The adoption of the cell phone has caused Americans to nearly forget there was a time when a  toll was charged for calling long distance. With most cell phone plans it is free to call long distance within the continental United States. And with VoIP services it is now much cheaper to place a call to friends in foreign countries.  As of 2010 one third of all US households had made the “wireless substitution.” These homes have opted for the more convenient and sometimes more cost effective cell phone.

With fewer Americans owning landlines it is obvious this would cause a problem in the rehabilitation of American prisoners. Studies have shown that maintaining contact with family greatly reduces the rate of recidivism.

Even though these studies exist, the facilities responsible for rehabilitating have not made an attempt to lower the cost of a collect call. In some cases the rate of a call has been lowered, but the costs still greatly exceed the cost of a normal phone call on the outside.

With Just Talk’s prepaid network, we use technology the way it was meant to be used: to enhance individuals lives.

It used to be that a phone number was tied to a given location. If you had a Phoenix area code, you had to be in Phoenix to answer a phone call. Today, the rules have changed. If you have a Phoenix area code, it typically means that when you bought your phone you lived in Phoenix. If you now live in Los Angeles and your mother who still lived in Phoenix called you on a landline it would not be long distance for her.

When a customer uses Just Talk’s service, these are the rules that are automatically applied. Their Just Talk phone number is local to the facility from which they want to receive a call. This makes a collect call less expensive and Just Talk passes the savings on to the customer.