This call is from some Inmate Somewhere

[Andara Bledin]

Also, to point out, I could have easily afforded to stay at your hotel upon my release, if I had the need. Between friends and family members putting money in my commissary account and the pittance I earned at my prison job, I had easily a thousand dollars upon my release.

And upon your release, you could also have used a standard payphone or a cell phone (if you had one among your personal effects and it was still active) rather than calling from the "This is a collect call from a prison inmate" phone.

^-.-^

[depechemodefan]

When the library was open after 6pm on Fridays, this inmate would call regularly (not every Fri). He always asked for the no. of a lawyer.

But we do get tons of prisoner letters. Usually it for requests for "all the lyrics of Lil' Kim songs" or "I need addresses of 50 actors." I guess they are so bored at prison, they will spend money on postage. One of my co-workers had a cousin in prison. She would buy subscriptions of magazines for him, and he enjoyed just getting mail, no matter what type of mail.

But what we hate is when the inmates write to us asking for "all the addresses for Tanya Smith in (whatever city)." or "I need the address of my baby's mama." 1) we don't know if they are stalking someone, like their victim. 2) What woman wants her ex-inmate boyfriend/husband/1 night stand to contact her, if she never kept in-touch with him? So were weary of those requests, but unfortunately the higher ups (the director and mayor and people who never have to deal with actually customers, even if it's a complaint, since it's their assistants who deal with customers) want us to treat prisoners like customers. If they didn't give us the creeps we wouldn't have a problem. Oh, one time a prisoner wrote to the director (of course, she never saw that letter, the assistant made sure of that) asking her to be his friend and send a picture. He apologized ahead of time if she finds his request tasteless.

My co-worker (with the cousin who was in jail) mentioned that in order to get out of prison the inmate must have a place to stay. So they try to get in contact with relatives, friends, or even neighbors from their childhood address. And that's probably why they try to contact their baby's momma, because at least she knows him.

[AKWalMartCartGuy]

And upon your release, you could also have used a standard payphone or a cell phone (if you had one among your personal effects and it was still active) rather than calling from the "This is a collect call from a prison inmate" phone.

^-.-^

so they didn't deserve to contact the outside world for 3 months? and it's been said that you have to have a place to stay before you're released

[Andara Bledin]

so they didn't deserve to contact the outside world for 3 months? and it's been said that you have to have a place to stay before you're released

I never said that.

But on another note, I (or the place I work for) am not going to be the one to pay for that contact.

^-.-^

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I never said that.

But on another note, I (or the place I work for) am not going to be the one to pay for that contact.

^-.-^

That is what I thought the issue was as well. Not that it's a jail inmate calling, but that it's a collect call the hotel will be billed to accept.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Was the OP talking about a collect call? I have gotten a couple of collect calls from the local jail, and am always asked if I will accept the charge before the inmate can speak to me. In EQ's case, it appears the call was not a collect call.

[Evil Queen]

They usually are collect calls and I expected this one to be the same, but there was no automated voice informing me that there was.

The calls have been coming for years so I figured it's better to tell them to never call again and hope that, if they are using those expensive calling cards, that they stop wasting their money on the call.

[queenbb]

we got one of those calls once, we thought it might be one of our uncles, so we took the call (it was collect) come to find out the guy called the wrong number and it was his one phone call.

my sister is the one who took the call, she felt bad for the guy so she got the number that he was going to call and called them for him, it was a little akward.

can you imagine getting a call like that,

um hi, you dont know me but your son called me from jail and he needs you to call back at this # or what ever. no i dont know what he did,

at my old job i use to get them quite often, since i worked for a rehab program and we sent our clients to jail on a regular basis.

[Eric the Grey]

I'm actually surprised that they CAN call without it being collect. When my sister was in a federal penitentiary (drugs 'R' bad, M'kay?) she could only call collect.

My one question in this regards would be: Is said facility close by? If so, it could very well be someone trying to contact family who's come to pick them up, and are possibly staying there.

When we went to pick up my sister that's what we did. We stayed at a local hotel the night before.

Sorry, but I've got to side with the inmate on this one. It's definitely possible to be calling for legitimate reasons.



Eric the Grey

[Evil Queen]

You would think it's local, but it's not. It's from a penitentiary that's supposed to be in Northern Texas; I'm in Houston. Not exactly a single day's ride from here.

[Andara Bledin]

Yeah, that northern Texas facility is the one that was obscene calling my work, and I'm in California, and that was about five years ago.

^-.-^