The internet stops at the gate. Kite doesn’t. From the phone on the wall or a tablet inside, they get a personal AI: homework and research, legal questions, learning, news, and someone to talk to at any hour.
Kite
(253) 555-0148
00:00 · $0.00
Talk time · what it cost
An example, not a recording — Kite keeps none. This is the shape of an ordinary call.
Everyone you support gets their own personal phone number, local to their facility, and their own passphrase, all on one account and one balance. Nothing to install and nothing to carry.
It listens and answers out loud, in the moment. They can interrupt it or change the subject, and it can look things up on the web when they ask. In Washington and California they can also write to it from the tablet and get a written answer back.
The line opens only for the passphrase you set, so nobody else can spend your balance. A call that never gets past it costs you nothing, and you can change the words at any time.
They can ask it almost anything, and it answers in plain words, out loud on a call or in writing on the tablet.
Look things up, check facts, and get help with coursework and reading.
How the law and their own process work, what to ask their lawyer, and help drafting letters.
GED practice, math and reading, or practicing a new language, at their own pace.
Today’s headlines, last night’s scores, and the weather back home.
Work on a résumé, practice job interviews, and plan what comes next.
Letters home, cards, essays and forms. Kite helps them find the words.
Any hour they can reach a phone, Kite is there to listen and talk things through.
By phone from any facility phone or tablet that can call a local number. By written message in Washington and California state prisons.
Talk time
$0.10
a minute of talking
No connection fees, no monthly fees.
Unused money back any time. Just email us.
See the full pricing →Slide to match how they’d use it.
That is about $13.00 of top-up a month. There is no minimum and nothing renews — you add money when you want to.
This is Kite’s charge only. The facility bills its own per-minute rate for the phone line itself, and we have no control over that number.
See the full pricing →Two things that are not normal in this industry
When the call ends, what was said in it is gone. No recording, no transcript, nothing saved for the next call to read.
You add money when you want to. Nothing renews, nothing auto-charges, and there is nothing to cancel.
Add your person and they get $2 free to try Kite ($5 with a friend's code): on our demo line or by message. Add $10 and what's left becomes real money for their calls.
It needs a saved card and a confirmed email, and nothing is charged for the card. Each person gets it once. When you are ready, they get a number of their own that nobody else calls.
1
Create your account, add the person you support, and add money.
2
Their own personal phone number, local to their facility, and two easy words that open it.
3
They dial, say their words and talk. In Washington and California they can write from the tablet too.
Your number is ready immediately, and in many systems they can call it straight away. Some facilities keep an approved call list, and where that applies the person inside has to add your number first, which can take a few days. Nothing on your balance expires while you wait.
Add your person and they get $2 free to try Kite ($5 with a friend's code): on our demo line or by message. Add $10 and what's left becomes real money for their calls. It needs a saved card and a confirmed email, and nothing is charged for the card. It is given once per person, once per family and once per card, and it has no cash value.
Calling works from any facility phone or tablet that can call a regular local number. Some facilities require the number to be on an approved list first, which can take a few days. Messaging is currently available in Washington and California state prisons; everywhere else is calls only.
Yes. Calling Kite is an ordinary phone call: your loved one dials a regular local number from the facility’s own phones, under the facility’s rules, monitoring and rates, like any other call. Writing to Kite goes through the facility’s own messaging service, and the facility reads every message.
Nothing said on a call is kept. There is no recording, no transcript and no memory between calls; when a call ends, what was said in it is gone. The only exceptions are ones they ask for out loud: a problem passed to our support team, or Kite’s answer sent to their tablet. Written messages are different: Kite keeps its own replies, and the first few words of the message each one answers, for 30 days, then deletes them. The facility’s phone and messaging systems still monitor and record the way they always do, and Kite cannot change that.
No. Your dashboard shows the minutes used and the money spent — never what was said on a call or written in a message.
It is not a lawyer and does not replace one. It can explain how the law and the process work, help them understand their case and their paperwork, prepare questions for their attorney and draft letters. Decisions about their case belong with their lawyer.
Kite is not a crisis line. It cannot see them, call anyone or alert staff. If someone inside is in danger, the facility’s staff and mental-health services are the people who can act, and the fastest way to reach them is through the facility. Kite will talk with them for as long as they have, but it is not a substitute for a person.
One call can run up to 30 minutes (15 in California), and they can call again straight away. There is no monthly cap. The balance is the only limit, and nothing carries over or runs out at the end of a month.
Kite charges $0.10 a minute of talking, rounded up to the whole minute, and $0.20 to $0.40 a message. There is no connection fee, no monthly fee and no charge for looking things up. The facility’s phone provider bills its own per-minute rate the way it always has. Kite’s charge is on top of that, and we have no control over the other part.
Yes. One account is a family. Each person you add gets their own number, their own passphrase and their own share of one balance, and you decide how much of the balance each of them can use.
They shouldn’t, and there is no need to: everyone you add gets their own line. The passphrase opens the line and spends your balance, so anyone who knows it can use the minutes you paid for. If it gets out, you can change it from your dashboard at any time.
Their number and passphrase stay the same, so they dial exactly what they dialed before. If the new facility keeps an approved call list, the number has to be added there again. Messaging follows the state, so it may stop or start with a move.
There is nothing to cancel. Kite is prepaid, so you stop by not adding more money, and your balance stays until it is used. To close the account, email [email protected] from the address on your account and we refund any unused balance to your original payment method within 10 business days. Free credit and promotional bonus credit are not refundable in cash.
In Washington and California state prisons, yes. They write to Kite through the facility’s own messaging service and Kite writes back, at $0.40 a message in Washington and $0.20 in California. The facility reads every message first, so an answer can take minutes or, sometimes, a day to arrive. The two messages we send to get them started — a welcome, and their number and passphrase — are free. Everywhere else is calls only for now.
No subscription, no monthly fee.