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

Absolutely, and you are doing exactly the right thing. There are very few things a person on the outside can do that make a direct and immediate difference in an inmate's daily life. Consistent mail is one of them. A letter or postcard arriving in the mailroom is something physical your inmate can hold, read more than once, and keep. In an environment where personal property is minimal and days blur together, that connection to the outside world carries real weight. Magazines...

Yes, the inmates may write you through our Letters from Inmates service. We are essentially being your postal address, the inmates writes back to you with our address, we scan it into your account and you can access it through your My Account portal. Inmates have no Internet access. People like the privacy this affords, some do not want their own address used. We estimate it takes 2-3 business days for the mail to reach the facility. Once there, the staff actually opens...

Inmates must initiate the call. They cannot receive incoming calls. Depending upon where there are, there will be ONE carrier that you must use. You can accept a collect call from the inmate, set up a prepaid account or the inmate might be able to pay for their own calls from their commissary account. The carrier's prices are tiered. InmateAid finds the best number to use on THEIR system. In many cases, we can save your inmate $12.00 per call with...

The inmate registration or ID number is what facilities use to route deposits, mail, and phone calls to the correct person. There are a few straightforward ways to find it. If you know the state where your cousin is incarcerated, go directly to that state's Department of Corrections website and use their public inmate search. Most state DOC sites let you search by full legal name and date of birth and will return the inmate ID number along with current facility...

The calls are expensive because it is set up with only one provider. No competition makes it easy for them to charge higher-than-normal rates. It is predatory pricing, but there is nothing you can do about it except check to see if there are better rates with different telephone numbers. That is what our Discount Telephone Service does, it takes the second-guessing out of it. If you provide your telephone number and the location of your inmate, we will give you...

A one-year sentence in a county jail rarely means twelve full months behind bars. The actual time served is almost always less, and in New York the calculation works in his favor. New York state generally applies a good time credit that reduces a sentence by up to a third for inmates who follow the rules and stay out of trouble. On a one-year sentence that works out to about eight months served if he maintains a clean disciplinary record from...

Your inmate can write back through InmateAid even without your personal address. The return address printed on every postcard and letter sent through InmateAid is the company's Florida address, not yours. That address is right there on the envelope your inmate receives, and it is all they need to send a reply. When your inmate writes back to that address, InmateAid receives the letter, scans it into your account, and notifies you that a reply is waiting. You log in and...

The Inmate Profiles on InmateAid are created by the Members of the site. If you do not find your inmate when searching, you may simply click "Create a Personal Inmate Page" and add the information. Once set up, your account is synced with the inmate's information to facilitate any service you would like to use. If you do not know the inamte's inforamtion, you may email us at aid@inmateaid.com with the offender's name and at least their state, we will...

An inmate number means someone has been processed into a correctional system, but it does not automatically confirm they are still inside right now. The number gets assigned at intake and stays on record permanently, even after release. Whether your friend is currently active in custody depends on what the record shows alongside that number. If the information you found shows an active facility assignment, a current housing location, or no release date, that is a strong indication they are still...