Prison Service Providers Directory (2026)

When a loved one is arrested and taken into custody, families quickly discover an uncomfortable truth: staying in touch is no longer free or simple, and it is not run by the government. Instead, a network of private vendors — contracted by federal, state, and county facility administrations — controls almost every point of contact. One company runs the phones and tablets. Another processes the money you deposit. A third fulfills the snacks, clothing, and property you want to send. And when release before trial is possible, a bail bond agency and the surety company behind it decide how that happens. Understanding this landscape is the difference between weeks of confusion and getting help to your loved one in a single afternoon.

This directory brings all of those companies together in one place and links to a dedicated support guide for each. The guides are written for families, not for the industry: they explain what each company does, how to set up and fund an account or place an order, what things cost, which official phone numbers and websites to use, and the mistakes that most often cause a call to fail, a deposit to vanish, or a package to be rejected.

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Why you usually can't shop around

The single most important thing to understand is facility exclusivity. Correctional facilities sign long-term, exclusive contracts — typically one provider for telephone and tablet service, and one provider for commissary or care packages. That means friends and family must use the specific vendor that facility is contracted with, no matter how the price compares to a competitor. If your loved one's jail uses ViaPath for phone calls, you cannot switch to Securus to save money; if the facility's approved package vendor is Access Securepak, you cannot mail your own box of snacks from home. This is why the very first step in every one of these guides is the same: confirm which company serves your specific facility before you spend a dollar.

Money-transfer and bail services work a little differently. Many facilities accept more than one deposit vendor, so you sometimes have a genuine choice — and a chance to compare fees — while bail is an open market of licensed agents backed by insurance underwriters. But the same principle of "confirm before you pay" applies everywhere, because sending money to the wrong system, the wrong account format, or an old facility after a transfer is the most common and costly mistake families make.

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The four kinds of providers

We've organized every company into four practical categories that match how families actually use them:

How to find out which vendor your facility uses

You don't have to guess. A few minutes of checking will tell you exactly who to contact:

What has changed on price

For years, the cost of prison and jail phone calls was notoriously high. That is changing. Under the federal Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has capped per-minute rates and limited the extra fees providers can charge on both interstate and in-state calls, with the new limits phasing in through 2025 and 2026. These caps apply to every telecom provider in this directory — ViaPath, Securus, ICSolutions, and the rest — and they meaningfully lower what families pay, although the exact per-minute rate still depends on the size and type of facility. Financial transaction fees remain regulated at the state level, which is why comparing deposit methods, where you're allowed to, is still worthwhile.

Protecting yourself from scams

Because these systems move money quickly and involve people under stress, they attract fraud. Scammers impersonate corrections vendors, bail agents, and even the facility itself, then pressure families to send money urgently — often through gift cards, unfamiliar accounts, or "verification" fees — to "release," "unlock," or "process" an inmate's account or bail. Legitimate providers never work this way. Always fund accounts and place orders only through the official websites, apps, and phone numbers listed in each guide, keep every confirmation number, and treat any urgent, off-channel demand for money as a warning sign. When in doubt, hang up and contact the facility or vendor directly using a number you looked up yourself.

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Below, each category lists the major companies with a link to its full guide. Start by confirming your facility's vendor, then open the matching guide for step-by-step help.