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

The beginning of her bid will be the hardest, getting used to being told where to be and when. Once she gets used to her daily routine, it becomes a lot easier to deal with. All of the inmates are looking for the same thing, and trouble in a women's prison is not something that happens as much as you would see on television. If she is easy-going, she will make friends and get into her own groove. The good-time...

The most important thing you can do is stay out of situations before they start. Prison is not universally violent, but conflict does exist and in many facilities it is the default way disputes get settled. The best advice is straightforward: keep your mouth shut and stay out of other people's business. Respect goes a long way inside. If you respect other people's space, their property, and their boundaries, you dramatically reduce your chances of ever finding yourself in a dangerous...

Yes, inmates can receive Valentine's Day cards through the mail, but keep it simple. Most facilities will accept a basic card, but anything with embellishments like raised stickers, glitter, metallic foil, pop-up elements, or any pieces that could detach risks being rejected at the mailroom. Correctional officers screen incoming mail carefully, and anything that looks like it could conceal contraband or introduce foreign materials into the facility gets turned away. Every facility has its own mail policy, and some are stricter...

We appreciate the kind words. InmateAid was built to help folks like you - let others know about us.  Getting the trial transcripts is not that hard to do, but they are going to charge you a fee (per page) to print and mail them to you. You need to find the Clerk of the Court where he was tried and make a formal request. This is something that the lawyers in other cases do all the time for researching...

When you send a letter through InmateAid, your message is printed out and mailed to the facility as regular postal mail. Your inmate will receive it as a physical letter, not electronically. Here is the timeline: It usually takes about 2 to 3 business days to reach the jail or prison through the mail Once it arrives, the facility’s mailroom opens and inspects it for security reasons After processing, it is delivered during normal mail call Mail is typically distributed Monday through Friday, so weekends...

If your inmate is not at the facility yet, the letter will still be delivered to that location first. What happens next depends on the facility. In most cases: If the inmate is not there, the mailroom will return the letter to the sender Once it is returned, the service can resend it to the correct facility at no additional charge There is no way to intercept or redirect the letter once it has been mailed. It has to go through the normal process. If...

A Class 4 yard in the Arizona Department of Corrections system is not maximum security but it is a higher custody level. Arizona classifies inmates on a scale where higher numbers generally indicate more restrictive housing and more significant behavioral or security concerns. A Class 4 yard houses inmates who have either come in with serious offenses, accumulated disciplinary history inside, or both. It is not the highest possible classification but it is well above minimum or medium. Whether your friend...

Inmates can spend between $50-75 per week at the commissary but that doesn't include telephone time. You should be careful with your budget and make sure that you are taken care of first. The prison system does a very good job of clothing and feeding the inmates. The commissary is for the "little extras" that help out. If you can spare $25 a week, that would not leave him hanging and would be enough to make his shopping at the...

No, the inmate will not automatically know to call you just because you signed up for the discount phone service. When you sign up, you will be given a new local number, but it is up to you to get that number to the inmate. Facilities do not pass along phone numbers or messages on your behalf. Here is what you need to do: Send the new number to the inmate in a letter Make sure they clearly understand that this is the number...

Yes, there are several legitimate paths to sentence reduction and knowing about them can make a real difference in how much time someone actually serves. Good Time Credit is the most common. Federal inmates who follow the rules and avoid disciplinary issues earn 54 days of good time credit per year under the First Step Act. That adds up over the course of a sentence and is the baseline most people count on. The First Step Act opened additional doors beyond good...

Calling 911 is not the brightest idea. There is no access for the ambulance to get to an inmate unless the prison calls them first. There is capable medical attention in all of the facilities. The process is that there are a few days set aside when a doctor comes into the facility to see inmates on a "call out" basis. If your inmate has an issue, he needs to fill out a form and give it to the counselor...