Understanding Phone Calls from Shelby County Jail: NCIC service, recording, rates, and blocking

Inmates at Shelby County Jail can't receive incoming calls. They place outgoing calls from phones in the housing units, so you'll need to wait for them to reach out. Don't bother calling the jail to pass along a message - staff won't relay it.

Assume every call is recorded. Shelby County Jail records all phone calls except those between inmates and their attorneys. For families, this means keeping conversations focused on day-to-day support - avoid sharing anything sensitive you wouldn't want replayed later. Attorney calls are handled separately from regular personal calls.

Shelby County Jail uses NCIC Inmate Communications for its phone service. That matters because billing, account setup, and call controls (like blocking) run through NCIC’s system rather than the jail itself.

• ✓ Set up an NCIC prepaid account either for up to 10 phone numbers or for a specific inmate.
• ✓ With a phone-number prepaid account, calls can go only to the designated phone numbers (up to 10), as long as those numbers aren’t blocked.

Call costs vary depending on the call type and how it's funded, so expect different charges than a regular phone call. Shelby County Jail's NCIC service also offers inmate voicemail - $1.50 for a three-minute message.

1. Accept the call - follow the automated prompts to connect.
2. Hang up - end the call if you don’t want to take it.
3. Block calls from that inmate - use the phone prompts to stop calls from the specific person calling.
4. Block calls from all Shelby County Jail inmates - use the phone prompts to block calls from anyone calling from the jail.