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

It is possible, but not reliable. Most facilities require the inmate ID number on all incoming mail to make sure it is delivered to the correct person. Without it, the mailroom has to rely only on the inmate’s name, which can create confusion. What can happen: The mailroom staff may figure out who it belongs to and deliver it Or they may return it to sender for missing required information In some cases, it may be held or delayed while they try to verify Why the ID number matters: Many inmates have similar or...

Mailed means the letter left InmateAid and entered the US Postal Service that day. It has not been delivered yet. The estimated delivery date on the site reflects when the letter is expected to be sent out, not when it arrives at the facility. From the point it is mailed, expect another 2 to 3 business days for it to reach the jail or prison. Once it gets there, it does not go straight to your inmate. The facility mailroom staff...

Sending money into the Contra Costa County-Martinez Detention Facility will only be accepted in the following forms: Money Orders, Cashier's Checks, Local, State, and Federal government checks, including checks from other detention and prison authorities, Traveler's Checks, Personal checks, or cash. Envelopes and all their contents will be returned to the sender. Money Orders, Cashier's Checks, and Traveler's Checks must be made out to the inmate. The inmate's name and booking number must be on the front of the check....

The fugitive label creates real headwinds for any transfer or parole consideration, and here is why. Being captured as a fugitive signals to the system that this person previously chose to run rather than face their legal obligations. That history follows them directly into how their custody and security level gets assessed. Most inmates brought in this way are placed at the higher end of the security scale, which makes early transfer requests harder to justify and less likely to...

Trust the locator over what the inmate tells you, at least as your starting point for getting to the truth. State and federal inmate locator databases pull directly from official department of corrections records. The admission date in the system reflects when that person entered the custody of that correctional system, and those records are maintained by the government with no incentive to misrepresent them. They are not perfect and data entry errors do occasionally happen, but they are far more...

Depending on where you are incarcerated there are only a couple of ways to get your sentence reduced. The most common way is to provide substantial assistance to the authorities that results in the conviction of another (yes, snitching - but it happens all of the time). The other way, if your inmate is in federal prison and qualifies for this program, is called RDAP. RDAP is the Residential Drug Abuse Program which is a nine month program. Once successfully...

The timeline between sentencing and transfer to a classification or reception center varies depending on whether the sentence is federal or state and how backed up the system is at the time. For federal sentences, the Bureau of Prisons typically designates a facility within a few weeks of sentencing. Inmates who are self-surrendering are given a specific report date, usually four to six weeks after sentencing, and report directly to their designated facility rather than going through a separate classification center....

Many Missouri Department of Corrections facilities do offer approved holiday package programs that allow family members to order special commissary items as gifts during specific windows around the holidays. Whether Southeast Correctional Center in Charleston participates in a specific holiday package program and which vendor handles it requires confirming directly with the facility since these programs change from year to year and vary by institution. The most reliable way to find out is to call Southeast Correctional Center directly and ask...

One of the quickest free resources for locating an inmate at a local jail is VINELink. It is a national victim notification network that also serves as a public inmate locator, covering most county and municipal jail systems across the country including facilities in Illinois. You can search by name and get current custody status and location information without any cost. For Bloomington specifically, the McLean County Detention Facility is the primary jail serving that area. McLean County may also have...

The procedure that determines where the inmate will do their time is based on several factors. The factors range from the length of the sentence, the type of crime, the number of times the inmate has been incarcerated, the criminal history of the offender, was there violence or weapons involved and several others. This process might take as little as 30 days or up to several months to finalize. Sometimes the delay is simply a lack of bed space. If...