Ask The Inmate. Real answers from people who've been there.

Yes, and the decision not to let the police in that night complicated things significantly. Self-defense is a legal defense, not a shield against arrest. When police respond to a call involving a physical altercation and someone has been injured, they are going to detain the person identified as the aggressor regardless of what actually happened. Sorting out who was defending themselves and who threw the first punch is a question for the courts, not the officers on the scene. Refusing to...

Neither, exactly, and that is what makes this different from anything else you will find online. The answers on Ask The Inmate come from someone who has been on the inside. The founder of InmateAid spent 66 months in federal prison before building this platform in April 2012. That firsthand experience is the foundation of every answer written here. Not a corrections officer's perspective, not a lawyer's carefully hedged language, not a social worker who has read about incarceration. Someone who...

Yes, and starting before release is significantly better than starting from scratch on day one. Here is how to approach it from both inside and outside. From inside the jail, he should ask his case manager or counselor whether the facility has any reentry programming, job readiness workshops, or connections to workforce development organizations. Many county jails partner with local nonprofits and workforce agencies that come into the facility specifically to help inmates prepare resumes, practice interviews, and line up employer...

The inmate is taken to administrative segregation, in the medical unit with only a mattress placed on the floor with 24-hour video surveillance with the staff making in-person checks. They are placed there with nothing to harm themselves, as the "watch" is designed to prevent hanging (the most common method in prison or jail). There are no bedsheets and the clothing is made of something that would rip if stressed. The inmate sleeps with an extra-thick blanket that can’t be tied...

The absence of a testifying victim is significant, but it is not an automatic dismissal and anyone who tells you otherwise is getting ahead of the facts. Here is what actually matters in this situation. Prosecutors have tools available that do not require victim cooperation. If law enforcement documented the scene, took photographs, collected medical records, recorded statements at the time of the incident, or gathered witness accounts from neighbors or bystanders, that evidence can be presented without the victim on the...