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

Inmates that have money on their inmate trust accounts can purchase stamps and envelopes at the weekly commissary. If they do not have money on their books, the prison will provide indigent inmates with all the materials necessary to send out mail to their loved ones. If your inmate writes to you directly, using your address, the cost of the mailing is a 49 cent stamp. Many of our members use the Inmate Response Mail service through InmateAid. Your inmate would...

The InmateAid inmate pages are created and maintained by the member/users of the site. All of the inmate data is entered by the member/user of the site, not InmateAid. We do not monitor, verify or update the information unless requested by the member/user. When we are asked via email we definitely will help. You can create the profile yourself and attach it to your account. Once the inmate information is set up, it will sync up to all the available...

For the prosecution to drop the kind of charges that you are indicating in this question, there would have to be really good reason. We do not think that for your relative's claim this was for cancer will help at all. The prosecutor will undoubtedly tell them that they could have gone the route of every other cancer patient and gotten the drugs legitimately. Our opinion is that they will go hard after them in prosecution and likely both will...

They might treat him depending on the stage of the cancer and where it is in the body. Also, their cancer treatment previous to the incarceration will have some bearing. It's not a good idea to get sick in jail because the overall treatment is minimal at best. Cancer treatment, dialysis or other life threatening ailments does not usually get an offender released. They will transport them to the prison-ward of a hospital that is equipped for handling inmates (requiring...

You will have to decide that for yourself. The incarceration process goes through many phases. First there is the arrest, the offender is taken into custody and booked in the nearest county jail. The charges are documented and the offender is given a bed whether it is in a cell or a dormitory style setting with rows of bunk beds. The next step is the arraignment where bail is set by a magistrate. If the offender makes bail, then their...

When someone you care about is sick and in isolation, getting information out of a correctional facility can feel like hitting a wall. Knowing exactly who to contact makes a real difference in how quickly you get answers. The first person to reach out to is the inmate's case manager. Case managers are the primary point of contact for family members and they have access to housing and status information across the facility including segregation and isolation units. They will not...

The phone service at all of the prisons, jails and detention centers are set up through bid process. The winner of the contract is the ONLY provider for that facility making them a monopoly. Whomever has the contract for all inmate outbound calling and to tape record the calls, then you have to use them to receive calls. The choice is whether you pay them for a long distance call or a local call (to a number we get for...

We have no idea what will happen when they are released. You probably know your inmate better than we do, and know their personality better than us. But, there are countless stories where inmates often leave their significant others upon release. You know we can't be certain about the advice we are giving here, but the overwhelming majority of inmates "run" as soon as they are on their feet. An inmate that actually has an affair is even more likely...

Think of it like a wedding registry. The wish list gives others an idea of what they might get for someone they care about - it makes it easier to have a list of things you know they actually want to receive. Ask your inmate some of the things they's like on this list. What magazine titles would they like? What books interest them? Is there an author or genre that they prefer? Would they like a newspaper subscription. Inmates...

This comes up more than you might think, particularly in situations involving paternity questions, adoption reunions, or family members who lost contact years ago and are trying to establish a biological connection. Bringing a consumer DNA test kit to a prison visit is not something most facilities will allow. Anything coming into a visitation room is screened carefully, and outside testing materials are not going to make it through. The concern is always contraband and chain of custody, and an outside...

The cost to incarcerate an inmate is an amount that is never covered by an inmate's housing charge. Most institutions are not charging inmates but the ones that do collect very small amounts compared to the actual cost the confine a prisoner. Your example is just silly, and if the inmate has money on their books, EVERY institution will take an agreed percentage specifically for restitution. Policies for charging inmates are popular with taxpayers, but collection is dubious as the...