Patent ID: 8238534

Claim:
A method comprising: determining, at an inmate platform, a blocking status of a caller-specified phone number associated with a telephone call; when the blocking status indicates a non-blocked condition, transferring control of the telephone call from the inmate platform to an operator services platform; when the blocking status indicates a blocked condition, dialing the caller-specified phone number from the inmate platform; communicating to a receiving party of the telephone call that the telephone call is a collect call; offering one or more billing options according to the blocking status, wherein the receiving party of the telephone call is to select one of the one or more billing options to be associated with the collect call; determining, via a billing approval process, whether billing associated with the selected billing option is approved or denied; and when results of the billing approval process are negative, providing to the receiving party of the telephone call a reason that the results of the billing approval process are negative.