Families here have nothing to open and nothing to fund, because New York stopped charging for prison calls in August 2025. Set up the rest of your contact in minutes.
Create your phone account in minutes
New York ended charging for prison calls on August 1, 2025, and almost everything families used to do about phones went with it. No account, no balance, no card on file, no per-minute rate. What remains is an allowance measured in calls and minutes, and one piece of housekeeping for anyone who was paying before the change and has not claimed the leftover back.
The old arrangement asked a family to open an account with the phone provider, fund it, watch the balance fall and top it up again. New York stopped it.
Every call from every New York state prison is now free to families. DOCCS puts it plainly: since calls became free on that date, a provider account is no longer needed.
The state still pays the provider, at 1.5 cents a minute under the current contract, down from 2.4. That is a state cost. It is not a rate a family pays, and anyone presenting it that way has misread the source.
| 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 credited each Saturday are the floor. Calls beyond them are still free, capped at thirty minutes.
Up to fifteen approved numbers, added and managed by the person inside.
There is nothing for a family to file. No form, no registration, no call to the prison, no account with the provider. If your number is not working, the conversation is with them rather than with anyone here.
The department runs two pages about phones and they disagree with each other.
doccs.ny.gov/telephone-calls is current. Use it.
doccs.ny.gov/doccs-phone-system is not. It still quotes 4.8 cents and 4.3 cents a minute and instructs 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 to pay.
The statewide Family Handbook carries the same fault in its phone section. Everything else in that document is current and worth reading.
Money sitting on a prepaid account from before August 2025 is not returned automatically.
Ask for it. DOCCS states a refund of an unused balance can be requested from the provider. Families who set an account up years ago and stopped thinking about it may be holding money they can get back.
Calls may be monitored and recorded and using the phone is treated as consent.
Attorney calls are privileged and handled separately. DOCCS publishes no family-facing route for asking that a number be excluded from recording, so a lawyer’s office arranges that rather than a relative.
This is the part specific to Green Haven, and it explains most sudden silences here.
The prison sends, receives and temporarily houses people in transit between facilities or travelling to court, and it takes intake from certain counties. A person moving through is not settled on a housing unit in the ordinary way.
So calls stopping for a few days at this prison is more often movement than anything else. It is also worth knowing that the statewide Family Handbook treats transit status differently from ordinary placement when describing the call a newly arrived person may make.
Check the lookup first. If they have moved, everything else moves with them.
Green Haven runs an Intermediate Care Program, a Residential Crisis Treatment Program with observation cells, a Special Housing Unit and a protective custody unit, with Office of Mental Health staff on site from 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM.
The statewide allowance above is written for general confinement. DOCCS does not publish how phone access works in each of those units, and a family whose person is in one should ask through their Offender Rehabilitation Coordinator rather than assuming the allowance has been withdrawn.
6 of 7 questions
Nothing. New York made all state prison calls free to families on August 1, 2025. There is no per-minute rate, no account to open and no balance to fund. Any page 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, and calls beyond that are still free but capped at thirty minutes. The window runs 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM daily, across up to fifteen approved numbers.
Phone CallsYou do not. The person inside maintains the 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 CallsAt Green Haven, movement is the likeliest answer. This prison takes intake and houses people in transit between facilities or going to court, so someone passing through is not settled on a housing unit in the usual way. Check the lookup before assuming a policy change or a disciplinary issue.
Phone CallsYes, but only if you ask. DOCCS states unused balances can be refunded on request to the provider. Nothing comes back automatically, so a family that funded an account before August 2025 may still be holding a balance they can claim.
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 a relative.
Phone CallsProbably, though DOCCS does not publish the detail. Green Haven carries an Intermediate Care Program, a Residential Crisis Treatment Program, a Special Housing Unit and a protective custody unit, and the statewide allowance is written for general confinement. Ask through their Offender Rehabilitation Coordinator.
Phone CallsIntake and transit, so the answer may not hold.
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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.