Phones here are blocked for most of a weekday morning and again through the afternoon count, so the window is narrower than the 300 minute allowance suggests. Create your phone account in minutes.
Create your phone account in minutes
Federal phone calls run on TRUFONE, the Bureau of Prisons system, and the shape of it surprises families who expect something like a mobile contract. Calls are capped at fifteen minutes. There is a monthly allowance measured in minutes rather than calls. You cannot ring in, and you cannot add your own number to the list. Everything is controlled from the inside, and the practical consequence is that if calls stop, the conversation to have is with the person rather than with the institution.
The allowance is generous on paper. The window is narrower than it looks.
| Period | Status |
|---|---|
| 6:00 AM to 7:30 AM | Available |
| 7:30 AM to 10:30 AM, weekdays | Blocked |
| 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM | Available |
| 12:30 PM until after the 4:00 PM count | Blocked |
| After the count to no later than 11:30 PM | Available |
Two blocks of a weekday are gone, and the second one runs several hours. If you are waiting on a call and nothing comes between half past twelve and late afternoon, that is the count, not a problem.
Not permitted: third-party calls, credit card calls, and any 1-800, 1-900, 1-888 or 1-976 number.
Two things families try, and neither works.
Adding your number. The approved list is built and managed by the person inside, through TRULINCS. There is no family-side form, no registration, and nothing to file with the Bureau. If your number is not on the list, they add it.
Calling in. The Bureau states plainly that an attorney may not call a person in custody, and the same holds for family. There is no inbound line.
The one exception is a death or serious illness of an immediate family member. That goes through the main line on 718-840-4200, asking for Religious Services or the Unit Team, and it is a message passed on rather than a call put through.
Specific to a detention centre, and genuinely useful.
Pretrial detainees at MDC Brooklyn have access to unmonitored telephones in the housing units and can call the Federal Defenders of the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York free of charge.
That is a separate route from the ordinary phone allowance, it does not consume the 300 minutes, and it is not recorded. If a family is worried about a person’s legal representation, that line exists inside the building already.
Federal email runs through CorrLinks, and it works the same way round as the phone list: the person inside starts it.
Limits: text only, no attachments, no photographs, a 13,000 character cap per message, and no internet access on the inside. The Bureau publishes no family-side registration fee; the per-minute TRULINCS charge is paid by the person inside from their commissary account.
If you block by mistake, which is easy to do because the invitation arrives unexpectedly, the person has to ask the Trust Fund Office to lift it and supply your name, address, email and phone.
Calls may be monitored and recorded, and using the phone is treated as consent.
Attorney calls are the exception. Pretrial detainees additionally have the unmonitored Federal Defenders lines described above.
At a detention centre the likeliest explanation is movement, not discipline.
MDC Brooklyn screens 200 to 300 new arrivals a week and most people here are moving through the court process. A transfer, a court trip, a change of housing unit or a change in status can all interrupt calls without anything having gone wrong.
Check the locator first. If they have moved facility, the whole phone list and every other arrangement moves with them.
6 of 8 questions
Fifteen minutes, as a hard cap on each call. The monthly allowance is 300 minutes, and the handbook says an extra 100 minutes are ordinarily allowed in November and December. Up to thirty numbers can be on the approved list.
Phone CallsPhones are blocked from 12:30 PM until after the 4:00 PM count, and again from 7:30 to 10:30 AM on weekdays. Outside those blocks the system runs from 6:00 AM to no later than 11:30 PM. A silent afternoon is normal rather than a sign of a problem.
Phone CallsYou do not, they do. The approved list is built and managed by the person inside through TRULINCS, and there is no family form, registration or application. If your number is missing, ask them to add it next time you speak or write.
Phone CallsNo. The Bureau states that even an attorney cannot call a person in custody, and the same applies to family. The exception is a death or serious illness in the immediate family, which goes through 718-840-4200 asking for Religious Services or the Unit Team, and is passed on as a message.
Phone CallsThe Bureau does not publish a rate for MDC Brooklyn. Its handbook says rates are posted inside the institution, and the attorney guide gives no figure. What is confirmed is the structure rather than the price: fifteen minute calls, 300 minutes a month, thirty approved numbers.
Phone CallsThe person inside adds your email address, CorrLinks sends you an invitation to accept or block, and the invitation expires after ten days. Once accepted you exchange text-only messages, no attachments and no photographs, capped at 13,000 characters. If you block it by mistake, they have to ask the Trust Fund Office to lift it.
Phone CallsYes. Pretrial detainees at MDC Brooklyn have unmonitored telephones in the housing units and can call the Federal Defenders of the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York free of charge. That is separate from the ordinary allowance and does not use up the 300 minutes.
Phone CallsAt a detention centre, movement is the likeliest answer. A transfer, a court trip or a change of housing unit interrupts calls without anything going wrong, and this building turns over 200 to 300 people a week. Check the inmate locator before assuming anything else.
Phone CallsThe Marshals hold them first, so the locator lags an arrest.
View ArticleImmediate family only while pretrial, and the unit sets the day.
View ArticleDes Moines, not Brooklyn, and the register number without its dash.
View ArticlePhotocopied, original destroyed, and white paper only.
View ArticleSearch for your loved one and start sending photos, letters, and messages today.
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All information on this page comes directly from official government and facility sources. How we verify information › Last verified September 15, 2026.