General Prison Questions-Terminology — Ask the Inmate
The criminal justice system has its own language and navigating it without a guide is disorienting for families encountering it for the first time. This section covers the terminology that appears in court documents, facility communications, and case records, from the difference between jail and prison to what terms like disposition, detainer, adjudication, and supervised release actually mean in plain language. It also covers general questions about how prisons and jails operate, what a typical day looks like inside, how different security levels function, and what the practical differences are between federal, state, county, and private facilities. The answers here are written for people who have no prior experience with the system and need clear accurate explanations without legal jargon. If you encountered a term you did not understand this is the right place to start. See also our sections on Law Questions and Legal Terms, and Sentencing Questions.
Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison is where newly sentenced Georgia state inmates go first for evaluation before being assigned to their permanent facility. Think of it as the intake center for the state system. Everything from medical evaluations to psychological assessments to security classification happens here before a permanent designation is made. How long does the stay last? There is no set timeline. Some inmates move through in a matter of weeks. Others stay for several months depending on
Read moreThe clerk of the court in the jurisdiction where the case was heard is the primary source for court records of any age. Every court maintains its own records archive, and the clerk's office is the official custodian of those documents. Here is how to approach it: Identify the correct court. You need to know whether the case was in a municipal, county, state, or federal court, and which specific courthouse handled it. If you know the approximate
Read moreThe committed date is the date your inmate began serving their sentence. It is not the release date. To put it simply: the committed date marks the start, and the release date marks the end. They are two separate fields and neither is required when setting up a profile on InmateAid. If you enter both dates, InmateAid has a countdown feature built into the profile that shows how many days remain in the sentence. It is a small
Read moreNo, your husband cannot see your InmateAid account. Inmates do not have access to the internet, so anything you create or do on the website is private and only visible to you. What InmateAid does is act as a bridge for communication and services. For example: When you send a letter or photos, they are printed and delivered by mail When you set up phone services, it helps lower the cost of calls he makes to you
Read moreEvery situation is unique. We have a large number of members using 1000 minutes a month or more. State and county inmates can usually call as much as they want. Federal inmates get 300 minutes per month and 400 minutes for the months of November & December. The problem is the high cost of the calls. If your inmate is calling you long distance, look into getting a local number from InmateAid Discount Telephone Service and reduce the price by
Read moreYes, federal inmates are reviewed regularly through what is called a Unit Team meeting (often just called “team”). At facilities run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, these reviews typically happen about every 6 months. During this meeting, the inmate sits down with: Their case manager Counselor Unit team staff They review: Behavior and disciplinary record Work performance and program participation Overall adjustment to the facility Does this lead to a transfer to a lower
Read moreIn most cases there is no limit to the amount of photos an inmate may receive. In the cases where there are limits, we post the number allowed on their Prison Facility page.
Read moreIn the federal system, holiday phone minutes are handled as a temporary increase to the monthly allowance, not as separate deposits on specific dates. If your husband’s cycle resets on the 28th of each month, here is how it works: His normal allotment is 300 minutes per cycle During the November and December holiday period, that allotment increases to 400 minutes total per cycle The extra 100 minutes are included automatically in each monthly cycle that falls within that timeframe So
Read moreWe process thousands of letters with a VERY high rate of success. The phot feature is absolutely the most popular of all our services because so many family members promise to send inmates photos and never have the time to get them posted. We make that easy for you. It usually takes 1-2 business days to get to the facility. We are in a major postal hub and the letters travel pretty rapidly through the system. The only delay
Read moreViolating an order of protection is treated seriously by the court system, and the outcome on Wednesday depends on several factors: the specific nature of the violation, your husband's prior criminal history, and how the judge who issued the original order views what happened. The judge presiding over Wednesday's hearing is almost certainly the same one who issued the order of protection. That matters because judges who issue protective orders take violations personally. They view it as a direct
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