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Ask a former inmate questions at no charge. The inmate answering has spent considerable time in the federal prison system, state and county jails, and in a prison that was run by the private prison entity CCA.

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Subject: Prison discipline

Technically no. Officially, yes, it happens anyway. The rules are clear on paper. Inmates have a legal property interest in their personal belongings, including letters, cards, photos, and commissary items they have purchased. Correctional officers and facility staff are not supposed to destroy or dispose of inmate property arbitrarily. Most facilities have written policies governing how property is handled, inventoried, stored, and transferred when an inmate moves between housing units or facilities. The reality inside does not always

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Subject: Inmate services & supplies

Yes. Personal property moves with the inmate. When someone is transferred from one facility to another, their accumulated belongings, including photos, greeting cards, postcards, magazines, and other approved personal items, are packed up and travel with them. The same holds at release. Whatever they have been allowed to keep during their time inside comes home with them. This is one of the reasons sending physical mail has lasting value. A letter or a photo is not just read once

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Subject: Inmate search

The inmate profiles are set up by the member/users of the website. We do not monitor, verify or update the profiles unless requested by the member/user. If you would like to create an inmate profile we would be happy to do it for you. Please send us the inmate's name, their ID number and the facility where they are incarcerated and we'll notify you when it's ready. If you need information on someone's whereabouts, we recommend using the Background Search button to

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Subject: Law & court questions - legal terms

When a court-appointed attorney identifies a conflict of interest, which is exactly what happened here when the same attorney is already representing another party in the same case, they are ethically and legally required to withdraw from representation. That is actually the system working correctly even though it feels like a setback in the moment. The question of whether she has to wait until the December 31 bail hearing to get a new attorney is worth pushing back on

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Subject: Inmate phone calls

No, the staff does not relay messages or information to inmates, it is against their policy to do so. You will have to get the number number to your inmate. If you are interested in using our [Letter Writing service](https://www.inmateaid.com/letters), please let us know via email and we will send you a coupon code to use it - for free.

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Subject: Marriage in prison

Yes, if your inmate has a long sentence you can contact the chaplain at the institution and have your inmate start applying for a marriage license. Even mass murderer Charles Manson has gotten a license to marry a 26-year-old woman who visits him in prison. Each California state prison facility designates an employee to be a marriage coordinator who processes paperwork for an inmate's request to be wed. In most cases, the department of corrections approves of such weddings

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Subject: Prison discipline

SHU inmates get one 15-minute call per week

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Subject: Inmate phone calls

$15.00

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Subject: Relationship issues

Someone will have to file the case in court and that does cost a little money. If he is able to have a lawyer do the paperwork, it would cost a couple hundred dollars. If he has a jailhouse lawyer file the papers and mail them from prison, it'll only be seventy-five dollars plus some bags of tuna for the inmate that did the work inside.

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Subject: Sentencing questions

This depends on his criminal history, was anyone hurt and how much damage was done to other's property. Stealing a car is grand theft auto, and it's not a game. He will probably do some time but we are not sure how much.

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