No more call forwarding!

[PhillyCheese]

I made these comments in another post, but I think it's so important that it deserves it's own thread.

As of April 25th, 2012, the PA Dept of Corrections has issued new guidelines on the Automated Inmate Phone System.

Those rules include:

"An inmate is prohibited from initiating calls to the following:
three-way calling, call forwarding, and calls through a call forwarding service using a local phone number"

They are starting to match the location of the person being called (you) with the local number the inmate is dialing, and if they don't match up, the call won't go through. Either the inmate calls you collect on a land line, or you send them money so they can buy pre paid minutes at the commissary.
So no more Vonage, Skype, etc.

Please go to truth-out on the web and look up an article from May 24th about how the state and phone companies are working together to rip off inmates and their families with these high phone charges.

There are some states, like New York, that have cleaned up this mess and have lowered the rates. But that's an uphill battle in PA.
We have to start making some noise!

[christik999]

i think this was always there policy? they are just cracking down on it . when i startedhere 3 yrsago people would getfound out and there numbers wouldnt work. and that recording that comes on every friggin time i get a call says "use of call forwarding etc will terminate the call.

[msonlydabest]

I really hope they don't start to crack down because I can forget talking on the phone the prices for the phone calls are ridicules....ugh I want this nightmare with the DOC to be over

[canadiangirl098]

i have cogeco so my guy cant call me and it sucks he even said in letter he would like to call.. back in december he called once and also 1 time in january because there was a guy locally that would do 3 way for the inmates where my bf was but it stopped so either the guy got caught or he got really busy so my bf hasnt called me since january so we just have the letters because now he is to far away and i dont drive

[prettywings773]

i didn't think they could call vonage at all, thats what I have.

[bobble60]

I'm curious about any software that can detect call forwarding, at least through the major networks. For example, if I forward my VZ landline to my VZ wireless, the entire switch occurs in the VZ network computer. The call is re-routed from one VZ number to another VZ number ... no clicks, no delays, nothing. (Heck, I even forward my fax machine to other numbers with the VZ Ultra system.) Ain't technology great?

Now, I can see a DOC policy stating that they prohibit calls to forwarded numbers. In that case, the phone monitoring officer (who reviews calls at some point after they are made,) might discover that the call was forwarded and thus flag the inmate's account.