Bill Clements Unit Phone Calls Through Securus. Register First

No Call Connects Until You Register

Registration is the gate, and it sits on your side rather than his. Until your number is set up with Securus Technologies, TDCJ’s phone provider, the call will not go through. He can dial correctly and nothing happens.

You register at texasprisonphone.com or on (866) 806-7804. Doing it before he first tries to call saves both of you a failed attempt, and it has a second benefit worth knowing about: being on his phone list is one of the two ways TDCJ allows you to send money, the other being his Visitors List.

Phones at Clements run on the statewide window, 5:00 AM to midnight. There is no monthly cap on how many minutes he can use.

TDCJ does not publish a per-minute rate. Securus sets and changes the pricing, so check the current rate when you register. Securus customer service is (877) 578-3658.

There are three ways a call gets paid for. Collect, where the charge lands on your phone bill. Friends and Family Prepaid, where you fund an account in your own name and calls draw from it, which is the one most families end up on because it works whatever your carrier does. And inmate debit, where the call comes out of his own trust fund balance, which is where a deposit and a phone call meet.

What Ends a Call Early

Several things cut a call off, and none of them are a fault on the line.

The 30-minute limit. Every call ends at 30 minutes. There is a one-minute warning before it drops, which is enough to say goodbye if you are listening for it. He can call again, since there is no monthly minute cap, but each individual call has that ceiling. Families with a lot to cover learn to say the important thing first.

Three-way calling and call forwarding terminate the call immediately. This catches people out constantly and it is worth being blunt about. Adding a third person to the line, or forwarding the call to another number so someone else can speak, ends it. It is not a glitch. It is the system doing what it is designed to do, and it can also cost him phone privileges.

Certain numbers will not connect at all. No 800 numbers, no businesses, no pay phones, no internet-based services, and no international numbers. If a call to your number keeps failing, one thing worth checking is whether your number is a voice-over-internet line, since those sometimes fall foul of that restriction.

All calls at TDCJ units are monitored and recorded. The only exception is properly established attorney calls.

Tablets and the Monthly Video Visit

Beyond the phones, there is a second channel, and Clements sits in a small group of units here.

TDCJ makes tablets available for messages and for video visits. Each incarcerated person is allowed one 60-minute video visit per month, on top of in-person visiting. It runs either through Securus at $10 or through a tablet kiosk at no cost.

Clements is one of only 13 TDCJ units where Securus remote video is offered. The full list is Clements, Connally, Crain, Garza West, Hutchins, Jester III, McConnell, Michael, Montford, Sanchez, Stiles, Travis and Wynne. If a family member somewhere else in the state has told you they cannot get a Securus video visit at their unit, that is why.

One last practical note. The weekday block on that schedule is video only. If you were planning a weekday drive to Amarillo on the strength of those hours, the visiting hours guide walks through the whole grid column by column.