Josh Duggar Has Less Time to Talk to His Family This Year: Prison Cuts Phone Time from Inmates
It’s a brand new year in FCI Seagoville, the prison that houses Josh Duggar. With the new year comes new rules. Those new rules will have Josh Duggar contacting his family via phone and video, much less. The federal lockup that will house Josh until 2032 has lowered the number of minutes an inmate can use the phone each month. The price for those phone calls has apparently gone up, too.
Josh Duggar deals with changes to prison rules
Josh Duggar will have much less time to connect with his loved ones via phone and video. The Federal Bureau of Prisons has changed its phone policy for all federal inmates. The U.S. Sun spoke with an insider familiar with the change. They told the publication that inmates at FCI Seagoville will have 300 minutes of talk time available to them each month. The new limit is substantially less than they were previously allowed.
Before Jan. 1, inmates were allowed to speak to their families for 500 minutes per month. Those phone calls were not billed to inmates due to COVID-19 protocols. At the time, in-person visitations had been halted. With the world returning to normal, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has opted to alter how it deals with phone calls to the outside world. In-person visits are currently allowed at the facility.
In addition to seriously lowering the number of minutes they can chat with their families, inmates will now be on the hook to pay for those phone calls. According to the publication, the Federal Bureau of Prisons will charge inmates, including Josh Duggar, six cents per minute for traditional calls. Video calls are much more costly. They now cost inmates 16 cents per minute. Prisoners housed at FCI Seagoville can now expect to pay anywhere from $18 to $48 per month if they plan to use all of their phone time.
He used the phone often at a past prison facility
Josh and his family probably aren’t worried about the cost of his phone calls. Still, they likely will take issue with his slashed phone privileges. It’s unclear just how often he is calling home now that he’s settled in at FCI Seagoville. Still, we know about his phone habits at previous facilities. According to several sources, Josh made several phone calls each day before he was transferred to his current prison.
Back in 2021, before he was transferred from the Washington County Detention Center to FCI Seagoville, Josh and Anna video-chatted almost daily. Some days, they talked several times. He also called some of his siblings and his parents on multiple occasions during his stay.
The video and phone call policy change does not seem to affect in-person visitations. Since Josh was remanded to prison following his sentencing, he has received regular visits from Anna. His children, some of his siblings, and his brother-in-law have also visited the facility. Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar were even spotted visiting their troubled oldest son in lockup, despite it being located hours from the Duggar family’s Tontitown, Arkansas compound.
