Gurney Unit Phone Calls Through Securus. Register First

Registering While He’s Still Being Processed

Registration is the gate. Until the number he wants to reach is set up with Securus, the call will not connect, and nothing about being newly arrived at the Gurney Unit, the Joe F. Gurney Transfer Facility, changes that.

At an intake facility this catches families out in a specific way. Someone arrives, the family waits to hear from him, and the silence gets read as a problem at the prison. Often the problem is that the number has not been registered yet. Registration happens at texasprisonphone.com or on (866) 806-7804, and it is worth doing before he calls instead of after a failed attempt.

Three things are worth knowing while you set it up.

Calls are outbound only. There is no way to call in. The prison’s own number, (903) 928-3118, reaches staff, not the person you are trying to talk to.

The window is 5:00 AM to midnight, with a 30-minute limit on each call and a one-minute warning before it cuts off. There is no monthly cap on total minutes.

Some things end a call instantly. Three-way calling and call forwarding both terminate it. So does an attempt to reach an 800 number, a business line, a pay phone, an internet calling service, or an international number.

One more piece connects to money. TDCJ only allows deposits from people on the incarcerated person’s Visitors List or phone list, so being registered for calls is also what makes you eligible to send funds. The two lists are worth sorting out together.

The dialling trap here is real. Coffield, Michael, Beto and Gurney all answer on the (903) 928 exchange. Coffield is 928-2211, Michael is 928-2311, Beto is 928-2217 and Gurney is 928-3118. A number copied slightly wrong from a search result reaches a different prison, and the staff answering it have no record of your person.

TDCJ does not publish a per-minute rate for Securus calls. Securus sets the pricing, so confirm the current cost with Securus during registration.

The Three Ways a Call Gets Paid For

TDCJ allows three arrangements, and which one you use changes who is billed.

Collect. The call is billed to the number receiving it. Nothing is set up in advance beyond the registration itself, but not every carrier or plan accepts collect calls from a correctional facility, and a mobile number often will not.

Friends and Family Prepaid. You fund an account attached to your own number. He calls, and the cost comes out of your balance. This is the arrangement most families end up on, because it works with a mobile number and it does not depend on your carrier agreeing to anything.

Inmate debit. He pays from his own account, funded by the deposits described on the send money guide. Useful when he needs to reach someone who has not set up a prepaid balance.

One detail worth getting right at registration: the name on the phone account normally has to match the name on the ID and the billing record for that number. A mismatch here is a common reason an otherwise complete registration will not verify.

Messages and Tablets

Voice calls are not the only channel. TDCJ runs electronic messaging through JPay on inmate tablets, which is a separate account and a separate cost from the phone system.

Tablets matter more at Gurney than the phone rules alone suggest, because they are also how scanned mail arrives. Letters and photos sent to the Dallas processing center are scanned and delivered to his tablet, so a person with a tablet gets mail faster than one waiting on printed copies.

There is also one 60-minute video visit per month, through Securus at $10 or a tablet kiosk at no cost. That is covered on the visiting hours guide, since TDCJ schedules it alongside in-person visits at this facility.