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Telephone Use
Common areas of the Utah County Jail ("the blocks") have telephones that look like normal pay-phones, but you can only call people collect on them. Keep in mind when trying to call somebody that the phone will announce you are in the jail. The message goes something like: "You are receiving a call from an inmate at the Utah County Jail. To accept charges from [you say your name], press 1..." In other words, if you are thinking of calling work or a friend and not disclosing where you are you are better off calling somebody else on the outside and having them make the call. The calls cost between $4-5 and you get 15 minutes to talk (though the phones actually don't cutoff until you've been talking for 20 minutes).
The telephones in the Utah County Jail will only allow you to call land-line telephones (ie, no cell phones). Some inmates have had some success with calling cell phones by calling a person with a land line and having them conference in a cell phone, though this is not recommended since it is against the jail rules and they can screen all of your outgoing calls.
While the jail reserves the right to screen calls is it very rare for them to actually do so. Just in case, however, you probably want to avoid any conversation that would implicate you in any trouble you have been involved with in jail. Keep in mind that any fighting or possession of contraband can result in additional charges.
If you are fortunate enough to be in the work release program or Jail Industries you will have access to regular payphones that only cost 50 cents per call (with unlimited time limits). Each dorm has only two phones (and 18-30 inmates) so finding an available phone can be difficult at times. The nice thing about these phones is that you can dial 800 numbers for free so you can have somebody on the outside give you a code for a calling card. There are two types of calling cards you can buy:
1) Cards with extremely low rates per minute, but a relatively high connection fee (here is one).
2) Cards with low rates (but not as low as number 1) without any connection fee (here is one).
One of the best resources for calling cards is CallingCards.com. Keep in mind that most calling cards do charge a special connection fee to be used from a pay phone. In practice, however, many inmates report that they don't actually get charged the pay phone surcharge, which is nice. When that is the case it is usually in your best interest to get a calling card just for verifying that who you are calling is available and, if they are local, calling back with two quarters (since you can talk for an unlimited amount of time for 50 cents). Every inmate should have a calling card available for an emergency. Inmates are only allowed to have $20 in the annex at any given time and by the end of a long weekend it is common to run out of cash.
If you need to call your lawyer (in the blocks or the annex) the guards are supposed to allow you to use a jail telephone so the call is not charged to you. This is more common in the annex, but most law firms will accept collect calls from the blocks so you should be able to get hold of your lawyer if you need to.
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