Just thought of a question?

Have a question?

Ask The Inmate

Ask a former inmate questions at no charge. The inmate answering has spent considerable time in the federal prison system, state and county jails, and in a prison that was run by the private prison entity CCA.

Ask your question or browse previous questions in response to comments or further questions of members of the InmateAid community.

Subject: Visitation

Visitation length varies by facility and can also change from day to day depending on how many visitors show up. There is no single standard that applies everywhere. At most facilities, a scheduled visit runs somewhere between one and two hours under normal conditions. Some facilities allow longer visits, up to three or four hours, particularly for family members who have traveled a significant distance or when the facility has the space and staffing to accommodate extended time. Others

Read more
Subject: Commissary

yes, newspaper subscriptions are allowed in all federal prisons

Read more
Subject: Inmate services & supplies

Willacy Detention Center is a federal immigration detention facility located in Raymondville, Texas, operated under contract with the federal government. It has housed immigration detainees and federal inmates at various points in its history and is within InmateAid's service network. If your loved one is currently detained at Willacy, you can use InmateAid to send letters and photos directly through the platform. The process works the same way as any other facility in the system. You create or log

Read more
Subject: Parole, probation & supervised release

A parole eligibility hearing is not a guarantee of release. It is an opportunity for the parole board to evaluate whether your boyfriend is ready to return to society, and the outcome depends on a combination of factors that the board weighs against each other. Here is what the board will be looking at and what you can do to support the best possible outcome. Institutional record. The board will review his disciplinary history since October 2012. Write-ups,

Read more
Subject: General prison questions-terminology

Administrative Custody, commonly referred to as AC, is a housing status that separates an inmate from general population for administrative rather than purely punitive reasons. It is distinct from disciplinary segregation, which is imposed as a direct punishment for a rule violation, though from the outside the two can look similar since both involve restricted movement, limited phone access, and separation from the main population. The reasons an inmate might be placed in AC are numerous. It can be

Read more
Subject: Send inmate mail

Yes. Every photo you upload through InmateAid is printed on 4x6 glossy photo paper and mailed directly to the facility along with your letter. Your inmate receives a physical printed photo at mail call, not a digital image or a screen. The prints are produced on standard glossy photo paper, printed edge-to-edge, with no white border, and meet the format requirements accepted at virtually every prison, jail, and detention center in the country. There is nothing the mail room

Read more
Subject: Visitation

Being held pretrial, meaning waiting for a court date rather than serving a sentence, does not automatically disqualify someone from receiving visitors. Most county jails and detention facilities allow visitation for pretrial inmates under the same general framework they use for sentenced inmates, with the approval process being the main hurdle to clear first. The verification process typically involves submitting a visitation application with your identifying information, which the facility uses to run a background check and confirm there

Read more
Subject: Relationship issues

The honest answer is yes, deeply, and in ways that are hard to articulate from inside a place that offers very little privacy or space for vulnerability. Missing a partner during incarceration is not a passive feeling. It sits with you through the long stretches of idle time that define daily life inside, during count, during lights out, during the hours when there is nothing to do but think. The emotions that come with that missing tend to layer

Read more
Subject: General prison questions-terminology

If you have entered the correct information for the facility and the inmate's name with their ID, you should have no problem with the delivery of that thoughtful gesture.

Read more
Subject: Release questions

Finding a release date depends on where your inmate is housed and what information the facility makes publicly available. For federal inmates, the Bureau of Prisons maintains an inmate locator at bop.gov that includes projected release dates for most inmates in the federal system. This is the most reliable and current source for federal cases. For state inmates, Vinelink.com is a useful starting point. It aggregates inmate information from participating state departments of corrections and often includes release

Read more
Search Arrest Records