Rates vary depending upon if you live in or outside of Texas. For specific rates, click here.

Unfortunately there is no easy answer. There are three main steps:

1. Your name must match your driver's license or State ID and your phone bill.
2. You must register and be approved to receive calls.
3. The offender enrolls in the voice biometrics system and is eligible to make calls. The whole process can take 7-30 days depending on timing and resource availability.

There are a number of reasons this may be occurring. Some include:

• the unit was on lockdown when he/she wanted to call you
• no one was home to press # 1 and accept the call. (Offenders cannot leave voice messages)

Yes you can! For details click here.

There are a couple of possibilities:

• The registration process may not be complete, to verify call 866 - 806 - 7804 (use option 1, 2, 0, 0) or visit website www.texasprisonphone.com/contact.asp.
• There may be an issue with your billing account, to verify call 800 – 844 - 6591 or click here.

TDCJ now allows offenders to call post-paid cell phones. Please call the enrollment center if you wish to register a post-paid cell phone.

Offenders now have unlimited monthly minutes.

If you reach your credit limit and have not made a payment on your account, your phone number is blocked and offenders cannot call you. Simply contact CBS and make a payment and your line will be unblocked and ready for you to receive calls.

For friends and family Prepaid Accounts, there is no credit limit. You must have funds in the account to receive calls.

If you have a Direct Bill Account, your credit limit every month is $85.00 which will be increased to $200.00 after 90 days if the account is kept current and you have paid your invoices in full on time. If you only spend half of your credit limit on the calls you receive, you will be billed for that amount and you can continue to receive calls and spend up to your total credit limit.

You must pay your bill on or before the due date or your line will be blocked and your Direct Bill Account will be automatically converted to a Friend & Family Prepaid Account. You will not be able to receive calls until you pay the past due charges. And, all future calls you receive must be paid for in advance using your Friend & Family Prepaid Account.

To ensure you can always receive calls, add more funds than you expect to use for the month. For example, make a payment higher than the minimum amount on the bill. If you don't use the minutes this month, you can use it next month. When the offender is released or you close your account, you can request a refund of all unused phone time in your CBS account. Note: Unused funds placed in an offender's account are refunded to the offender upon release.  

Yes. You can move funds between your TDCJ and non-TDCJ accounts; however, you cannot transfer funds in and out of an Offender Debit Account. You can fund an Offender prepaid account directly, but not perform transfers.
 

To find out if your offender has been suspended from phone privileges, contact the TDCJ unit where the offender resides.