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

In the Nevada Department of Corrections system, shoes and clothing cannot be sent directly from individuals or standard retailers like Amazon. Outside packages from unapproved sources will be refused at the mail room. Everything has to go through an approved vendor. Use an approved package vendor. NDOC authorizes specific vendors for their Clothing Package Program. The three primary options are: Access Securepak through the Keefe Group, which is the official vendor for sending pre-approved gift packages to Nevada inmates. You can search...

There is no limit on how many letters an inmate can send. They can write as often as they want as long as they have the supplies to do it. Stamps, paper, and envelopes are purchased through commissary. The more money an inmate has in their account, the more they can write. For inmates with little or no commissary funds, most facilities have an indigent mail program that provides a small allotment of stamps and basic writing materials each month. That...

Traveling from England to visit someone at Auburn Correctional Facility is a significant commitment, and getting the details sorted before you board a plane is essential. Do not show up without confirming everything in advance. Do not wait until arrival to apply. New York State requires visitors to be pre-approved before any visit can take place. You cannot fill out an application on arrival and expect to visit the same day. The approval process involves a background check and can take...

Letter delivery time: When you send a letter through InmateAid, it is typically printed and mailed quickly. Most letters arrive at the facility within 1 to 3 business days. After that, the timeline depends on the facility: Mail is opened and inspected for contraband It is then delivered at mail call This can add a few extra days depending on staff workload and procedures So overall, most inmates receive letters within a few days to about a week. Phone call limits: There is no single rule for all facilities. Call time depends on...

When an inmate is paroled to a district, they are released under the supervision of that district's parole office rather than a specific address. District 1 in Nebraska covers the Lincoln area, and the relevant parole offices are listed below. Your family member will be reporting to one of these offices as a condition of their parole. Contacting the appropriate office can help you confirm their reporting location and get information about how to reach them during the supervision period. Adult Parole...

Having a family member held by ICE is a stressful and often confusing situation, especially when you are not sure how basic things like phone calls work. Here is what you need to know. ICE detention facilities, including contract facilities like South Louisiana Correctional Center, use the same type of contracted phone systems found in most jails and prisons. Your brother can make outgoing calls, but he cannot receive incoming ones. All calls originate from his end. To receive his calls, you...

Vocational programs including welding certifications are available at certain facilities, though not universally. Whether your family member can access one depends on the specific prison, the custody level, and what programs are currently offered and funded there. Federal facilities generally have more robust vocational programming than state or county facilities. The Federal Bureau of Prisons operates vocational training programs at many institutions that lead to certifiable trade skills, and welding is among the trades offered at some locations. State systems vary...

Some facilities have changed their mail policies to accept postcards only, eliminating standard letters entirely. Hillsborough County Jail in Tampa is one facility that has made this switch. The reason is typically security related. Postcards are easier and faster to inspect for contraband than sealed envelopes, and facilities looking to streamline mail room operations have increasingly moved in this direction. If letters you sent are not reaching your inmate, a policy change at the facility is one of the first things...

Stop cooperating immediately and hire an attorney. That is the short answer, and it applies regardless of how far cooperation has already gone. Here is why this matters. The offer being described, release on recognizance, delayed sentencing, reduced charges, and a substantial sentence reduction, is significant. That is exactly the kind of offer that needs a defense attorney reviewing every word before your family member says or signs anything else. Prosecutors make these offers because the cooperation has value to them....

Every word. Mail is one of the most anticipated parts of an inmate's day, and a letter from someone on the outside gets read carefully and often more than once. Boredom and isolation are two of the hardest parts of incarceration. A letter breaks through both. It is a tangible connection to the world outside, and most inmates will tell you that receiving mail is one of the few things that genuinely lifts the day. Do not worry about writing too...

Not every facility can be serviced with a local discount phone line. Coverage depends on the phone carrier contracted to that specific jail or prison, and in some cases a local number simply cannot be obtained for that area. When InmateAid is unable to procure a local line for a facility after a customer has placed an order, we issue a full refund. You will not be charged for a service we cannot deliver. If you are setting up a new account...

The 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 thing, but anyone who...