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 write you back to the...

Inmates definitely suffer from anxiety. Depression and hopelessness are other emotional stresses they experience. The reason is the boredom and lack of activities cause those that stress about things out of their control becomes accelerated during incarceration. We offer a lot of reading material options for this very reason. Magazine subscriptions provide several valuable attributes outside of the reading material. There is a level of anticipation knowing they are always going to have something to look forward to at mail call....

This is one of the most important questions anyone in this situation can ask themselves, and the honest answer requires looking at it from two separate angles because they are not the same question. Falling in love with someone who is incarcerated is real and it happens more than most people on the outside would expect. The circumstances of prison create an intensity of communication that is rare in everyday relationships. Letters, limited phone calls, and visits stripped of distraction can...

To find the current address, the most reliable resources are the facility's official website, the state Department of Corrections offender search tool which is publicly accessible in most states, and VINELink.com which aggregates custody data nationally. For federal inmates, the Bureau of Prisons inmate locator at bop.gov shows current placement and facility address. If the inmate was recently transferred, the database may take a day or two to update, in which case calling the facility directly and asking the records...

It depends on the facility and the clinical judgment of the mental health staff overseeing the person's care, but in most cases, mail access is maintained even during a suicide watch placement. Suicide watch in a correctional setting is managed by the facility's psychology department rather than the security side of the house. The psychologist or mental health team determines what the person in crisis can have access to and those decisions are made based on what is clinically appropriate for...

They will not let the public know of the new location as it is a security risk to the transporting marshals, so they keep this information private until the move has happened. In many cases, the US Marshal service will transport the inmates to Oklahoma FTC which is a prison actually situated on the tarmac of the Oklahoma City International Airport. The inmate could stay there for one night or several weeks until the designation is ready and able to...

All sentences (except for "life") come with "good time credits". Usually this is 15% of the length of the sentence. You can only lose these good time credits for breaking the rules while incarcerated.  There is a parole system for most state prisons but the only inmates eligible must have it designated on the Judgement and Commitment document.  Federal prison does not have parole but they do have RDAP. RDAP is the Residential Drug Abuse Program. Inmates that are eligible take...

If you are organized, consistent, and actually follow through every time you think about writing, you do not need this service. Go buy stamps and mail your own letters. Nobody here is going to tell you otherwise. The honest reason InmateAid exists is that most people are not that person. The intention to write is there. The follow-through is not. Life gets busy, the errand gets pushed back, and the inmate on the other end keeps waiting for a letter that...

The letter and photo service from InmateAid is straightforward. You type up a letter and upload photos where applicable - proceed to the Pay Now page and complete the transaction. The letter order flows through our Admin area to the Processing Department. Letters are processed immediately upon entry unless it is after 6pm on Saturday, then the letters do not go through the process until Monday morning. You may check in your My Account area to see the status of...

The most important mindset shift anyone can make going in is to decide that the time is going to work for them rather than against them. That is not a platitude. It is a daily choice that separates people who come out stronger from people who come out the same or worse. Before anything else, make a plan. Decide what you are going to accomplish with the time available. Learn something. Get a credential. Get physically fit. Read everything you can...