Surry County Detention Center Inmate Phone Use
The information below provides complete instructions regarding Surry County Detention Center:
Follow these instructions exactly to help ensure that your inmate has access to the jail phones and your communication costs are reduced as much as possible.
How Does An Inmate Make A Phone Call From Surry County Detention Center?
Collect Calls
Almost every jail, including Surry County Detention Center, will allow inmates to contact pre-approved friends and family members' phones by calling collect.
This is typically the most expensive way to contact people by phone and in many cases, it requires credit approval or a deposit to be made into a third-party phone company account through a contract with the jail.
Direct Calls
Many jails are now contracting with a third party service (for a fee) that is less expensive and allows your inmate to use their phone system to make direct calls to your land line or cell phone.
To find out about Surry County Detention Center phone services, call 336-401-8975.
Some jails also allow sell phone cards directly to an inmate in the jail commissary store.
Can I Communicate By Email With An Inmate?
A growing number of jails now offer email services to inmates and their families. This can save you time by letting you view your email from your smart phone, computer, or tablet, whenever you wish.
You don't have to deal with envelopes, stamps or the post office.
Inmates like it because the emails typically eliminate delayed mail runs so they can get your correspondence quickly and send responses immediately.
Jail staffs like it as it eliminates concerns about contraband entering the facility in envelopes and on paper. It also allows the jail to have an electronic record that can be called upon at any time.
Anything you or your inmate writes in an email service is put through a filtering program that looks for certain words related to criminal and/or gang activities.
There have been multiple cases in which emails between inmates and their friends or loved ones have been used as evidence in criminal court cases to convict them or to file new charges.
Call 336-401-8975 or click here to see if email services are being offered at this jail and if so, how to sign up you and your inmate.
Important Tips About Jail Phone Calls
If you were unable to find the information you were looking for on this page, call Surry County Detention Center at 336-401-8975 and ask their policies on getting phone calls from your inmate.
Many jails and prisons are increasingly restricting the amount of time that an inmate can use the phone by placing daily and monthly limits, so try to pace yourself and not use up all your time at the beginning of the month.
Jails limit an inmate's phone time to certain hours of the day, so it is important you keep a regular schedule that works for both you and your inmate.
If your inmate does not call you during the time you both have scheduled, don't panic. There are often long lines for phone use. When a jail is on lockdown due to a fight or other security issue they do not allow the phones to be used.
Phones are the only way for an inmate to hear your voice and temporarily 'escape' the loneliness of incarceration, so use your time well. Arguing about anything will leave you both feeling empty and guilty, so avoid it at all costs.
All phone conversations are recorded. Whatever you talk about, can and will be used against your inmate in court. Never discuss their pending criminal case!
Also, be warned that some phone providers are collecting voice prints for a database which law enforcement agencies are building.
Click here to view the jail website for additional information.