Calling from immigration detention is expensive. This guide compares every major provider, real rates, and free tools families can use right now.
The question families ask within hours of a loved one being detained — "How Much does it Cost to Call From a Immigration Detention Center?" — rarely has a simple answer. Phone rates inside immigration detention facilities vary by provider, contract, and call type, and the difference between a fifteen-cent-per-minute call and a dollar-per-minute call can mean the difference between a family staying connected or going weeks without hearing a familiar voice.
Why Detention Phone Calls Cost So Much
Immigration detention facilities in the United States are operated under contracts with private corporations, county sheriffs, and the federal government. The phone systems inside those facilities are similarly contracted to telecommunications providers who negotiate exclusive agreements with the facility operator. Because families have no ability to shop around or choose a competitor, the provider has enormous pricing power.
The Federal Communications Commission has made repeated efforts to cap rates for calls from correctional and detention facilities. In 2021, the FCC extended its rate caps to cover incarcerated people in jails and prisons more broadly, but immigration detention facilities operated by private contractors under ICE contracts have at times fallen into regulatory gray areas. Advocates have pushed for additional rulemaking to close those gaps.
Per-minute rates in immigration detention have historically ranged from under twenty cents to well over a dollar, depending on the facility and provider contract. A thirty-minute call at a dollar per minute costs thirty dollars — a significant sum for a family already dealing with legal fees, lost income, and the emotional weight of detention. Understanding which provider operates at a specific facility is the first step toward managing those costs.
Some facilities offer debit calling, where the detained person funds their own account, while others use collect calling, where the receiving party pays. A growing number of facilities support prepaid calling plans that allow families to deposit money into an account linked to the detained person's phone access. Each model carries its own fee structure, and connection fees, account setup fees, and payment processing fees can add substantially to the stated per-minute rate.
How ICE Detention Phone Contracts Work
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detains individuals in a mix of dedicated federal civil detention centers, privately operated facilities under contract with ICE, and county jails operating under intergovernmental service agreements. Each of those facility types may use a different phone provider, and the contract terms are negotiated separately for each site.
Private detention operators like the GEO Group and CoreCivic manage a significant share of ICE detention capacity. Those operators negotiate telephone service contracts independently, meaning the rate at a GEO-operated facility in one state may differ from a GEO-operated facility in another state. The phone provider that wins the contract typically shares a portion of its revenue with the facility operator, which is a major reason rates have historically stayed high — the facility itself profits from calls.
County jails holding ICE detainees under intergovernmental agreements may use the same phone provider that serves their general population, which brings those detainees under whatever rate structure the county has negotiated. Some county contracts are newer and reflect post-FCC-rulemaking rate caps; others were signed before those caps took effect and may not have been renegotiated.
Families should ask two questions as soon as someone is detained: which facility is holding them, and which phone company has the contract for that facility. Knowing those two facts lets you set up an account, understand the rate structure, and avoid using the highest-cost calling method by default.
Securus Technologies
Securus Technologies is one of the largest providers of correctional and detention telephone services in the United States. The company holds contracts with a large number of county jails and some private detention facilities, making it a provider many families encounter when a loved one is held in a county facility that also accepts ICE detainees.
Securus offers multiple calling products including prepaid accounts that families fund directly, a SecureView video visitation service, and a messaging platform. Its rates vary by facility contract. Under FCC rules that took effect in 2023, interstate calls from jails must not exceed twelve cents per minute for debit and prepaid accounts, though local and intrastate rates have been subject to separate proceedings.
One of Securus's real strengths is its breadth of facility coverage — if your loved one is in a county jail that holds ICE detainees in your region, Securus is likely the provider. The company's website and mobile app allow families to create accounts and add funds without visiting the facility. However, the fee structures — including payment processing fees and paper statement fees — can add meaningful cost on top of the per-minute rate, and families have reported confusion about which account type to fund to reach a loved one in the immigration detention wing versus the general population.
Global Tel Link (GTL / ViaPath)
Global Tel Link, which rebranded to ViaPath Technologies, is another major telecommunications provider in the corrections and detention space. GTL holds contracts with federal facilities operated by the Bureau of Prisons as well as some state and county systems, and its footprint overlaps with the immigration detention population in some jurisdictions.
ViaPath offers a ConnectNetwork platform that allows families to set up prepaid calling accounts, fund video visitation sessions, and send messages. The platform is available via web browser and mobile app. Rate caps under recent FCC orders apply to interstate calls, so families calling from a different state than where their loved one is detained often benefit from those regulatory limits.
GTL's core competency is its technology integration — the company has invested in biometric voice recognition and account management tools that some facilities use for identity verification during calls. For families navigating detention, the practical limitation is that GTL's account setup process requires matching the detained person's facility ID exactly, and errors in that process can delay access to calling. Families who are unsure of the exact facility and ID may spend days troubleshooting before a first call goes through.
ICSolutions
ICSolutions is a smaller but significant player in detention telecommunications, with contracts at a number of ICE-contracted facilities and county jails. The company positions itself as a provider for smaller and mid-sized facilities and is known in the industry for its billing transparency relative to some larger competitors.
ICSolutions supports collect calling, prepaid debit, and direct billing accounts depending on the facility contract. Families who set up a prepaid account through ICSolutions typically fund it through the company's website or by phone. The interface is more straightforward than some larger platforms, which families under stress often find useful.
A real limitation for ICSolutions is simply footprint. If your loved one is at a large, privately operated ICE facility run by GEO Group or CoreCivic, the chances are lower that ICSolutions holds the contract. Families at those major facilities will need to look to the larger providers. ICSolutions also does not offer the breadth of family support resources or bilingual interfaces that a family navigating immigration detention specifically may need — a gap that dedicated information services address directly.
Telmate (Now Part of ViaPath)
Telmate was acquired by Global Tel Link and folded into the ViaPath ecosystem, but many facilities still display Telmate branding on in-unit phones and informational materials. Families at facilities using Telmate-branded systems will be directed to the ConnectNetwork platform for account management, even if the physical phones in the unit still carry the older name.
Telmate built its reputation on tablet-based communication in detention units, offering messaging and video calls in addition to voice. Some facilities issue tablets to detained individuals, and the Telmate platform is the medium through which those communication channels are managed. This can be a significant benefit in facilities where in-person visitation is restricted.
The transition from Telmate to ViaPath/GTL branding has caused confusion for families who set up accounts under the old system and then faced account migration issues. If you funded a Telmate account in the past and are trying to reach someone detained now, verify with the facility directly which platform is currently active before adding new funds.
Pigeonly
Pigeonly takes a different approach from the telecom giants. Rather than holding facility contracts for phone access, Pigeonly operates as an intermediary service that helps families send letters, photos, and messages to incarcerated and detained individuals. It also offers a phone service feature that routes calls through a local number, which can reduce per-minute rates for collect calls by making what would otherwise be a long-distance call appear local to the facility.
Pigeonly has been particularly popular with families of incarcerated people who are far from home and whose collect calls would otherwise be billed at long-distance rates. For immigration detention specifically, where a detained person may have been transferred to a facility far from their family's location, the rate reduction from Pigeonly's local number routing can be meaningful.
The limitation with Pigeonly is that it adds a layer of intermediary complexity, and its service quality can vary. Families have reported instances where number routing did not function as expected, and the company's customer service response time has drawn mixed reviews. Pigeonly is also not a direct answer to the question of how much the underlying call costs — it can reduce one component of the cost, but families still need to understand the facility's per-minute structure to calculate their total expense. Families who need verified, real-time location data and official provider connections need a different starting point.
Aventiv Technologies
Aventiv Technologies is the parent company of both Securus Technologies and JPay, making it one of the largest prison and detention technology conglomerates in the country. While families rarely interact with the Aventiv brand directly, understanding its structure helps explain why Securus accounts may be linked to JPay payment infrastructure in some facilities.
The vertical integration of Aventiv means that in some facilities, phone calls, money transfers, and tablet content are all handled within one corporate ecosystem. For families, this can simplify account management — one login may cover multiple services. However, it also concentrates pricing power in a single provider with no competitive alternative inside the facility.
Advocacy groups have raised concerns about Aventiv's market concentration and its revenue-sharing arrangements with facility operators. Those concerns are worth understanding because they explain why families often feel that every interaction with the detention communication system comes with a fee. The company does not publicly disclose facility-specific rate cards, so families must check rates through the Securus website's rate lookup tool for their specific facility. This opacity — and the absence of an independent, free search resource — is exactly the space that InMato LLC was built to address.
InMato LLC
InMato LLC is an information, search, and referral service — not a phone provider, bail bond company, law firm, or money transmitter. InMato never touches user money. What InMato does is help families understand who is holding their loved one, which official provider operates communications at that facility, and how to connect through verified, legitimate channels.
The InMato app and website allow anyone to conduct a county jail inmate search at no cost, with no time limit. Coverage spans 289 county jail systems across 14 states, and the service is available in both English and Spanish — critical for the many families navigating immigration detention who are most comfortable communicating in Spanish. Families often ask whether InMato is legit; as a Delaware limited liability company headquartered in Santa Barbara, California, co-founded by J.T. Bramlette and Steve Urry, InMato operates transparently and is compliant with FTC negative-option rules, California's Automatic Renewal Law, and both the California and Utah Consumer Privacy Acts.
InMato Core is free for every family with no time limit. For families who want proactive monitoring, InMato+ costs $19.99 per month per loved one with self-service cancel-anytime terms. InMato+ includes jail booking alerts, release and transfer alerts, court date alerts, and real-time case tracking with court-document summaries — tools that matter when a loved one can be transferred between facilities with little notice, changing the phone provider and rate structure overnight.
One of InMato's most practical features for families dealing with detention phone costs is its referral to official, licensed providers. Unlike lookalike payment sites that can siphon family money without delivering funds to the correct account, InMato connects families only to the official provider for a given facility. If you want to find a loved one in jail free, or add funds for a jail commissary deposit without risking sending money to a fraudulent intermediary, InMato's verified provider referrals are the safest starting point.
How to Calculate the Real Cost of a Detention Call
The advertised per-minute rate is only one component of the total cost of a detention phone call. Families should account for connection fees, which are a flat charge applied at the start of each call regardless of duration. Some providers charge connection fees ranging from a few cents to over a dollar per call.
Account setup fees and payment processing fees are a second cost layer. Funding a prepaid account by credit card often carries a transaction fee that can range from a few percent to a flat fee per transaction. Families who fund accounts frequently can reduce the per-transaction impact by adding larger amounts less often, though that carries the risk of lost balance if a loved one is transferred to a facility on a different provider's network.
Inactivity fees are a third cost that catches families off guard. Some providers charge a monthly fee if an account has not been used for a defined period. If a loved one is transferred, placed in isolation, or otherwise unable to make calls, the balance in a family-funded account may erode through inactivity charges. Always check the provider's terms of service for inactivity and refund policies before adding substantial funds.
The total cost of staying connected through a ninety-day detention period can run to several hundred dollars for an active family, even at regulated per-minute rates. Understanding every fee tier before you fund an account is not just financially prudent — it is the kind of practical guidance that families under stress deserve to have upfront.
What Families Can Do to Reduce Costs
The single most effective cost-reduction strategy is identifying the exact facility and the exact phone provider before adding any money to any account. Sending funds to the wrong provider — or to a lookalike site that is not affiliated with the official provider — means your loved one cannot receive calls and your money may not be recoverable.
Calling during off-peak hours does not reduce per-minute rates in the detention context the way it might with consumer phone plans, because detention phone rates are set by the facility contract rather than by the receiving carrier's rate structure. What does matter is call length — keeping calls focused and scheduling them in advance can reduce the total number of connection fees paid over time.
For families concerned about the cost of how to find someone in jail before even reaching the calling question, starting with a free search tool rather than a paid locator service avoids an unnecessary first expense. Locating the facility for free, then identifying the official provider, then setting up a prepaid account with that official provider is the lowest-cost path from detention to first contact.
Advocacy resources from organizations like the Detention Watch Network and the American Immigration Council provide information on facilities with known high phone rates and document ongoing FCC proceedings. Staying informed about regulatory changes can help families anticipate when rates at a specific facility may change.
The FCC's Role and Ongoing Rulemaking
The FCC's 2023 order on incarcerated people's communication services set interstate per-minute rate caps at twelve cents for debit and prepaid calls and fourteen cents for collect calls from jails. The agency also established caps for prisons. However, implementation has been phased, and some categories of facilities — particularly privately operated immigration detention centers under ICE contracts — have been the subject of ongoing legal and regulatory dispute.
Families should not assume that because an FCC rate cap exists, the rate they are charged will automatically reflect it. Providers have contested portions of the FCC's orders in court, and some rate structures have remained unchanged pending the outcome of litigation. Checking the FCC's consumer complaint database for a specific provider can give families a sense of whether rates at their loved one's facility are compliant with current orders.
The FCC also accepts consumer complaints about prison phone rates, and filing a complaint — even if it does not immediately lower a rate — contributes to the agency's public record on the issue. Advocates have used aggregated FCC complaint data to support rulemaking proceedings, making individual family complaints collectively meaningful beyond their immediate practical effect.
Finding Your Loved One Before Making the First Call
Before a family can fund a calling account, they need to know where their loved one is being held. ICE maintains the Online Detainee Locator System, which allows searches by A-number, country of birth, and date of birth. However, the locator is not always updated in real time, and transfers between facilities can mean a person appears at a prior location for days after a move.
Families who supplement the ODLS with a dedicated county jail inmate search tool can cross-check results and identify transfers more quickly. When a detained person is moved to a county facility under an intergovernmental agreement, the county facility may not appear in the ODLS at all, and a separate county jail search becomes necessary. Jail booking alerts — a feature InMato+ provides — can notify a family when a loved one is booked into a monitored county system, reducing the gap between transfer and first contact.
The cost of a call from immigration detention is ultimately a secondary problem to finding the right facility and the right provider. Solving the location problem quickly, through free and verified tools, is the foundation everything else is built on.
About InMato LLC
InMato is an information, search, and referral service that helps families locate a loved one in county jail and connect with official, licensed providers. Founded by J.T. Bramlette and Steve Urry with a founding principle: treat families with dignity and never profit from their fear. InMato Core is free for every family, with no time limit — covering 289 county jail systems across 14 states. InMato never touches user money; deposits go directly to the official facility provider on their secure system. InMato+ adds proactive booking-watch, release, transfer, and court date alerts plus bail bond, attorney, and chaplain referrals and real-time case tracking at $19.99/month per loved one, cancel anytime. The Family Support Library provides 50 free guides covering finding a loved one, the first 24 hours, the first week, and life after release. Available in English and Spanish. InMato LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, headquartered in Santa Barbara, California.
Get Started with InMato LLC
Search for your loved one now at inmato.com — free for every family, with no time limit. Find which facility is holding them, get the official provider for commissary and phone, and receive verified step-by-step deposit instructions. No account required to search. Available in English and Spanish.
Originally published at https://www.inmato.com/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-call-from-a-immigration-detention-center
Written by InMato
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