Canteen balances and calls from prison

I called the CFRC - Main today. I found out some very useful information.

For Florida prison canteen account balances:

If you call 866-209-7250, you can find out an inmate's canteen trust account balance. That number is for the Tallahassee bank that handles all Florida prisons' canteen (commissary) accounts. Inmates will receive the money no matter where they go in the Florida prison system.

To access the account balance, call 866-209-7250. Press 1, enter the inmate's DC number, if the number was entered correctly, Press 1. The balance will then be announced.

Cons Call Home cannot be used anywhere in Florida. Cons Call Home is much cheaper than other services. Figures it can't be used here. That would be too convenient.

To set up your home phone to be able to receive phone calls from a Florida inmate:

Call Correction Billing Services at 800-844-6591.

My phone service is Bright House. A Bright House representative told me I was unable to receive collect calls from a prison. While this is technically accurate, he neglected to tell me that there is a way to enable my phone to receive a call from an inmate.

According to the automated system on Correction Billing Services, you can pay for collect calls in one of several ways: Western Union, credit card, direct billing through the phone company (for an additional fee) or direct billing through Correction Billing Services (via a credit check, but no additional fee). You can only receive collect calls from a prison on a home phone. (No cell phones allowed.)

Once you select a payment option and the service is activiated, the collect calls will be enabled within 24 hours.