Phone & Video Calls in Vermont (DOC)

How Phone Calls Work

Vermont’s phones, tablets, and messaging run on ICSolutions (since a 2025 vendor switch), and calls go out only to numbers the incarcerated person has submitted on a Personal Allowed Number (PAN) form and DOC has approved. Calls cap at 15 minutes, with limits on repeat calls to the same number, and everything is monitored and recorded except properly arranged legal calls. By statute, a person gets phone access within 24 hours of admission.

What it costs is Vermont’s bright spot: the published rates are $0.028 per minute in-state and $0.06 interstate, with no fees or surcharges — only taxes — plus two free calls per person each week and a complimentary 60-second first call to a new number. Two things keep that honest: the rates are a contract, not a law (Vermont’s statute still says phone access comes “at the expense of the inmate,” and a 2026 bill on no-cost communication was pared down to a study), and the live rate is what shows in the vendor account.

Paying for Calls

Two published account paths:

• Prepaid collect — you fund an account tied to your own number through ICSolutions (icsolutions.com, help desk 888-506-8407); it pays only for calls to you
• Debit — the incarcerated person transfers money from their trust account (funded as described in Sending Money) and can call anyone on their approved list, including internationally

So a family funding “the phone” generally has a choice: prepaid collect for your own line, or a trust deposit the person converts to call everyone.

When Calls Stop Coming: the Blocking Problem

Mobile carriers’ robocall filters sometimes silently block prison phone lines. DOC publishes each facility’s outbound number so families can save it as a contact and ask their carrier to whitelist it — South Burlington (802) 419-0471, Rutland (802) 712-0092, St. Johnsbury (802) 397-5192, Newport (802) 995-5137, St. Albans (802) 330-4485, Springfield (802) 909-3228. If calls suddenly stop, this list is the first thing to check, and called parties can manage blocks through the vendor at 888-506-8407.

Video Visits

Remote video visiting runs through the same ICSolutions account at a published 16 cents per minute, registered and scheduled through icsolutions.com. DOC publishes little else about the mechanics — session lengths and availability show in the account — and older documents from the previous vendor still linger on DOC’s site; the ICS rates are the current ones.

Tablets and Messaging

Tablets are in all six facilities, and the published vendor rates make messaging the cheap, fast channel: 25 cents per message or photo, voice messages at the same price, and streaming content at 5 cents a minute. Premium tablet time (“Gold Passes”) is sold to families separately through JailATM.com. One caution from the 2025 vendor transition: money left in old GettingOut accounts is refunded by the former vendor, ViaPath, at 1-866-516-0115 — not by DOC or the new vendor.

If the Person Is in Mississippi

The men at the Mississippi contract facility call through that facility’s phone system, and may only call people approved on their Vermont visiting and telephone form, updated on a 60-day cycle. DOC’s posted details (rates, 30-minute call limits) date to 2018 — confirm current costs through the vendor account or DOC’s Constituent Services Unit.

Family Emergencies

For a death or serious illness in the family, call the person’s facility directly — Constituent Services handles general questions but not emergencies. There is no published free-emergency-call entitlement, though Vermont’s telephone rule lets a superintendent authorize a call at the facility’s expense in an emergency when the person cannot pay — and the weekly free calls and low rates blunt the cost issue that makes this fraught elsewhere.

Verify Before Acting

For the general, nationwide overview of this topic, see the national guide: Staying in Touch.