Section 525.150  Telephone Privileges

a)         Telephone privileges shall be granted to offenders in accordance with their institutional status and provisions of this Section.

b)         Collect calls may be made to persons where billable.

c)         Offenders may not place telephone calls to:

1)         Toll free area codes, including but not limited to 800 series area codes, or to area codes or prefixes for which a charge is assessed to the line from which the call was placed, including but not limited to 800 or 900 series area codes or 976 prefixes;

2)         Emergency or directory assistance or to long distance carriers;

3)         Persons or companies which have requested that a block be placed on their telephone numbers;

4)         Numbers suspected of being used fraudulently or for fraudulent purposes;

5)         Parolees, ex-offenders, former employees, or current employees absent the approval of the Chief Administrative Officer; or

6)         Numbers or persons restricted for other legitimate penological reasons, including security and order.

d)         A block may be placed on telephone calls to:

1)         The local community except to the offender's friends, family, and others in the local community who request to receive calls from the offender.

2)         A telephone number for which there is a large unpaid balance on the account, with the exception of telephone numbers of attorneys and law firms.

3)         Any telephone numbers listed in subsection (c) of this Section.

e)         Offenders may not engage in call forwarding or in conference calls.

f)         In the case of valid emergencies, such as critical illness or death in an offender's immediate family, consideration shall be given to allowing a special telephone call, regardless of the individual's institutional status.  Immediate family shall include parent or guardian, children, brother, sister, grandparent, whether step, adopted, half, or whole, and spouse.

g)         Offenders who are the subject of a new criminal indictment, information, or complaint shall be permitted to make reasonable telephone calls to attorneys for the purpose of securing defense counsel, regardless of the individual's institutional status.

h)         All offenders' telephone calls shall be subject to monitoring and recording at any time by departmental staff, unless prior special arrangements have been made to make or to receive confidential telephone calls to or from their attorneys.

i)          Notices shall be posted at each telephone from which offenders are normally permitted to place calls and in the offenders' orientation manual.  The notices shall state that offenders' telephone calls may be monitored or recorded or both.

(Source:  Amended at 37 Ill. Reg. 1645, effective February 1, 2013)