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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.

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

Subject: Commissary

Remember that the commissary is for the 'little extras'. 75% of inmates never go to the commissary. If you are able to send something without affecting your own ability to survive while they are there, $50-100 per week and they would live like a king/queen.

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Subject: Inmate phone calls

The answer depends on where you live relative to the facility. Prison and jail phone carriers charge different rates based on whether the receiving number is local to the facility or long-distance. If you live in Arkansas and your number is already local to the Wynne area, you may already be getting the lower in-state rate. InmateAid can still potentially reduce that further by identifying whether a local forwarding number would trigger an even cheaper rate with whatever carrier

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Subject: Clemency - pardons

getting a pardon or clemency is as difficult as you'd imagine. you need someone on the outside doing your bidding to even get considered. And, it's a long shot at best if you do

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Subject: Sentencing questions

Yes, every day from the arrest date counts. The 163 days he spent in custody between his arrest on September 18, 2020 and his plea on February 28, 2021 are all credited toward the sentence, day for day. The clock starts at booking, not at sentencing. Here is how the math works. Five years is 60 months. With 15 percent good time applied, he serves approximately 51 months total rather than the full 60. Subtract the roughly 5.4 months

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Subject: Inmate phone calls

yes, all of the phone systems have a prompt to check your balance of time remaining

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Subject: Send books and magazines

The best fiction books (IMO) are from authors like Stuart Woods, John Grisholm, David Baldacci, Nora Roberts, Harlen Coben, Sandra Brown, Lee Child, James Patterson and others. The best books for general knowledge and insight, start with anything by Malcolm Gladwell

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Subject: Send inmate mail

Mail sent through InmateAid typically takes 2 to 3 business days to travel from InmateAid's Florida office to the facility through the US Postal Service. Once it arrives, the facility mailroom staff open and inspect it before clearing it for distribution, which can add a day or several more depending on the facility. Mail call at most facilities runs Monday through Friday, so weekends do not count. Plan for the full journey from send to in-hand to take anywhere from

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Subject: Send inmate mail

on Saturdays, yes... Sunday, no

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Subject: Survive prison

Not much. At a county detention center, you essentially bring yourself and whatever you are wearing. Jewelry comes off and goes into a property bag. Personal clothing is typically replaced by facility-issued clothing. Any cash gets processed and applied to your account. Personal hygiene items from outside are usually not permitted in intake because the facility controls what products are brought into the housing units. For a 30-day sentence, the honest answer is that the facility is going to

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Subject: Inmate services & supplies

You cannot pre-order commissary items before you are booked because you will not have an inmate account or ID number yet. Everything runs through the account that gets created when you are processed in. However, you can absolutely set things up quickly after you arrive, and there are steps to take before you go in that make the first few days easier. The most useful thing you can do before your court date is designate someone on the outside

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