What You Need to Know Before Accepting a Call from Red Onion State Prison
That first call can catch you off guard—especially when an automated system starts asking questions before connecting you. Here's what to expect from Red Onion State Prison calls so you can accept (or decline) with confidence.
Before you can receive calls, you'll need to complete an automated consent process. You'll hear a short recording and answer a few questions confirming you're authorized to make decisions for that phone number - and that you understand calls are monitored and recorded. If you hang up or skip the prompts, future calls won't connect until you finish this step.
What you’ll be asked: “Are you the person authorized to make decisions for this telephone number?” “Please state your name.” “Do you understand that all calls are monitored and recorded? (Except attorney calls with previously approved recording blocks.)”
Treat every call through the Red Onion/VADOC phone system as monitored and recorded. On the incarcerated person's side, using their PIN counts as consent to monitoring. For you, the takeaway is straightforward: assume anything you say can be listened to and saved. Keep conversations focused on safe, everyday topics.
Attorney-call exception: Calls to properly verified attorney numbers can be protected from monitoring/recording, but it requires prior verification and an approved recording block in advance.
The VADOC inmate phone system is operated through ConnectNetwork by Global Tel*Link. If you run into account, billing, or call-delivery issues, that vendor name is often the one tied to the phone system you’re dealing with.
Practical Checklist
- ✓ Answer the automated consent prompts when they play (you’ll be confirming you’re authorized for the number, stating your name, and acknowledging monitoring/recording).
- ✓ Speak clearly when the system asks you to state your name.
- ✓ Assume the call is recorded/monitored and keep your side of the conversation appropriate and low-risk.
- ✓ Write down your loved one’s name and DOC ID during or right after the call - you’ll use it again.
- ✓ Expect calls to start once your loved one is set up in the system; people are enrolled automatically when they’re received into DOC.
You're not required to accept calls. If a collect or debit call comes in and you don't want it, just decline. Want to stop calls entirely? The simplest approach is to leave the automated consent prompts incomplete for your number.
These phone procedures apply to VADOC facilities, including Red Onion State Prison. But if your loved one is under VADOC responsibility yet housed in a local jail, that jail's phone rules apply instead. Worth confirming where they're physically housed before assuming the process is the same.
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