Is your beloved felon burdened by financial woes? Is the prison telephone too expensive for him to call often? Well, you can put his troubles at ease with magicJack™!
Yes, I’m dead serious. I’m putting my official stamp of approval on the product. If you have a loved one in federal prison who likes to call you often, you need to run out and buy this TODAY.
How much money can you save? A LOT. Most phone calls made by federal inmates are tallied as long distance because the feds like to send convicts to prisons halfway across the country once they’ve been sentenced. A fifteen-minute long distance call will set your felon back by $3.45. So how much will the same call be with magicJack?
Ninety cents. Congratulations, you’re now saving him $2.55 every time he calls you.
I wish that I could take the credit for coming up with this, but the idea was actually given to me by another inmate. I was so happy when I saw the bill, I gave him a prison fist bump and some Tootsie Roll pops.
Now, I will admit that you’ll have to spend a little bit to get started. The magicJack device costs twenty dollars, and there is a yearly subscription fee of twenty dollars. Even so, you’ll start seeing pure savings after the first sixteen calls. And because a felon normally gets 300 minutes of phone time a month, you could start seeing a return on your investment within the first thirty days of purchase.
How does magicJack work?
Since this is not a paid advertisement for magicJack, I’ll start by giving you my editor’s first opinion of the device: It looks cheap and plasticky and seems apt to fall apart if you stare at it too hard. She had some serious doubts about the product until the guy at Radio Shack told her not to worry, since he’d never seen anybody trying to return one.
The device is a tiny little dongle that plugs into a USB port on a computer. (Yes, you will need a computer with an Internet connection to use this. I already know that all of you have computers since you are looking at my blog, after all. ^_^ ) Like I said, one end of the dongle plugs into a USB port. The other end has a jack to plug into a telephone. Since you don’t have to bother with a CD full of drivers, installation is pretty simple.
Once you’ve paid the subscription fee, you can select your telephone number. This is where the money-saving magic comes in. You can choose ANY area code you want! Just pick a telephone number that has the same area code AND first three digits of the prison you will be receiving calls from, and all calls made to you from your felon will be charged to him at the LOCAL rate ($0.06 per minute) instead of the long distance rate. Magic!
But I don’t want to use a phone attached to my computer . . .
Then don’t. Simply use the CALL FORWARDING feature to send your magicJack calls to a cell phone or land line. As for the dongle, you never have to look at it again! Just toss it in a desk drawer after you have completed your call forwarding setup. Magic!
What if my inmate moves to another state?
So what? You can change the number as many times as you like, for free. As I’ve said before, it’s MAGIC!
Bottom Line: If you are financially backing someone in federal prison, and he or she calls you several times each month, then you should probably get magicJack. The amount of money you’ll save makes it worth the small initial investment.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: If you are considering purchasing the magicJack, I strongly urge you to purchase it from a physical retail store, such as Radio Shack. That way, if it doesn’t work out for you, you will be able to return the magicJack, no harm, no foul. Just be certain that you find out the store’s return policy before you plunk down your hard-earned cash. Also, when you purchase the magicJack at a physical store, you will pay about $40 for it, which includes the first year’s subscription. That way, you don’t have to be concerned about entering your credit or debit card information online. That being said, setup was ridiculously simple. As soon as you plug the magicJack into your computer, the software installation begins. Once you set up your online account, go into your account and select Call Forwarding. Forward your new phone number to a phone that is convenient for you to answer. Oh – it’s possible that you may not be able to get the same three-digit prefix as the federal prison. Just click on the following link, enter the city name, and scroll down the resulting list for a match in the state of your loved one’s prison. You’ll find a list of prefixes that are local for the city. If this works out for you, please leave a comment and let us know. Thanks! (Oh, and no, we don’t get any compensation from the magicJack company.) Any questions?]
So has anyone tried this?? OK maybe I am dumb but are all prisons federal??? jk2010
ReplyDeletejk2010,
ReplyDeleteDon't feel dumb! We're ALL learning as we go. NEVER be afraid to ask a question.
Google the prison name. You should be able to tell if the prison is state or federal from the prison's website. If that doesn't work, go to the federal prison website at http://www.bop.gov (BOP stands for Bureau of Prisons). If the prison does NOT appear there, you can be sure that the prison is NOT federal.
State and local prisons usually have an outrageous phone call system in place that makes the prison and some business owner rich and the inmate and his/her loved ones poor. If you weren't given a handbook outlining the phone call procedure, call the prison and ASK. (Just be nice about it, ok? The staff do have stressful jobs. *I* wouldn't want to trade places with prison staff.)
I had heard that using VoIP (which is the technology that magicjack uses) was not allowed by Texas prisons. Does anyone know if this is still the case? Maybe they changed the rules, I hope so! I think this sounds like a fantastic idea, thanks so much for the great post.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I've heard the same thing. When Joe was incarcerated in Texas, NONE of the other inmates were talking about using any VoIP services to reduce the cost of phone calls. Perhaps the other states will clamp down on VoIP use as well. I don't know. But for as long as WE can, we will continue to save money by using magicJack.
ReplyDeleteThe VoIP restriction is an old one, not a new one. It stems from the past system of vetting numbers you could call, and those being restricted. In the future you'll see fewer of these problems.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I've seen the issue with Vonage, but never with MagicJack. Maybe that's just because Vonage is so much more popular, there's bound to be more people with the problems out there.
I don't have anyone that I use this for, but I do use MagicJack to have a number local to the area I moved away from recently. It is a great product, no question about it.
I am most likely going to get a 10 year sentince in a Maryland prison soon so I am looking up what info I can and your blog is very good reading. Im not sure which prison I would go to though because my case isnt over yet, but I hope this can be used. Only issue is the only person I really have on the outside is my dad who is completely computer illiterate. I hope that its not complicated to change the area code, fall forwarding ect, because I also want to have calls sometimes forward to my girlfriends cell phone to call her.
ReplyDeleteAn alternate (and cheaper) solution would be to simply create a free Google Voice account, select a telephone number with the desired area code/exchange, and than configure it to automatically forward to your primary telephone number...
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteGoogle Voice is specifically mentioned in a ban for all telephone number forwarding services. The BoP implemented that policy 3-4 months ago. I think this is because they can't trace the number back to its source. Anyone caught using Google Voice is subject to disciplinary action.
I don't think they can ban Magic Jack, however, because it is like having an actual telephone line. Note that the BoP banned all forwarding services, not VOIP phones. Think of all the people that have their telephone number through their ISP like Comcast or whatever. I don't think such a ban would be fair or sustainable due to changing technology.