PUBLIC SERVICE FOLLOW-UP | ROSEBUD COUNTY | OCTOBER 25, 2026
By Steven Bullcoming Haworth | Truth in Focus
FORSYTH, Mont. — Montana law provides weekly no-cost telephone and video-call allowances for people held in county detention centers. Federal rules also set limits on what providers may charge for paid calls. What remains unclear in Rosebud County is how these protections appear on actual inmate accounts, what customers pay, and who resolves billing disputes when a call fails.
This is a follow-up to Truth in Focus’s October 17 report, “When a Jail Phone Call Drops, Who Is Responsible for Making It Right?” The earlier report described questions about TurnKey Corrections/Inmate Canteen communication services and the responsibility of the provider and county to address complaints.
What Montana law guarantees
Montana Code Annotated § 7-32-2235 says each week an inmate is allowed one free telephone call, up to 10 minutes, and one free video call, up to 25 minutes, when video calling is offered at the center. The text does not condition that allowance on an inmate having no money in a personal or commissary account.
That leaves practical questions the county needs to answer: Are free minutes automatically credited? Can inmates with funded accounts access them? What happens when a call disconnects before the allowance is used? Does the facility keep records of attempted, successful, and billed calls? Truth in Focus has not obtained Rosebud County’s written policy or call-allowance logs, so it cannot independently establish how the statute is administered there.
How much may a paid call cost?
The federal 47 C.F.R. § 64.6030 lists interim per-minute ceilings for incarcerated people’s domestic audio calls based on a jail’s average daily population. At a jail with 49 or fewer incarcerated people, the listed audio ceiling is 17 cents per minute, with a possible two-cent-per-minute facility-cost allowance under the rule. Other population tiers have lower ceilings. The FCC’s revised rules had a compliance date of April 6, 2026, according to the December 2025 Federal Register notice.
For illustration only, at the highest listed small-jail audio ceiling plus the two-cent allowance, a 10-minute per-minute audio call would total $1.90 before any separately permitted taxes or charges. That is not a verified Rosebud County price. The actual classification of the jail, applicable rate plan, service type, any lawful exception, and each charge must be established before a specific customer’s total can be judged.
Truth in Focus has been told of an estimated charge of a little over $3 for about 10 minutes, but has not obtained the corresponding itemized record. It has not verified whether that estimate involved an audio call, video service, or other account charges. No finding of overbilling is being made.
Montana’s law also restricts certain ancillary service fees in an inmate telecommunications contract to 3% of the base charge. A card-processing fee for a separate commissary deposit is not automatically the same kind of telecommunications fee, and the newsroom is seeking documents that distinguish the services and fee categories.
Response deadline passed without an identified newsroom reply
On October 15–16, Truth in Focus sent the Rosebud County Sheriff’s Office requests concerning vendor identity, the current contract, complaint routing, rates and fees, potential revenue sharing, and detention operations. The publication offered an initial response date of October 21. As of October 25, 2026, the newsroom has not located a reply to those publication inquiries in its correspondence. That statement reflects the newsroom’s available records, not an assertion that the county received no request or that its silence establishes wrongdoing.
There has been a separate response on an individual customer issue. In an October 15 personal exchange about failed calls, county official Brian Egeland said service issues needed to be taken up with TurnKey. That message was not an answer to the later Truth in Focus questions about public contracts and county oversight. These two communications should not be confused.
On October 25, Truth in Focus also sent TurnKey Corrections/Inmate Canteen a written request for the relevant rate card, free-call implementation policy, itemized-accounting procedures, complaint and refund channels, and an explanation of its role at Rosebud County. The company was offered an opportunity to respond by October 28; that inquiry is newly sent, and its response is pending.
Records that would answer the questions
The newsroom is seeking the current contract and amendments, jail population tier used for billing, the advertised domestic audio and video rates, schedules of taxes or added fees, a clear explanation of the free allowances, any facility commissions or financial benefits, and the process for obtaining transaction-level records and credits after failed calls.
For families, a bank-card entry saying “Inmate Canteen” does not necessarily show how much of a payment reached an inmate’s account or went toward service fees. An itemized ledger should help distinguish a deposit, a charged phone call, a video session, and any credit or refund. The public also needs a clear channel for escalating an unresolved vendor complaint to the facility responsible for the contract.
Truth in Focus will publish verified responses, documents, corrections and any material changes to its findings in a dated update. The county and provider may submit comments and supporting records to truthifocus@gmail.com. Readers with relevant billing records may contact the newsroom privately; please do not place an inmate’s identifying or account information in public comments.
Disclosure: The publisher has also raised a personal complaint concerning correctional communication services. That history helps explain the reporting questions but is not independent proof of the allegations or of any facility-wide pattern. The newsroom distinguishes personal experiences from public statutes, authenticated correspondence and records.
Sources: Montana Code Annotated § 7-32-2235; 47 C.F.R. § 64.6030; FCC interim rate rule, Federal Register (Dec. 5, 2025); Truth in Focus’s October 17 background report; correspondence with Rosebud County officials dated October 15–16, 2026, and newsroom inquiries dated October 15–16 and 25, retained in editorial records.
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