There is no longer an account to open or a balance to watch, because New York stopped charging families in August 2025. Set up the rest of your contact in minutes.
Create your phone account in minutes
This page is short and the reason is good news. New York made every call from every state prison free on August 1, 2025, which deleted the account, the balance, the per-minute rate and the card on file in one move. What is left is a set of limits on when and how long, and one piece of housekeeping for families who were paying before the change.
Before August 2025 a New York family opened an account with the phone provider, funded it, watched it drain, and topped it up. That is gone.
Every call from every New York state prison is free to families. DOCCS states it directly: because calls are free from that date, an account with the provider is no longer needed.
The state still pays the provider, at 1.5 cents a minute under the current arrangement, down from 2.4. That is the state’s cost, not yours. Anyone quoting that figure as a family rate is misreading it.
Free is not unlimited, and the shape is worth understanding.
| Rule | |
|---|---|
| Guaranteed weekly allowance | Three calls of up to fifteen minutes |
| Credited | Saturdays |
| Calls after the allowance | Up to thirty minutes |
| Window | 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM daily |
| Approved numbers | Up to fifteen |
The three calls a week is the guaranteed floor credited each Saturday. Calls beyond it are still free, under the thirty minute cap.
The approved number list belongs to the person inside. They add numbers, up to fifteen, and they manage it.
There is nothing for a family to file, no form, no registration, and no call to make to the prison. If your number is not getting through, that conversation is with them.
DOCCS runs two pages about phones and they contradict each other.
Use doccs.ny.gov/telephone-calls. That is current.
Do not use doccs.ny.gov/doccs-phone-system. It still advertises 4.8 cents and 4.3 cents a minute and tells families to open and fund a provider account. It describes a system the state retired more than a year ago, and it is still live, which is why families keep arriving with the wrong expectation.
The statewide Family Handbook has the same fault in its phone section. Everything else in it is current and useful.
Money left on a prepaid account from before August 2025 does not disappear and is not returned automatically.
You have to ask. DOCCS states that a refund of an unused balance can be requested from the provider. A family who set an account up years ago and forgot about it may be holding money they can claim.
Calls may be monitored and recorded, and using the phone is treated as consent.
Attorney calls are privileged and handled differently. DOCCS publishes no family-facing process for asking that a number be excluded from recording, so a lawyer’s office arranges that rather than a relative.
Nothing about the phone policy is specific to Coxsackie. What is specific is the building.
This prison carries four special units: a Special Housing Unit, a Residential Rehabilitation Unit, a Residential Mental Health Unit run jointly with the Office of Mental Health, and a Regional Medical Unit that takes people in from other prisons for care.
The statewide allowance is written for general confinement. Someone in the medical unit or on a crisis or observation unit may not have the same practical access to a housing area phone, and DOCCS does not publish how the allowance applies in each.
If calls stop, that is worth asking about through the person’s Offender Rehabilitation Coordinator before assuming anything has been withdrawn.
6 of 7 questions
Nothing. New York made all calls from state prisons free to families on August 1, 2025. There is no per-minute rate, no account to open and no balance to fund. Any page still quoting 4.8 or 4.3 cents a minute is describing a system the state retired.
Phone CallsThree calls of up to fifteen minutes are credited every Saturday as a guaranteed allowance. Calls beyond that are still free but capped at thirty minutes each. The calling window runs 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM every day, across up to fifteen approved numbers.
Phone CallsYou do not, the person inside does. They maintain a list of up to fifteen approved numbers themselves. There is no family form, no registration and nothing to file with the prison or the provider.
Phone CallsYes, if you ask. DOCCS states unused balances can be refunded on request to the provider. Nothing is returned automatically, so a family that funded an account before August 2025 and stopped thinking about it may still be holding a balance.
Phone CallsCalls may be monitored and recorded, and using the phone is treated as consent. Attorney calls are privileged and handled separately. New York publishes no family-facing way to request that a number be excluded, so a lawyer's office arranges that rather than the family.
Phone CallsFree calling has not been withdrawn, so look at the person's own circumstances. Coxsackie carries four special units including a medical unit and a mental health unit, and the statewide allowance is written for general confinement. Ask through their Offender Rehabilitation Coordinator rather than assuming a policy change.
Phone CallsNo. New York's video visitation programme runs through approved community-based sites that families travel to, not from a phone or computer at home, and Coxsackie is not among the facilities currently offering it. There is no consumer video calling product in the New York state system.
Phone CallsTwo prisons, one town, and one digit between their numbers.
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All information on this page comes directly from official government and facility sources. How we verify information › Last verified September 16, 2026.