In California correctional facilities where Aventiv provides telecommunications services, your phone number may be designated as an Approved Number for privatization in one of the following ways:

1. The California Bar Association may provide your number of record to the facility;
2. You can fill out a form on site;
3. You can send an e-mail or letter to the facility; or
4. In some instances, your incarcerated client may notify the appropriate facility staff member of your representation. (This option is not available at every facility.)

In each instance, additional information may be required, including a photo ID and verification of your phone number and membership in a state bar. Some facilities may require you to update this information annually or every certain number of years. Please confirm the facility’s specific guidelines to ensure compliance. 

Once your number is approved for privatization at a given California facility, calls from your client(s) are not subject to recording or monitoring. Please note, however, that the privatization process is facility specific. You must register your number with each facility where your clients are housed to ensure that your calls are not recorded or monitored. If either the caller or the recipient hears a prompt informing them that the call will be recorded and may be monitored, the call will, in fact, be recorded and may, in fact, be monitored. In many instances, the prompt will tell you who to contact to privatize your number. That information is also available here. Please do not ignore the prompt. Electing to ignore the prompt is to the detriment of the privileged nature of your communications.

Aventiv also has made available in California—and some facilities have adopted—a “Private Call” option that allows persons who intend to make calls to what they believe to be Approved Numbers to so indicate at the call’s outset. If the dialed number is an Approved Number, the call will be connected and will not be recorded. If the dialed number is not an Approved Number, the call will not be completed. In the latter instance, the calling party may elect to call the same number via other, non-Private Call options, in which case the call will be recorded and may be monitored. Please confirm with your client’s facility whether it has adopted the Private Call option described above.