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

Re-entry after tens years is going to take some time. He will most likely be in a halfway house for a few months to help with the adjustment. Everything is going to be brand new to him. Think about the changes in technology alone, he has a lot of catching up to do. You will have to be very patient. His internal clock, his routine for ten years is not going to fit right away - you're gonna have to...

There are legitimate programs that allow something close to this, but the specific scenario you are describing raises a separate question worth addressing directly. Work release is the most common version of this arrangement. Inmates on work release leave the facility during the day for employment and return at night. It is a real program and it exists at many facilities as a transition step close to the end of a sentence. Weekend-only sentences are also possible in certain low-level cases...

Yes, and you should write every letter as if they do. Mail room staff are expected to read incoming letters in their entirety. That is the protocol, and it exists for legitimate security reasons. In practice, the volume of mail at larger facilities means some officers scan rather than read thoroughly, but there is no way to know which approach any particular staff member is taking on any given day. Assuming your letter will be read word for word is the...

The Federal Bureau of Prisons offers sex offender treatment to offenders with a history of sexual offending and who volunteer for treatment. The Bureau provides two levels of treatment intensity: residential and non-residential. Eligibility for participation in a treatment program depends on an offender’s evaluated risk of future sexual offending. Institutions offering this treatment often have a higher proportion of sex offenders in their offender population. This higher concentration of sex offenders within an institution helps offenders feel more comfortable acknowledging...

Sheridan Correctional Center in Illinois is one of the most specialized facilities in the state system. It operates as an adult male medium security prison dedicated almost entirely to substance abuse treatment, and it runs one of the largest such programs in the country. If your person is being designated there, the placement is intentional and reflects what the system has determined he needs. The core programming at Sheridan is built around therapeutic community models, which means inmates live and work...

Letters purchased before 5pm Eastern time go out the same day. If your order came in after that cutoff, it processes and ships the following business day. If your letter is showing as pending and you are past that window, it is worth logging into your account to check the status or reaching out to InmateAid's support team directly. Pending status that lingers beyond the expected processing window is something they can look into and resolve quickly. Once the letter leaves InmateAid's...

Our phone service is perfect for folks in your situation. All inmate calls to Puerto Rico are about $1.00/minute or $15.00 per each 15-minute call. We would get you a local state-side phone number that when called would ring to your PR number but only charge the $1.65 local charge per each 15-minute call. You still use the service at the prison or jail, but use the number we give you to arrange the account. There is a $13.00+ savings per call...

Calls from Puerto Rico to mainland US numbers run approximately $1.00 per minute. At that rate, $4 covers about four minutes of talk time. That is a very short conversation, especially if there is anything meaningful to discuss. Put more on the account. If the call limit at that facility is 15 minutes, the full conversation would cost around $15. For regular communication you want to have enough on the account to cover several calls before it runs dry. Loading $25...

There is no automated delivery confirmation on individual letters, and that is true of the postal system generally rather than anything specific to InmateAid. Once a letter enters the facility's mailroom, the staff processing and distributing mail does not send delivery receipts back to senders. The most reliable signal that your letter arrived is hearing from your inmate directly. When they receive your letter they will typically mention it on the next call or write back. That response is your confirmation. On...