CO DOC Inmate Communication Services by GTL

GTL/ConnectNetwork.com Services Available at the CO DOC

The Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) entered into an agreement with GTL to provide a variety of advanced services to the inmate population. In addition, GTL will offer select services to the friends and family members through their approved payment portal - ConnectNetwork.

  • Offender Telephone Services
    GTL provides the opportunity for inmate telephone accounts to be created and minutes purchased through multiple payment solutions. These accounts can be managed through ConnectNetwork.com, an industry leader in correctional payment services and GTL approved payment solution.

    Offender Phone Accounts - Classifications

    • PREPAID COLLECT: GTL’s prepaid collect option, AdvancePay®, allows a friend or family member to set up a calling account to his or her phone number without the restrictions of standard billing. Every time calls are made and accepted to a prepaid number, the charges are deducted from the account. Prepaid accounts can be set up for all types of numbers, including cell phones. Friends and family should visit ConnectNetwork.com or call 800.483.8314 to set up an AdvancePay account today.
    • DEBIT: Debit calling puts the inmate in control of their phone account. They will be able to purchase debit minutes from the commissary, which they can then use to call friends and family members. Friends and family members are also able to purchase phone minutes for an inmate’s PIN Debit account by creating an Offender Phone account through ConnectNetwork.com. Once the payment has been made, the amount is credited to the offender and may be used to make phone calls to any allowed phone number. Inmates can call any approved phone numbers, including cell phones, with their debit account.
    • COLLECT: Calls to certain approved numbers and the call charges will remain the same as they do today on your monthly phone bill. However, note that collect calls cannot be made to cell phones, office phones, or hospital numbers.


    Offender Phone Account - Funding Options

    • Online - visit www.ConnectNetwork.com to create a telephone account, add funds to telephone accounts, view balances, and more. For instructions on creating and funding your telephone account through ConnectNetwork.com, please click here.
    • Phone - For creating and/or funding a telephone account, please contact GTL at 1-800-483-8314.
    • Western Union - Payments to your GTL AdvancePay account may be made by visiting your local Western Union.
    • Mail - Payments made to your GTL AdvancePay account may also be made by check or money order. Send payments to: AdvancePay Service Department PO Box 911722 Denver, CO 80291-1722


  • Electronic Messaging (Effective September 21, 2016 - Select Locations ONLY)

    Online: ConnectNetwork.com --For a step by step instruction guide, please Click Here

    CO DOC Electronic Messaging Fee Table

    Friends and Family

    Message Credits Cost
    1 $0.25
    4 $1.00
    10 $2.50
    20 $5.00


    Note: ConnectNetwork account holders WILL have the ability to prepay for offender reply messages.

    Offender

    Message Credits Cost
    1 25 LinkUnits*


*available for purchase through Commissary (Coming Soon)

NOTICE
You may have noticed a charge on your telephone bill for the Colorado Universal Service Fund. This charge is required by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to pay for the Colorado Universal Service fund established by state law.

What is the Colorado Universal Service Fund?
There are two primary purposes of the fund: (1) to make basic voice telephone service affordable in certain high cost areas of Colorado; and (2) to provide funds for grants to build broadband networks in unserved areas of Colorado. The PUC provides Universal Service Fund payments for basic voice telephone service to telephone companies that serve areas with high costs and meet other PUC requirements for the funding. Grants for building broadband networks are determined and overseen by the Colorado Broadband Deployment Board. Payments to telecom providers for basic voice telephone service in high cost areas are overseen by the PUC.

What services is this charge applied to and who pays it?
This charge is assessed as a percentage of your in-state telecommunications services for local, wireless, paging, in-state long distance, and optional services. The charge is not applied to interstate services. All telecommunications customers in Colorado pay this monthly charge.

What is the monthly charge?
The monthly charge is currently set at 2.6 percent, which was effective April 1, 2013. The PUC may adjust the charge over time depending on how much money is needed for the fund and to make sure that customers do not pay more than is necessary.

Who do I call if I have questions about this charge?
For more information, contact your telecommunications provider. For Customer Service Inquiries, please contact 1-877-650-4249.

GTL places a high priority on customer satisfaction. If a customer feels that their issue is not resolved according to existing policy and regulations, they can request a supervisor. Furthermore, GTL maintains an entire escalations team that is solely dedicated to issues that require, for example, additional research – ensuring that the escalation is handled as quickly as possible.

Additional contact information for our customer service team can be found by visiting our online billing support center.

Link Units are purchased through the standard commissary ordering process. Inmates will select the Link Units line item on the commissary form and if the appropriate amount of funds are available in their commissary account, the Link Units will be transferred to their account for use.

Inmates will have the ability to respond to, as well as initiate, electronic messages provided they have the necessary Link Units available to them. To purchase Link Units, the inmate would select the Link Units line item as part of the standard commissary ordering process.

At this time, no pictures, videos, additional files, or any kinds of attachments are permitted in the email.

The inmate does not have an email address. Your email will be sent to the facility’s ConnectNetwork email account. The facility staff will then review your message and decide to approve or reject the email.

This will be determined according to the policies of each individual facility. You will need to contact the facility for this information.

All email received by the facility are subject to review and approval by the participating facility staff. Inappropriate content, determined by the facility, could cause the email to be rejected.

All email sent through ConnectNetwork is subject to review by the facility staff. Once approved, the email message will be delivered to the intended inmate.

You can view the email messages that were sent through your Recent Activity page. You will click the Email Center link from the left side menu, and then click the Recent Activity sub menu link. You are not able to view the body of the messages, but you will be able to view a summary of your sent messages.

You may type up to 2,000 characters in a single email message

You may check the status of your sent email on the Recent Activity page. The email will show as “Pending” until the facility has received it and approved/rejected it. Once the email is approved/rejected, the email will change from “Pending” to “Approved” or “Rejected.”

An approved status does not necessarily mean the inmate has physically received the email. A status of “Approved” only means the facility has determined your email was appropriate for delivery. Delivery to the inmate will follow the facility policies.

The email address that you will receive information at is the email address that was entered on the Account Settings page. You can change your email address by selecting the Account Home left menu item, and the Account Settings sub menu item. You will need a valid email address to receive notifications of email purchases and sent email confirmations.

The inmate must write a letter and send it through the mail to reply to an email message. Depending on the facility’s mail policies, it may take a while to get a response back.

The facility will decide when they will deliver your email message to the inmate. If you have not received a response back from the inmate (through the mail), they may not have received your email message yet. For information on email delivery policies, you will need to contact the facility.

There are several ways to receive calls from inmates, including collect, prepaid collect, and inmate debit calls. Inmates have the option of placing collect calls to telephone numbers approved by the correctional facility. Collect calls are billed to the called party every month through their phone carrier company.

If you receive a high number of collect calls, you may have reached the billing limit allowed by your local phone company. Once you reach a maximum phone bill amount, you may be at a risk of being blocked from receiving future collect calls from an inmate. In such instances, you can call GTL at 800.483.8314 to sign up for a prepaid calling account and begin receiving calls again. In addition, online account registration and deposits are available through ConnectNetwork.

You can sign up for a prepaid calling account today if you experience any of the following:

• You have a collect call restriction by your local phone provider
• You have exceeded the collect call limit
• You are unable to receive inmate calls on your cell phone, office phone, hospital phone or other commercial phone numbers
• Your local telephone company does not bill for inmate collect calls
• Your phone number is blocked from receiving inmate collect calls
• You have a high collect call bill and want to manage your calling budget

Please note in order to receive calls to cell phones, inmates must call either prepaid collect or use their inmate debit calling account.

There are multiple ways to block calls from inmates as needed. Any incoming call can be refused at any time by either hanging up or pressing “1″ when prompted. The call will be disconnected and the inmate will be informed their call was not accepted.

Any incoming call can be blocked permanently from a correctional facility by pressing “6″ when prompted. You will be asked to provide a 4-digit personal identification number (PIN) to confirm the block. This PIN will be required to remove the block in the future if needed.

You can also call the GTL customer service department at 877.650.4249, and they will be able to help block future calls from a facility. If you are being physically threatened, you should contact your local law enforcement agency to obtain a Personal Protection Order.

If you are receiving unwanted correspondence or telephone calls from an inmate, you should contact the Superintendent at the facility where the inmate is currently being housed. A written correspondence and/or telephone restriction may be placed on the inmate after a fair and impartial review of your request. We will make every effort to restrict contact from the inmate after your request is approved. However, if you should receive any contact after the restriction, please contact the Superintendent at the facility where the inmate is being housed.

You can remove a block on your telephone number by calling the GTL customer service department at 877-650-4249 and speaking to one of our representatives. They will submit a request to have the block removed. The timeframe for a block removal is 1-2 business days.

Please note there are other reasons why your phone number may be blocked from receiving collect calls from correctional facilities. These include:

• Your local telephone company does not offer billing on collect calls
• You have reached the maximum dollar amount limit allowed for collect calls
• You are trying to receive collect calls on a cell phone or work phone

You can sign up for the easy-to-use and convenient prepaid calling program offered by GTL, by either Clicking Here to sign up online or calling 800-483-8314.

GTL, in conjunction with the DOC, reserve the right to record and monitor all connected phone calls. For additional information on this policy, please visit our Friends and Family Information page.