Iowa bars calls to anyone released from prison in the last six months, which catches more families here than people expect. Create your phone account in minutes.
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Iowa charges a flat seven cents a minute to the lower 48, one of the cheapest published prison phone rates anywhere, and it prints an international card as well. The rate is rarely what stops a family. The approved calling list is. Every call is outgoing, it connects only when your number is on her list with your legal name attached, and Iowa refuses several categories of number outright, including one that catches women’s families more often than most: anyone released from a prison in the last six months cannot be called.
Iowa charges a flat seven cents per minute for all calls within the lower 48 states. Twenty minutes is $1.40.
The department explains the number rather than leaving it bare. Its rate sheet says the costs of providing the service are reflected in rates “which are lower than for most other states”, and Iowa Code chapter 904.508A directs the revenue into a fund the Board of Corrections has assigned to legal services, religious accommodations, education and victim services.
Every call is placed by the person inside, and it connects only if your number is on her approved calling list. Iowa requires her to supply the legal first and last name of whoever owns each number, and a number added without one can be restricted.
Nothing is required from you at that stage and there is no account you can open to speed it up. It happens from inside.
What you can do is make sure the number she has is one Iowa is willing to dial.
Iowa bars calls to particular people, and one of them surprises families here regularly: anyone released from prison in the last six months.
The full list also covers department staff, victims and victims’ households, minors where the offence involved a minor, anyone under a no-contact order, and people currently under correctional supervision, with limited exceptions for immediate family.
Iowa’s correspondence policy applies a similar restriction to writing, and adds that codefendant status alone is not justification for denying communication between spouses.
Where this bites is a household that has more than one person who has been through the system, which is common enough that it is worth checking before anybody assumes a blocked number is a technical fault.
Forwarding is the quiet one. A landline that forwards to a mobile looks like a working number and will never take a call.
Most states say international calls cost more and stop there. Iowa publishes a card, 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 |
The mechanism is Iowa’s seven cents plus the average the provider paid to route the call abroad, which is why Vietnam costs eight cents more than a domestic call while a UK mobile costs far more than a UK landline.
Mitchellville handles no phone money. Phone credit for every Iowa prison is lockboxed at Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison, at the southeast corner of the state.
Funding from outside means posting a money order with the printed Offender Telephone Service form, and 7 percent sales tax comes off the top. Iowa’s worked example: a $10 family deposit becomes a $9.35 credit. When she transfers her own money across instead, 7 percent is added, so $10 costs her $10.70.
The minimum is $1, the transfer cannot be reversed, and unused phone money is credited back on release.
Commissary money is a different envelope to a different town, going to the IDOC Offender Fiduciary Account at Fort Dodge.
Blocking is easy. Contact the institution and ask, or take the option offered when a call comes through.
Unblocking is deliberately hard. Iowa requires a written request to the Iowa State Penitentiary Business Office, and it must come from the owner of the telephone number. Not from her. Not over the phone. Not through Mitchellville.
Include the number, your name as the account holder, your address, and her name and offender number so the office can match the request.
An incoming call from an attorney needs five days advance notice, runs Monday to Friday between 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM, and is scheduled in 25-minute intervals in a private phone room. Iowa’s policy states these calls are not monitored.
Outgoing calls to attorney numbers registered with the Iowa Supreme Court are likewise not monitored or recorded.
Iowa refuses refunds and says so plainly: the department does not issue refunds for any dropped, lost or disconnected calls placed to cellular devices, and the same applies to VoIP and digital landline services.
You pay for the minutes regardless. A genuine landline is the only thing treated differently, which is worth weighing if a call keeps failing partway through.
Iowa runs offender email through CorrLinks at $0.25 per message, less than four minutes of talking. Register at corrlinks.com.
She funds her 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 departmental policies say 14,000. The contradiction is Iowa’s and it stands.
The department is direct about privacy: by its nature O-mail is not confidential, and all incoming and outgoing messages may be inspected and read.
No Iowa page or policy names the company running the phones here. Every reference is to the contractor managing the system, which leaves you without a vendor to ring. The same silence covers the rest of what families ask about:
6 of 8 questions
Seven cents a minute anywhere in the lower 48 states, so twenty minutes is $1.40. Alaska is 12 cents, Hawaii 14, and Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico 12. Iowa also publishes an international card running from 15 cents for Vietnam to 66 cents for the United Kingdom.
Phone CallsUsually because your number is not yet on her approved calling list, which she arranges from inside along with the legal first and last name of whoever owns the number. The other common causes are the number itself, since Iowa blocks call forwarding, toll-free numbers, 900 numbers, credit card calls and three-way calls outright.
Phone CallsNot yet. Iowa bars calls to anyone released from prison in the last six months, and separately to people currently under correctional supervision, with limited exceptions for immediate family. The correspondence policy applies similar restrictions to letters, while noting that codefendant status alone does not justify denying communication between spouses.
Phone CallsNo. Every call in Iowa's system is placed by the person inside and no family member can call in. The number 515-725-5042 reaches staff, and it is also the line to ask for the visiting room officer Friday through Monday if you are an approved attorney or Department of Human Services visitor.
Phone CallsTo Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison, which holds the phone deposit lockbox for every Iowa prison, not to Mitchellville and not to Fort Dodge. Post a money order with the printed Offender Telephone Service form. A family deposit has 7 percent sales tax deducted, so $10 becomes a $9.35 credit.
Phone CallsIn writing, from you. Iowa requires a written request to the Iowa State Penitentiary Business Office from the owner of the telephone number. She cannot make the request, it cannot be done by phone, and it does not go through ICIW even though that is where she is held.
Phone CallsNo. The department states that it does not issue refunds for any dropped, lost or disconnected calls placed to cellular devices, and the same applies to VoIP and digital landline services. A genuine copper landline is the only thing treated differently.
Phone CallsYes. Iowa runs offender email through CorrLinks at 25 cents a message against seven cents a minute for calls, so a message costs less than four minutes on the phone. Register at corrlinks.com. Iowa states plainly that O-mail is not confidential and may be inspected and read.
Phone CallsThe offender number a phone request is matched by.
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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.