Commissary money is banked at Fort Dodge, but the money that pays for calls sits at a different prison entirely. Create your phone account in minutes.
Create your phone account in minutes
Iowa is among the cheapest states in the country to take a prison call from, and it publishes the rate rather than making you sign up to find out: seven cents a minute to anywhere in the lower 48. The complication at Fort Dodge is that this prison banks Iowa’s commissary money while a different prison banks its phone money, and families reasonably assume one deposit covers both. It does not. Calls come out only, your number has to be approved from inside first, and several kinds of number will never connect at all.
Iowa publishes a flat seven cents per minute for all calls within the lower 48 states. Twenty minutes costs $1.40.
The department explains the pricing rather than leaving it unexplained. Its rate sheet says the costs of the service are reflected in the rates, “which are lower than for most other states,” and Iowa Code chapter 904.508A directs the money into a fund the Board of Corrections has assigned to legal services, religious accommodations, education, and victim services.
Beyond the lower 48, from the rate sheet effective May 1, 2026:
| Destination | Per minute |
|---|---|
| Lower 48 states | $0.07 |
| Alaska | $0.12 |
| Hawaii | $0.14 |
| Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico | $0.12 |
| Vietnam | $0.15 |
| Honduras, Philippines | $0.23 |
| Guatemala | $0.28 |
| El Salvador | $0.30 |
| United Kingdom | $0.66 |
International rates are Iowa’s seven cents plus whatever the provider paid to route the call.
Fort Dodge holds Iowa’s commissary lockbox for the entire state. It does not hold the phone one.
Commissary and spending money is banked here, at the IDOC Offender Fiduciary Account on L Street.
Phone money is banked at Iowa State Penitentiary, in Fort Madison, at the other end of the state.
So a family member of somebody at Fort Dodge, who has correctly posted commissary money to an address in their own town, can still find that calls are not connecting. The two balances are separate and one does not feed the other.
Funding the phone account from outside means posting a money order with the printed Offender Telephone Service form, and 7 percent sales tax comes off: Iowa’s own worked example is that $10 becomes a $9.35 credit. When the person inside moves their own money across instead, 7 percent is added, so $10 costs them $10.70. The minimum is $1, the transfer is one-way, and unused phone money is credited back on release.
Nobody can ring in. Every call is outbound, and it only connects if the person inside has added your number to their approved calling list.
Iowa requires them to supply the legal first and last name of whoever owns the number. A number added without one may be restricted.
There is nothing for you to do at that stage. It happens from inside, and the first you will know is a call arriving.
Iowa’s telephone policy blocks these outright:
A household that has moved to a toll-free line, or a number that forwards to a mobile, will never receive a call, and nothing about the failure explains itself.
There are also people who cannot be called at all: department staff, victims and their households, minors where the offence involved a minor, anyone under a no-contact order, people currently under correctional supervision with limited family exceptions, and anyone released from prison within the last six months.
Blocking is easy. Ask the institution, or select the option when a call arrives.
Unblocking is not. Iowa requires a written request sent to the Iowa State Penitentiary Business Office, and it has to come from the person who owns the telephone number. Not from the prisoner, not over the phone, and not from Fort Dodge.
Incoming legal calls need five days advance notice, run Monday to Friday between 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM, and are booked in 25-minute intervals in a private phone room. Iowa’s policy states these are not monitored.
Outgoing calls to attorney numbers registered with the Iowa Supreme Court are also not monitored or recorded.
Iowa states it directly: the department does not issue refunds for any dropped, lost or disconnected calls placed to cellular devices, and the same holds for VoIP and digital landlines.
If calls to your mobile keep failing, you are still paying for the minutes, and Iowa treats a genuine landline differently.
Iowa runs offender email through CorrLinks at $0.25 a message, which is cheaper than four minutes of talking. Register at corrlinks.com.
The person inside funds their side the same way as phone credit, with 7 percent added. Iowa’s family-facing page caps a message at 13,000 characters or 100 lines, roughly two pages, while two of its own policies say 14,000. That disagreement is Iowa’s and it has not been resolved.
6 of 8 questions
Seven cents a minute to anywhere in the lower 48 states, so twenty minutes is $1.40. Alaska is 12 cents and Hawaii 14 cents. Iowa says its rates are lower than most states because the revenue goes into a fund the Board of Corrections directs to legal services, religious accommodations, education and victim services.
Phone CallsBecause you funded the wrong balance. Fort Dodge banks Iowa's commissary money for the whole state, but phone money is banked at Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison. They are separate accounts and one does not feed the other. Phone credit is sent with the printed Offender Telephone Service form, and 7 percent sales tax comes off a family deposit.
Phone CallsEither it is not on their approved calling list yet, or it is a type Iowa blocks. Blocked types include toll-free numbers starting 800, 888, 877, 866, 855 and 844, 900 numbers, forwarded numbers, credit card calls and three-way calls. Adding a number happens from inside, and Iowa requires the legal name of whoever owns it.
Phone CallsIowa never says. No Iowa DOC page and no policy names a telephone vendor, and the policy refers only to the contractor managing the offender phone system. We would rather tell you that plainly than print a company name we cannot verify from an official Iowa source.
Phone CallsNot published. Iowa's telephone policy leaves call length, call frequency and any limits to each institution, and Fort Dodge publishes none of it. Ask on 515-574-4700, because that answer is what turns a seven-cent rate into a monthly figure you can plan around.
Phone CallsIowa does not say so outright, so we will not either. What the policy states is that attorney calls are explicitly not monitored, and that institutional procedures cover security monitoring, which implies ordinary calls are. Treat anything said on a prison phone as potentially recorded while a case is open.
Phone CallsIn writing, to the Iowa State Penitentiary Business Office, and the request has to come from the owner of the telephone number rather than from the person inside. Not by phone, and not through Fort Dodge. Blocking is easy to do and deliberately harder to reverse.
Phone CallsMessages through CorrLinks cost 25 cents each, less than four minutes of talking. Register at corrlinks.com. Iowa's family page caps a message at 13,000 characters or about two pages, though two of its own policies say 14,000 characters, a conflict Iowa has left unresolved.
Phone CallsThe offender number every account setup asks for.
View ArticleTwo Saturday start times, and a twelve-hour video window.
View ArticleThis prison banks the money for all nine. Yours is already here.
View ArticleCode 1114, and two Fort Dodge addresses that are not interchangeable.
View ArticleSearch for your loved one and start sending photos, letters, and messages today.
Search for Your Loved OneFree Inmate Search
All information on this page comes directly from official government and facility sources. How we verify information › Last verified September 9, 2026.