In the movies, when getting into trouble, people always exclaim: "I want to see my lawyer!" Does everyone have "their" lawyer? I never needed one, so how do I get "my" lawyer?

You can call your neighbor and ask them to feed your dog, and if they can bring your wallet to the police station.

Kind of. It's really up to the jail's discretion how much freedom they want to give you on the phone. They're required to let you see a lawyer. They're not explicitly required to let you use the phone.

If they deny you the right to see a phone, that may be seen as denying you a right to a lawyer... but there's still a lot of wiggle room in there for what they can and can't do, and they certainly don't have to let you use the phone to call your neighbor.

(the details of this will likely depend on jurisdiction but that's how it typically works)

that said, that's just the technical reading of the law (which certainly can be used to hassle/fuck with prisoners) but usually the jail won't really have a problem with you using the phone for that kind of stuff so long as it's not a big disruption or impediment to anything

/r/NoStupidQuestions Thread Parent