Most correctional facilities have a process for exactly this situation. Call or write the facility and explain that you have a legal document requiring the inmate's notarized signature. Ask to speak with the inmate's case manager or the facility's legal or administrative department. They can walk you through the procedure, which typically involves the inmate being brought to an administrative area where a notary public employed by or contracted with the facility witnesses and notarizes the signature. This service exists because...

Absolutely. Regular mail through the US Postal Service works just fine and there is nothing wrong with doing it that way. A stamp, an envelope, paper, and a pen are all you need. InmateAid's letter service is an option, not a requirement. The reasons people use it come down to convenience and privacy. You can send a letter from your phone in minutes without gathering supplies, printing photos, or making a trip to a mailbox. The return address on everything that...

Yes, send it. You do not need the tier or housing unit. The facility's mailroom knows exactly where every inmate is housed by their inmate ID number, and that is how mail gets routed internally. The housing unit information is helpful but not required on the envelope. All you need on the address is the inmate's full legal name, their inmate ID number, and the facility's mailing address. The mailroom does the rest. They sort incoming mail by inmate number every...

Yes, the service follows your partner wherever they go. The forwarding number InmateAid provides routes calls to your phone regardless of which facility your partner is calling from. The one thing to be aware of is that different facilities use different phone carriers, and the carrier determines the rate structure. A number that produces the lowest rate at a county jail may not be the optimal number for the prison he moves to. When the transfer happens, let InmateAid know the...

Yes, that is exactly how it works. Give the InmateAid forwarding number to your inmate and have him add it to his approved call list at the facility. When he calls that number, it routes through to your phone while triggering the lower rate that InmateAid's number was chosen to produce. InmateAid does not replace the prison phone system. Your inmate still calls through whatever carrier the facility uses, whether that is Securus, GTL, or another provider. What InmateAid does is...

No. The inmate is not held responsible for a visitor's outstanding warrant. The background check process catches these things and the visitor will simply be denied approval, but the inmate who submitted the request is notified and not punished. They are not expected to know whether someone they care about has a warrant in another jurisdiction. The person with the warrant, however, should take this seriously. If a warrant is discovered during the facility's background check process, the information does not...

Unlikely. Federal prosecutions do not work the same way as state cases. In the state system, there is often more room to negotiate back and forth over time. The federal system is much more transactional. Once the government extends an offer, that offer typically reflects what they believe they can prove and what they are willing to accept. They do not usually sweeten it just because time passes. After 11 months of pretrial incarceration, the government has made its calculation. If...

Yes, and it is fairly common. When someone arrives at a facility on a parole violation hold, they are often placed in administrative segregation or a restricted housing unit during the initial intake period while their status is sorted out. This is not necessarily a punishment. It is a classification and assessment step the facility goes through when someone comes in on a hold rather than as a fresh commitment. The lockdown period gives the facility time to review the violation,...