What That Four-Digit PIN Is at Wallens Ridge (and What to Do If It’s Not Working)
When your loved one at Wallens Ridge mentions a
For people in Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) custody (including CCAP probationers/parolees), the four-digit phone PIN is set automatically to their birth month and day in MMDD format. So if someone’s birthday is July 4, the default PIN would be 0704.
Quick tip: If you’re trying to make sense of a PIN your loved one is talking about, start by checking their date of birth and trying the month + day (MMDD).
That PIN isn’t just a passcode. By activating their PIN and using the inmate telephone system, the person in custody agrees to follow the phone rules and consents to calls being monitored and recorded.
This is one reason the “default PIN” comes up so often in phone-call conversations. If your loved one is still using the automatic MMDD PIN, it’s a sign they’re trying to access the facility phone system the standard way - and once they’re using that system, the monitoring/recording rules apply to those calls.
- Have your loved one report the problem from the facility phones - They can contact the contract vendor hotline by dialing #21.
- Explain that it’s a PIN issue - The hotline is specifically a route to report PIN number problems.
- Follow the vendor’s instructions - If the PIN is lost or needs to be replaced, the vendor can issue a new secured PIN.
- ✓ Confirm the date of birth your loved one has on file, since the default PIN is MMDD.
- ✓ Ask whether they’re trying the month-and-day format (MMDD) as the PIN.
- ✓ Have your loved one use the contract vendor hotline by dialing #21 from the facility phone system.
- ✓ Write down what’s happening when they try to use the PIN (for example, whether it’s being rejected) so they can describe it clearly when reporting the problem.
Heads-up: For PIN problems, the main reporting path is the contract vendor hotline accessed by dialing #21 from the facility phone system.
Not every phone problem is a VADOC-PIN problem. VADOC’s telephone procedures apply to VADOC facilities only. If someone is under VADOC responsibility but housed in a local jail, that jail’s phone rules apply instead.
So if the #21 hotline route isn’t getting the issue resolved - or if your loved one isn’t actually in a VADOC facility right now - contact the facility where they’re housed. For people held in local jails, you’ll want to contact that jail directly to ask how their phone system works and what they require.
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