Phone Calls at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility

Free Since August 2025

For years, a call from a New York state prison worked the way it still does in much of the country. A family opened an account with the phone provider, funded it, watched the balance drop and topped it up again.

New York ended that on August 1, 2025. Every call from every state prison is free to the person receiving it. Nothing for you to open, nothing to fund.

The state pays the provider 1.5 cents a minute under the current contract, down from 2.4. That is New York’s cost, not your rate. Anyone quoting those numbers at you as a price has misread the source.

Three Calls a Week, and What Comes After

	Rule
Guaranteed allowance	Three calls of up to fifteen minutes
Credited	Saturdays
Calls beyond the allowance	Still free, capped at thirty minutes
Window	7:00 AM to 11:00 PM, daily
Approved numbers	Up to fifteen

The three are a floor, not a ceiling. Calls after them are still free, with a thirty minute cap instead of fifteen.

Her List, Her Numbers

Up to fifteen approved numbers, added and managed by the person inside.

There is nothing for you to file. No form, no registration, no call to the prison, no provider account. If your number is not working, that is a conversation with her rather than with anyone at Bedford Hills.

Fifteen goes quickly across parents, children, siblings and a lawyer, so it is worth agreeing between you which numbers matter. Changing the list is her job and not instant.

The Page That Still Says You Have to Pay

DOCCS runs two pages about telephones and they contradict each other.

doccs.ny.gov/telephone-calls is current. Use that one.

doccs.ny.gov/doccs-phone-system is not. It still quotes 4.8 cents and 4.3 cents a minute and tells families to open and fund a provider account, describing a system New York retired over a year ago. It is still live, which is why families keep arriving expecting a bill.

The statewide Family Handbook carries the same fault in its phone section. The rest of that handbook is current and worth reading.

Old Balances Can Be Claimed

If you were funding calls before August 2025, there may be money sitting on that old account.

It is not refunded automatically. DOCCS states that an unused balance can be requested back from the provider. Plenty of families set an account up years ago, stopped thinking about it, and still have money in it.

Recording, and Attorney Calls

Calls may be monitored and recorded, and using the phone is treated as consent to that.

Attorney calls are privileged and handled separately. That is arranged through the lawyer’s office rather than by a family member, and there is no family-facing form for it.

Reception and Special Housing

Two situations change how much the phone matters.

Reception, the first 30 days after arrival, restricts visiting to an approved weekend day. Special Housing limits visits to one non-legal visit in any seven day period. In both, the phone carries most of the contact.

The weekly allowance above is written for general confinement. How access works day to day in those settings is a question for her Offender Rehabilitation Coordinator, who can be reached through the prison’s main line on 914-241-3100.

When Calls Are Not Enough

Three calls a week, on her schedule, in a fifteen minute window. Even at a prison that visits daily, that leaves a lot of quiet.

Pigeonly fills it with letters and photos posted to 247 Harris Road, so the days between Saturdays carry something.