One company here runs the phones, the tablets and the scanner that turns your letters into images, so a single account touches nearly every way you reach somebody. Create your phone account in minutes.
Create your phone account in minutes
The vendor here is worth understanding because of how much it touches. Smart Communications runs the phones, the tablets, the messaging and the scanning programme that turns your posted letters into images. That concentration has one clear advantage and one thing to watch, and both are set out below.
The county names its provider plainly: SmartInmate, by Smart Communications.
Its own description, quoted by the Sheriff’s Office, is that it connects family and friends with incarcerated individuals through an online communications system, and that you can correspond every day in near real time.
Accounts are set up at smartinmate.com, and the vendor line is 1-727-349-1561.
Smart Communications is also the company behind this jail’s mail scanning programme. The state’s approval of that arrangement names it. So the same vendor handles the phone, the tablet, the message you type and the letter you post.
The advantage. One account, one login and one support line covers nearly everything. At a county running three vendors you would be managing three relationships and three balances.
The thing to watch. If that account has a problem, several channels go quiet at once. A phone that stops working and messages that stop arriving are likely to be the same problem rather than two.
The county is unambiguous: people in the facility may not receive incoming calls or messages.
So there is no number anyone can ring to reach your person, and no way to leave a message with the front desk that gets carried to a housing unit. The jail line, 845-340-3644, reaches staff.
The practical consequence is the usual one but it lands harder here. The first contact has to start on their side, and it can only land somewhere already set up to receive it. A family waiting to hear before opening an account loses the first days to that.
At this jail the tablet is not an extra. It is where your posted letters arrive as colour scans, under the state variance that allows the jail to scan non-privileged mail.
That variance carries a condition worth knowing: the facility has to give people tablets at no cost so they can read their mail. So reading your letter cannot be made to depend on being able to afford the device.
Open and fund the account before you wait to hear from anyone, because there is no inbound route and no message service to fall back on.
Letters work in the meantime, and at this jail they are handled better than at most. Pigeonly sends letters and photos to Kingston while you get the account set up.
5 of 5 questions
Smart Communications, through its SmartInmate service. Accounts are set up at smartinmate.com and the vendor line is 1-727-349-1561. The same company also runs this jail's mail scanning programme.
Phone CallsNo. The county states that people in the facility may not receive incoming calls or messages. There is no number that reaches a housing unit and no way to leave a message for somebody through the front desk. The jail line, 845-340-3644, reaches staff.
Phone CallsOpen and fund the account before you wait to hear from them. There is no inbound call route and no message service here, so until an account exists the first call has nowhere to land.
Phone CallsNot to read their mail. A condition of the state variance that allows this jail to scan letters is that people must receive tablets at no cost to access their mail.
Phone CallsSmart Communications provides the phones, the tablets, the messaging and the mail scanning. The upside is one account and one support line. The thing to watch is that a problem with that account can take out calls, messages and mail at the same time.
Phone CallsConfirm the facility before opening an account.
View ArticleThe same vendor handles the letters you post.
View ArticleCommissary runs on a different company again.
View ArticleSearch for your loved one and start sending photos, letters, and messages today.
Search for Your Loved OneFree Inmate Search
All information on this page comes directly from official government and facility sources. How we verify information › Last verified September 22, 2026. Official source: ulstersheriffny.gov/inmatePhone ›