Address:
Law Enforcement Center
221 Breckenridge Street
Helena, MT 59601
Phone:
406-447-8232
The Lewis & Clark County Detention Center provides a service which allows secure electronic messaging for their inmates.
The email service they use is called NCIC.
NCIC is not directly connected to the internet like normal email, but instead each correspondence is first intercepted by the jail's servers. This gives the staff an opportunity to review the messages before delivering them to both inmates and the people that the inmates are communicating with.
Electronic messages received by the inmates are read either on kiosks within the inmate's unit, or or on tablets provided by the third party service that oversees the program.
Allowing inmates access to email has many upsides:
For a list of Frequently Asked Questions and Answers about NCIC inmate emailing and texting, scroll down for more information about it or call the jail at 406-447-8232.
You can deposit money three different ways:
• Deposit online at NCIC.com
• Deposit at the kiosk in the Lewis & Clark County Detention Center lobby, if available.
• Deposit over the phone 24/7 at 800-943-2189 or 903-247-0069 (Note: if you deposit money using a live agent the fee is $5.95).
NCIC Customer Service
Phone - 800-943-2189 or 903-247-0069
Email – [email protected]
Almost all jails and prisons have adopted a messaging system which allows inmates to communicate with their friends and family using an electronic messaging system. It’s neither email nor text, it’s something in between.
The inmate and their contacts do not use their regular email accounts or phone numbers, but account numbers that are set up with the company providing the service.
All communication goes through them. Think of them as a middleman.
Once a contact of the inmate is approved, like the approval process a visitor goes through, an account is set up, using a credit or debit card to fund the account.
To start, the inmate’s contact can send a message that has a limit of so many characters, usually about one page of text.
The message is then reviewed by a computer that scans the message for certain keywords or phrases that are not allowed, almost like a censoring service. If the machine scanner finds problems with the message it sends the message to the Lewis & Clark County Detention Center staff to review, and if they find no issues, will then forward it to the inmate’s account so that they can read it.
If there are problems with the message, it is possible the message will not be sent. The sender will be notified of the decision and will not get a refund.
Once the inmate receives the message, should the account holder have funded the account allowing replies, the inmate can respond with a similar length message.
The cost to use the electronic messaging service, which is like texting or emailing, costs between $0.50 and $1.00 per page; a page being about 500 characters.
Photos can be sent by the inmate’s contact that is not incarcerated, but not by the inmate due to security concerns. There is an extra cost, usually about $0.50 for each photo attached.
The photos must go through a security screening where nudity, violence and other things are checked before the photo can be delivered. If the photo is rejected, the sender will be notified, but no refund will be given.
The inmate does not have the ability to print out the photos that make it past the screening, but the photos will stay in their account so that they can view them at their leisure.
No. Because this is a closed system, the inmate has no access to the internet, thus the inmate will have no access to any links that you send them.
Yes, just as you can send text and photos, you can send a video message, or if not a message, then a video of your children or yourself. Every company has a limit on the length of the video, usually no more than one minute, and at a cost of approximately $2.00 to $3.00 per video.
The video will first be screened for any nudity, excessive vulgarity, violence, etc. If it is rejected on any of the grounds the sender will not be given a refund.
As with the policy of photos, the inmate cannot reciprocate. They cannot send videos of themselves or anything in jail.
The jails that contract with the electronic messaging service is given a certain number of kiosks within each unit for inmate use. Inmates can log on as they might with a public computer terminal.
In addition to the public terminal kiosks, inmates are given (or can rent) access to individual tablets like a bulky, almost indestructible ipad. These allow an inmate to use them to access your messages, photos and videos in a more private manner.
Should the inmate damage the tablet, they will be responsible for replacing it. The money will be deducted from their commissary account.
The electronic messaging system used by Lewis & Clark County Detention Center, if there is one, can be found at the top of this page. If there is no information about the ability to text or email with an inmate, it is possible that the facility has recently changed companies or does not have this service available. Call 406-447-8232 to confirm.
This is a list of all the companies in the United States that work with jails and prisons, providing text and email messaging between inmates and their friends and families:
Access Corrections
CIDNET
City Tele Coin
Correct Pay
Corrlinks
Ctel
Edevo
Express Account
Gettingout
GTL
Homewav
IC Solutions
Inmate Canteen
Inmate Sales
JailATM
J Pay
NCIC
Paytel
Pigeonly
Prodigy Sales
Reliance
Securus
Smart Communications
TBE
Visitel
You fund the messaging service with credit and debit cards. All of them take Visa and MasterCard, most also take Discover, and just some take America Express.
There is no limit to the amount of texting and email that an inmate can have with their family and friends.
If an inmate has their own tablet, then they can text any time of the day or night, however if the must use the wall mounted kiosk terminal in their unit, they are limited to using it only during the hours they are allowed off their bunks; usually 7:00AM to 10:00PM, excluding meals, head counts and shift changes.
No, inmates are not allowed to communicate with each other, nor with inmates in other institutions. There is always a way to get around it, for example if one of the inmates has access to a phone with an internet connection, but this would be the only way.
Postcards
The Lewis & Clark County Detention Center allows inmates to receive pre-metered postcards like the type purchased from the post office. They may also allow certain photo postcards as long as they have not been tampered with or contain images that may be considered to be obscene or violent in nature.
Envelopes
The Lewis & Clark County Detention Center also allows envelopes to be mailed to inmates.
Postcards and envelopes MUST be mailed to the following address:
Inmate's Full Name & Inmate ID#
Lewis & Clark County Detention Center - MT
PO Box 591
Longview, Texas 75606
Legal Mail
Send all legal Mail to this Address:
Inmate's Full Name & Inmate ID#
Lewis and Clark County Detention Center
221 Breckenridge Ave.
Helena, MT 59601
(legal mail, medical and subscriptions)
LCSO
c/o Jolene Grieve
406 Fuller Ave.
Helena, MT 59601
(for sending inmate money orders - make out to 'LCSO' w/ inmate's name in the memo section)
Newspapers
Local or national newspapers may also be mailed to the inmate as long as they are mailed directly from the newspaper publisher.
Magazines
News, special interest or sports magazines may also be mailed to an inmate as long as they are shipped directly from the publisher. Any magazines that contain profanity, weapons, pornography or other content that is adult in nature will be confiscated by the jail staff and will NOT be delivered to the inmate.
Books
The Lewis & Clark County Detention Center allows books to be mailed directly to the jail from a reputable source such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Books-A-Million. You can order them directly from your computer and have them shipped to the inmate at the address below.
Books must NOT contain images or content that are considered excessively violent, pornographic or obscene. Any book that does not meet the Lewis & Clark County Detention Center standards will be disposed of. No more than three books may be shipped at any one time.
Hard cover books will not be accepted by the jail due to their potential to be used as a weapon.
All newspapers, magazines and books are to be shipped to:
Inmate's Full Name & Inmate ID#
Lewis and Clark County Detention Center
221 Breckenridge Ave.
Helena, MT 59601
(legal mail, medical and subscriptions)
LCSO
c/o Jolene Grieve
406 Fuller Ave.
Helena, MT 59601
(for sending inmate money orders - make out to 'LCSO' w/ inmate's name in the memo section)
To visit an inmate in Lewis and Clark County you need to do the following:
Lewis & Clark County Detention Center uses the services of NCIC for remote video visitation. In other words, you can visit your inmate in jail by using your home computer, as long as it is equipped with a microphone and camera that supports video.
When available, the jail also provides use of ‘video visit kiosks’ in the Lewis & Clark County Detention Center lobby if you do not have a computer at home. These ’on-site’ video visits are FREE.
Costs
NCIC Video Visitation fees are subject to change, but the cost to you is roughly $7.50 ($0.25 per minute) for a 30-minute visit + an additional fee of $2.00 for the connection.
On-site (at the jail) video visits are FREE.
How to set up your Video Visit
Your inmate will be notified by the Lewis & Clark County Detention Center staff of the date and time for the visit. Be sure to be in front of your computer and connected to NCIC at least 15 minutes before the start of the visit.
NCIC Customer Service
Phone - 800-943-2189 or 903-247-0069
Email – [email protected]
For all the information you need to know, whether it be 'in person' at-the-jail visitation or remote video visitation with your Lewis and Clark County inmate, go to our Visit Inmate Page.
Lewis & Clark County Detention Center offers NCIC tablets to rent to inmates that they can use for video visitation and calls, phone calls, instant messaging, education and entertainment.
They can also be used for commissary ordering.
To find out more bout how much tablets cost to rent, and what programs, entertainment, education and other things it can be used for, check out our Tablet Page.
To receive phone calls from an inmate in Lewis and Clark County follow these instructions:
Lewis & Clark County Detention Center uses the services of NCIC for inmate phone calling. It is called a ‘friends & family account”.
In order to receive phone calls from your inmate, you need to do the following:
NOTE:
1. You cannot receive any calls to your phone number from your inmate until both you and your phone number are registered.
2. When you do receive a call, the number you will view on your phone from the incoming call is: 800-943-2189.
3. When allowed by Lewis & Clark County Detention Center, families can also leave secure voicemails for inmates to listen to.
Fees
NCIC Customer Service
Phone - 800-943-2189 or 903-247-0069
Email – [email protected]
Full list of participating jails.
For all the information regarding phone calls with Lewis and Clark County inmates; rules, policies, phone calling times, fees, limits and more visit our Inmate Phone Page.
To send a secure email message to an inmate in Lewis & Clark County Detention Center follow these steps:
Lewis & Clark County Detention Center uses the services of NCIC for you to deposit funds into your {Lewis and Clark County inmate’s account so that you and they can purchase secure email messaging services from this jail’s e-messaging service.
You can deposit money three different ways:
• Deposit online at NCIC.com
• Deposit at the kiosk in the Lewis & Clark County Detention Center lobby, if available.
• Deposit over the phone 24/7 at 800-943-2189 or 903-247-0069 (Note: if you deposit money using a live agent the fee is $5.95).
Email – [email protected]
For all information on how to Text/Email an Inmate in Lewis & Clark County Detention Center check out our Secure Messaging Guide for Lewis and Clark County.
There are FOUR options for putting money on an inmate's books:
Option 1 - Dropping Money at the Lewis & Clark County Detention Center
Bring money to the jail in person.
Either the jail personnel will process the Inmate Account payment or you will use the NCIC self-serve kiosk in the lobbies that accepts cash, debit or credit cards.
Option 2 - Deposit Inmate Money Online
Lewis & Clark County Detention Center uses NCIC to process all online deposits to an inmate's account. NCIC charges you a small fee for doing so, but the fee probably isn't as much as gas and parking would cost to take it to the jail in person.
Option 3 - Mail the Inmate Deposit to the Jail
Mailing a deposit takes more time to process than the other methods but can be done if you live too far away to bring it in person and you don't have a debit/credit card for online deposits. Never send cash. Always send a Money Order from the US Post Office, a reputable bank or Western Union.
Make the Money Order out to the inmate's name and put their Inmate ID# in memo section of the Money Order. Mail it to the Lewis & Clark County Detention Center address on this page, or to the address below if it is different than the facility address.
Inmate's Full Name & Inmate ID#
Lewis and Clark County Detention Center
221 Breckenridge Ave.
Helena, MT 59601
(legal mail, medical and subscriptions)
LCSO
c/o Jolene Grieve
406 Fuller Ave.
Helena, MT 59601
(for sending inmate money orders - make out to 'LCSO' w/ inmate's name in the memo section)
Option 4 - Make an Inmate Deposit over the Phone by calling 800-943-2189
For more information about sending an inmate money for phone cards or other commissary sundries, check out our Inmate Money Page.
To send commissary money to an inmate in Lewis & Clark County Detention Center follow these steps:
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For all information on how to Send Money to an inmate's account, what the fees are, how long it takes to hit their account and more, check out our full money and commissary guide for Lewis & Clark County Detention Center.
To send commissary money to an inmate's account in Lewis & Clark County Detention Center follow these steps:
You can deposit money four different ways:
24/7 Customer Service - 855-836-3364
Frequently Asked Questions
For all information, tips and available items for send money and for shipping Commissary packages to an inmate in Lewis & Clark County Detention Center check out our Commissary Instructions Page for Lewis and Clark County.
Lewis & Clark County Detention Center uses a service called correctpay for paying an inmate's Bail Bond online for an inmate.
Register with them online or call them at 855-836-3364 for assistance.
You can deposit money four ways:
For full information on paying an inmate's bond and getting them released after they have been arrested in Lewis and Clark County, check out our Inmate Bail Page.
