Effective June 10th, 2008, a new telephone system is in place at Mississippi State Penitentiary, Parcyman.

There have been many complaints from family and friends. There is no one minute or fifteen second warning of when a call may be disconnected. Worse still, the auditory quality of the calls is horrific. One can barely hear and the inmate is unable to hear during the conversation. Also, the voice fades completely from time to time.

Since the telephone rates are outrageously high, this is unacceptable. The previous method was definitely preferable, although, it, too, experienced difficulties from time to time.

There must be action taken in order to maintain contact and conversations must be clearly heard.

All assistance and suggestions would be helpful. With the profits made, and the financial strain on family members, this is totally unacceptable.

The difficulty is becoming increasingly worse. Unknown to family members and friends, the switch was made to Global Tel-Link. Attempting to reach them for the past twenty fours hours has been impossible. I continue to await a call back from their automated service (the only available option).

Does anyone have any familiarity with Global Tel-Link?

My friend was moved from Parchman a couple of weeks ago but I had an account set up with GTL in advance of the switch. You can set up a prepay account through their automated AdvancePay service but before the first call can happen, I had to speak with an actual GTL employee/customer service person to give them additional info. I had to leave my call back # and they did call me back in about 2 hours. But I understand that today (6/16/08) their phone system is extremely busy with people trying to set up new accounts. I've heard some horror stories about GTL. Let's hope (am I a fool?) that once the initial rush to set up accounts is over, it will be easier to get through.

I hope you're right! This is one huge nightmare. I simply wish I'd wake up!

I, too, have had a nightmare experience with Global Tel Link. I have written two formal letters of complaint and that seems to be the first step in resloution. Let me know if you want places to write. I got a call back from a supervisor at GTL and naturally, she was out today and the only way to contact her is to go through the two-hour or more wait for a call back.:D

Hi Muggles, you are so right, the new system is unacceptable..
The whole call is spent straining to hear and asking "say again ?"
It's more expensive too.

Soooo frustrating !!!!

Don't like them at all. We had them at the last place. You cannot chose which company to use for long distance. The prison makes that decision. We now have Inmate Calling Solutions and their service is much more reliable. I feel like Global Tel is not entirely honest.The difficulty is becoming increasingly worse. Unknown to family members and friends, the switch was made to Global Tel-Link. Attempting to reach them for the past twenty fours hours has been impossible. I continue to await a call back from their automated service (the only available option).

Does anyone have any familiarity with Global Tel-Link?