Phone Calls at Washington Correctional Facility

Nothing for You to Set Up

The shortest answer on this guide: you do not have to do anything.

No account, no card to register, no balance to top up, no per minute rate. New York stopped charging families for state prison calls on 1 August 2025, and Washington is covered by it.

Anyone telling you to open an account to receive calls from Washington is working from the rules that applied before then.

The Weekly Allowance

Free calls	Three per week
Length	Up to fifteen minutes each
Credited	Every Saturday
After the three	Calls run up to thirty minutes
Window	7:00 AM to 11:00 PM

The three reset weekly and do not carry over, so an unused week is gone.

The Call Comes Out

You cannot ring in. There is no number at Washington that connects to a person in custody, and no way to leave a message for one.

In practice that means keeping your phone reachable between 7:00 AM and 11:00 PM. With three calls in a week, a missed one is a large share of the month’s contact.

Fifteen Numbers, Their List

Each person keeps an approved call list of up to fifteen numbers, and they manage it. A family member cannot ask for a number to be added from outside.

So a changed mobile number has to reach them by letter or on a call before it can be dialled. A number nobody inside knows about is a number that does not work, however often you look at the phone.

Calls Around a One-Day Weekend

Most of this page is statewide. What shapes it at Washington is the visiting split.

Washington divides weekend days by the first letter of the incarcerated person’s last name, A to K and L to Z, with one visit a day and a 1:00 PM arrival cutoff. Holidays are open to all.

That leaves most of the week with no possible visit, and the free calls are what carry those days.

Recorded, With One Exception

Calls from New York state prisons are recorded and may be monitored, with a notice at the start of each call.

Properly arranged legal calls are the exception and are not monitored. Ordinary family calls are, so speak on the basis that somebody may listen to it later.

What a Call Leaves Behind

Nothing, which is the whole problem with it.

Forty five minutes a week across three calls, and when it ends there is nothing on the shelf. A letter gets read twice and a photograph goes on a wall. Pigeonly sends both to Washington from your phone, addressed to P.O. Box 180 with the DIN in place, so the days between visits still hold something.