COLLECT: Prisoners can call certain approved numbers and the call charges will appear on the called party's monthly phone bill.

For any questions regarding these calling options, please call GTL at Here is some additional information regarding the setup and funding of Prepaid Accounts: Customers receiving calls from MDOC prisons may fund up to three prepaid accounts phone number to be called with a single transaction and single fee charge when processed through a customer service agent.

Please contact GTL at if you are interested in funding more than one prepaid account with a single transaction. There is no minimum deposit for transactions done via the web, IVR or over the phone. However, note that collect calls cannot be made to cell phones, office phones, or hospital numbers. For any questions regarding our calling options, friends and family members should call GTL at There are several ways to receive calls from inmates, including collect, prepaid collect, and inmate debit calls.

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.