How to Contact an Inmate at Coastal Bend Detention Center, TX (TX)
Trying to reach someone at Coastal Bend Detention Center? The most important thing to know: you can't call a detainee directly. Here are the contact options the facility provides, plus what to have ready when you reach out to staff.
Coastal Bend Detention Center does not allow incoming phone calls to detainees. Staff won't transfer you to a housing unit or patch you through. The facility does have tablets, but all tablet contact has to be started by the detainee on their end. So your role is to stay available and be ready to respond once they reach out. You can't initiate a tablet conversation from the outside.
Note: Coastal Bend offers Virtual Attorney-Client Visits (VAV) for confidential legal meetings. These sessions are limited to legal representatives, legal assistants, and interpreters. Family and friends are not permitted to participate.
Steps to Follow
- ✓ Call (361) 767-3400 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. to request information about a detainee housed at this facility.
- ✓ Have biographical details ready before you call: first, last, and hyphenated names, any aliases, date of birth, and country of birth.
- ✓ To leave an urgent message for a detainee, call (361) 767-3400 ext. 248 for the Chaplain.
- ✓ Be ready to provide the detainee’s full name and alien registration number, plus your name and a telephone number where you can be reached.
- Confirm you need a Virtual Attorney-Client Visit (VAV). Coastal Bend uses VAV as a confidential way for attorneys and clients to meet using virtual technology.
- Schedule the legal visit through the facility’s VAV process. Plan ahead so the meeting time works for both the legal representative and the facility.
- Prepare identification for the session. Before the scheduled meeting, the legal representative must show appropriate identification, such as a state bar card or other documentation showing bar membership.
Policies can change, so call the facility to confirm details before making plans. Specifically, verify that detainees still cannot receive incoming calls, ask how tablet contact currently works (since the detainee must initiate it), and check whether the Virtual Attorney-Client Visit process is the same as described here.
- ✓ The current phone line and hours for requesting detainee information: (361) 767-3400, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- ✓ The current urgent-message process and whether the Chaplain extension is still ext. 248, plus what information they require (full name, A-number, your name, your callback number).
- ✓ What identification a legal representative must show before a VAV session (bar card or other documentation demonstrating bar membership).
- ✓ Who is allowed to attend a VAV session (legal representatives, legal assistants, interpreters only; no family or friends).
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