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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.

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Subject: Inmate services & supplies

Yes. Gaston Regional Juvenile Detention Center, like virtually every detention facility in the country, has an indigent program that provides basic supplies for written communication. If a juvenile resident has no money on their account, the facility is still required to ensure they have a basic means of staying in contact with family. That typically includes paper, pencils or pens, envelopes, and stamps. The specifics of what is provided and how often vary by facility, but the underlying principle

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Subject: Survive prison

The diagnostic prison is to assemble information on the inmate for further classification, designation, treatment and programming. Your inmate may not be prison material but very few are when they go in.  There will be an adaptation period where he will need to keep to himself and observe the routine of others and find one that will best fit his personality and interests.  Prison is like a little town with everything that you would see in a community, just in

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Subject: Sentence reduction

In most state systems, inmates do not serve the full sentence if they earn and keep their good time credits. A common guideline is around 85% of the sentence, though this can vary depending on the state and the charge. For a 1 year sentence, that usually means: Roughly 10 to 10.5 months actually served The rest is reduced through good behavior credits Since this is his first time and the sentence is relatively short, he is

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Subject: Visitation

Facility Procedures and Expectations for Visitors of the Illinois DOCOn your first visit to a facility you will be required to complete a “Prospective Visitor’s Interview” form. If visitors are provide false information on the form, visitation privileges may be restricted or revoked. IDOC staff has the right to interview or request background information from potential visitors to determine whether the individual would pose a threat to the safety or security of the facility or any person or to the

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Subject: General prison questions-terminology

His lifestyle is only going to change if he does steps necessary to improve his thought process. There is something that the therapists point to when assisting in rehabilitation: criminal thinking. Does your inmate have the capacity to look at himself and his flawed thinking. The inmate that can come to terms with his mistakes and face "change", will change. There are also other attitudes that an inmate must address as they go back to be a productive member of society

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Subject: Visitation

Yes, he should be able to call you unless there is some restriction on him related to the segregation. There are two types of segregation, one is administrative, which gives the inmate slightly more options. The other is disciplinary segregations which is super-strict. 

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Subject: Ice-immigration enforcement

If an inmate is not a United States citizen, deportation after serving a federal sentence is very likely. Immigration and Customs Enforcement routinely places detainers on non-citizen inmates, meaning the moment they finish their sentence they are transferred to ICE custody and removal proceedings begin. A lengthy sentence combined with a prior criminal record makes deportation even more probable. Dual citizenship changes the picture significantly. If someone holds both U.S. citizenship and citizenship in another country, the U.S. government

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Subject: Send inmate money

The online transfer services will not accept international cards. InmateAid offers a solution for international members but since it is not part of our core business, the service fee for doing so is a bit pricey. We charge $15 for the service but you also will have to pay the transfer fee for the service that the jail uses plus a credit card processing fee - the last two components are not fees for InmateAid but are necessary to get

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Subject: Send inmate money

When you add money to an inmate's phone account online, it typically posts almost immediately. Online deposits through platforms like Securus are processed in real time in most cases, which means your family member can often start making calls within minutes of the deposit being confirmed. For SCI Smithfield in Pennsylvania, Securus Technologies handles the phone service. You can set up an account and make deposits at securustech.net. When you add funds, you will need the facility name and

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Subject: Inmate phone calls

The phone service at the all of the jails and prisons are set up through bid process. Whoever has the contract for all inmate outbound calling and to tape record the calls has a monopoly contract. Therefore, you have to use them to receive calls. The choice is whether you pay them for a long distance call or a local call. The price is usually a pretty sizable difference Here is how it works... We get you a local line

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