The ISP Business Office is the only place in Iowa that will reinstate a blocked telephone number, and the written request has to come from whoever owns the line. Create your phone account in minutes.
Create your phone account in minutes
Iowa charges a flat seven cents a minute to the lower 48 and publishes an international rate card as well, which very few states do. At this prison the phone system is not just something families use, it is something the prison runs. The ISP Business Office holds the phone deposit lockbox for all nine Iowa prisons and it is the only office in the state that will act on a request to unblock a telephone number. If your line stopped taking calls, this is where the letter goes, whichever prison your person is in.
Iowa charges a flat seven cents per minute for all calls within the lower 48 states. Twenty minutes costs $1.40.
The department explains the figure 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 puts the revenue into a fund the Board of Corrections has directed to legal services, religious accommodations, education and victim services.
Nobody rings in. Calls are placed by the person inside and connect only if your number is on his approved calling list.
Iowa requires him to give 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. What you can do is make sure the number he has for you is a number Iowa will actually dial.
Forwarding is the one that quietly wastes months. A landline forwarding to a mobile looks like a working number and will never take a call.
Iowa also bars calls to particular people: department staff, victims and victims’ 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 in the last six months.
This is the fact that brings families from all over Iowa to a Fort Madison address.
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 the person inside. Not over the phone. Not through whichever prison he is held in.
That last part is the piece nobody knows. If your person is at Anamosa or Newton or Rockwell City and your number is blocked, the letter still comes here, because the phone account system for the whole state is administered from this building.
Include the number itself, your name as the account holder, your address, and the incarcerated person’s name and offender number so the office can match it.
Most states say international calls cost more and stop. Iowa prints 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 and a UK mobile costs far more than a UK landline.
Phone money is lockboxed here, at the same prison, though at a different address from the commissary deposit.
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 the person inside transfers his own money instead, 7 percent is added, so $10 costs him $10.70.
The minimum is $1, the transfer is one way and cannot be reversed, and unused phone money is credited back on release.
Commissary money is a separate envelope to a separate town. That goes to the IDOC Offender Fiduciary Account at Fort Dodge.
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.
At Iowa’s only maximum-security prison, where sentences are long and appeals are live, this route matters more than it does elsewhere in the state.
The department says it outright: 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.
You pay for the minutes regardless. A genuine landline is the only thing treated differently, which is worth weighing if your reception is poor and calls keep failing partway.
Iowa runs offender email through CorrLinks at $0.25 per message, cheaper than four minutes of talking. Register at corrlinks.com.
The person inside funds his 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.
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.
6 of 8 questions
Seven cents a minute anywhere in the lower 48, 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 CallsThe Iowa State Penitentiary Business Office, and only you can send it. Iowa requires a written request from the owner of the telephone number. The person inside cannot make the request, it cannot be done by phone, and it goes to this office even if your person is held at a different Iowa prison, because phone accounts for all nine are administered here.
Phone CallsNo. Every call in Iowa's system is placed by the person inside and no family member can call in. The main line, 319-372-5432, reaches staff for questions about status, property and money, and 319-376-4850 is published for questions about a specific person's visit.
Phone CallsUsually because your number is not on his approved calling list yet, which he has to arrange from inside along with the legal first and last name of whoever owns the number. The other common cause is the number itself. Iowa blocks call forwarding, toll-free numbers, 900 numbers, credit card calls and three-way calls outright.
Phone CallsInto a lockbox at Iowa State Penitentiary, which holds phone deposits for every Iowa prison. Post a money order with the printed Offender Telephone Service form. A family deposit has 7 percent sales tax deducted, so Iowa's own example is that $10 becomes a $9.35 credit. Commissary money is separate and goes to Fort Dodge.
Phone CallsIowa never states it outright for ordinary calls, which is a real gap. What it does say is that attorney calls are not monitored, both for scheduled incoming calls and for outgoing calls to numbers registered with the Iowa Supreme Court. Assume ordinary calls are monitored and ask on 319-372-5432 if you need certainty.
Phone CallsNo. Iowa 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 of talking. Register at corrlinks.com. Iowa states plainly that O-mail is not confidential and may be inspected and read.
Phone CallsThe offender number the business office identifies him by.
View ArticleThree start times, one visit a week, Friday through Monday.
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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.