A collect call from this jail cannot reach a mobile number, which is why so many first calls never connect. Create your phone account in minutes.
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Every housing pod at Marin County Jail has phones, six of them, and they make outgoing calls only. The county publishes one restriction that explains most failed first calls: a collect call cannot be placed to a mobile phone, an answering machine or a third party. Since almost every family number is now a mobile, a prepaid account is usually the only way a call actually connects. Calls run a minimum of ten minutes and all of them are recorded, with verified attorney calls the exception.
Marin County publishes the restriction in plain words: collect calls cannot be made to cellular telephones, answering machines, or third party calls.
That single sentence explains the experience most families have in the first day. Someone is booked, tries to call home collect, and the call fails because home is a mobile. Nobody tells the family it happened, and the person inside often assumes the number was refused.
The fix is a prepaid account set against your number, which is not subject to the collect restriction.
Phone service runs through ViaPath Technologies, the company Marin County’s own page still lists under its former name, Global Tel*Link. Families fund calls through ConnectNetwork, its consumer service, using the AdvancePay product.
Three routes:
Separately, the person inside can buy prepaid calling cards through the jail commissary, which is money on the Access Corrections account rather than yours.
Note that ConnectNetwork’s phone account is a different balance again from the tablet account, and both are different from commissary. Marin runs three accounts, and this is the one that pays for calls.
Under section 851 of the California Penal Code, a person arrested has the right to three free completed telephone calls within the local calling area. The Sheriff’s Custody Manual, policy 502.11, restates it: at least three completed calls immediately on admission and no later than three hours after arrest.
Note the words completed and within the local calling area. A call that rings out is not a completed call, and a number outside the local area is not covered.
The Custody Manual, policy 1008.3, sets a floor rather than a ceiling: the minimum time allowed per call should be 10 minutes, except where there are substantial reasons to justify a limitation.
That is a better protection than most counties publish, because it puts the burden on the jail to justify cutting a call short.
Policy 1008.3 again, in the Sheriff’s own words: all calls, with the exception of calls to a verified attorney, are monitored and recorded.
Attorney calls get more than an exception. Policy 1008.6 requires reasonable and non-recorded telephone access to an attorney at no charge. If a lawyer’s calls are being billed or appear to be recorded, that policy is the thing to cite.
Custody staff are not allowed to take telephone messages. The county states it flatly.
For a family emergency or other emergency situation, the published route is the housing Sergeant on 415-499-7316. That is a different number from the main jail line, and it is the one to use when something has actually happened.
Marin publishes both directions of this. Numbers can be blocked so that people inside the jail cannot call them, and the phone system itself gives instructions to call recipients on how to block their own number from jail calls.
Worth knowing in two situations: a family member being harassed, and a number blocked by accident that now needs unblocking. Start at 415-473-6655.
Marin allows inbound electronic messaging only. Friends and family can set up an account at securemail.accesscorrections.com and send a message in. As published, there is no outbound equivalent, so a reply comes by phone, on a visit, or in the post.
Tablets in the pods carry messaging, music streaming, games, e-books, FM radio and TV audio. The tablet balance is its own ConnectNetwork account.
International calling cards are available through commissary, per Custody Manual 1008.6, though no rate is published for those either.
6 of 8 questions
Because Marin County states that collect calls cannot be made to cellular telephones, answering machines, or third party calls. Nearly every family number is a mobile, so the first collect call after booking often fails silently. Setting up a prepaid account against your number through ConnectNetwork removes that restriction.
Phone CallsFund a prepaid AdvancePay account through ConnectNetwork, operated by ViaPath Technologies. You can do it online, by phone on 1-866-230-7761, or at the kiosk in the jail lobby. The person inside can also buy a prepaid calling card through commissary, which draws on their own Access Corrections balance rather than yours.
Phone CallsNo. The pod phones make outgoing calls only and cannot receive calls, and the county states that custody staff are not allowed to take telephone messages. For a family emergency or other emergency situation, Marin publishes a route: contact the housing Sergeant on 415-499-7316.
Phone CallsThree of them are, within limits. Under section 851 of the California Penal Code a person arrested has the right to three free completed telephone calls within the local calling area, and the Sheriff's Custody Manual requires them immediately on admission and no later than three hours after arrest. A call that rings out does not count as completed, and a number outside the local area is not covered.
Phone CallsMarin publishes a minimum rather than a maximum. Custody Manual policy 1008.3 states the minimum time allowed per call should be 10 minutes, except where there are substantial reasons to justify a limitation. No maximum call length is published anywhere by the county.
Phone CallsMarin County publishes no per-minute rate, for collect or prepaid calls. We would rather say that plainly than reprint a figure from another county's contract, because these rates vary and a wrong number costs families real money. ConnectNetwork shows you the rate when you fund the account.
Phone CallsYes. The Sheriff's Custody Manual states that all calls, with the exception of calls to a verified attorney, are monitored and recorded. Attorney access goes further: policy 1008.6 requires reasonable, non-recorded telephone access to an attorney at no charge.
Phone CallsYou can send one in, but they cannot send one back. Marin allows inbound electronic messaging through an account at securemail.accesscorrections.com, and nothing published describes an outbound equivalent. Tablets in the pods carry messaging along with music, games, e-books and radio, funded through a separate ConnectNetwork tablet account.
Phone CallsThe name and ID number every account setup will ask for.
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All information on this page comes directly from official government and facility sources. How we verify information › Last verified September 9, 2026.