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How Long Are Phone Calls from FCI Petersburg Med Recorded and Who Can Access the Data?

If you're calling someone at FCI Petersburg Med, assume the call is being recorded. Those recordings and related call data can be kept for a limited time and shared for justice system purposes.

• 2 min read Based on general VA policies

Calls made through TRUFONE, the Bureau of Prisons phone system, can be recorded and stored temporarily. Those recordings don't stay forever, but they're also not private. TRUFONE call data may be shared with law enforcement components within the Department of Justice. The safest approach: talk as if the call and its details could be reviewed later in an investigation or official proceeding.

TRUFONE's retention policy is straightforward. Call recordings are stored temporarily, then deleted after 180 days. The one exception: if a recording is still needed for legal or administrative purposes, it can be kept longer until those needs are resolved.

"Temporary" doesn't mean "never used." It means recordings sit in the system for up to 180 days unless there's a legal or administrative reason to hold them longer. If you need to know whether a specific call is being retained, that's a question for the official channels tied to the legal or administrative matter. You can't reliably figure it out from the 180-day timeline alone.

Beyond retention, the other big question is who gets to see the data. TRUFONE call data may be shared with law enforcement components within the U.S. Department of Justice. In plain terms, that means your call data can move beyond the prison phone system and into DOJ agencies handling investigations, prosecutions, oversight, or parole-related work.

  • ✓ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
  • ✓ U.S. Marshals Service (USMS)
  • ✓ Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA)
  • ✓ DOJ Criminal Division
  • ✓ U.S. Parole Commission
  • ✓ DOJ Office of Inspector General

If privacy is your main concern, plan your conversations around how TRUFONE actually works: recordings are stored temporarily (deleted after 180 days unless there's a legal or administrative reason to keep them), and call data can be shared with DOJ law enforcement components. That's why you should avoid discussing anything you wouldn't want repeated in an official setting. For general questions about how the Bureau of Prisons handles phone recording retention and sharing, contacting BOP Central Office is a reasonable starting point. For case-specific questions (like whether a particular call is being held for legal reasons), the answer usually has to come from the authorities handling that matter.

Note: TRUFONE recordings are stored temporarily and deleted after 180 days unless needed for legal or administrative purposes. Call data may be shared with multiple DOJ components. Don't assume phone calls are private.

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