Prison Rumors & Jail Scams — Ask the Inmate
Where there is desperation, people are willing to exploit it. Correctional facilities generate a unique environment for scams targeting both inmates and their families on the outside. This section covers the most common scams operating in and around correctional facilities, including fake bail bondsmen, fraudulent legal services, romance scams targeting families, phone account fraud, commissary manipulation, and the drug-laced mail schemes that have led to facility-wide mail restrictions across the country. Understanding how these scams work is the best protection against them. The guidance here comes from real experience with the criminal justice system and from watching these schemes operate from the inside. If something feels wrong, it probably is. The questions answered in this section help families and inmates identify suspicious situations before they become costly mistakes. See also our sections on Inmate Phone Calls, Send Inmate Mail, and Relationship Issues.
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Something about this situation warrants a closer look before any money changes hands. Let's take the two requests separately. Transportation upon release is something most state and federal systems actually provide. Inmates are typically given a bus ticket, a gate card with a small amount of funds, and in some cases a ride to a transportation hub at no cost to them or their families. The idea that a paroling inmate needs family to fund their own bus ticket
Read moreThis is serious and should be handled quickly. Forging a signature to refinance a home is typically considered fraud and can involve multiple criminal and civil violations. Start with a police report Your uncle should contact the police in the jurisdiction where the property is located and file a report. Provide: Property address Copies of any documents showing the refinance Signature samples if available Timeline of what happened This creates an official record, which will
Read moreScams happen to new inmates by predator inmates. Most of these scams are hard to tell unless you are forewarned. Many savvy people, even wealthy businessmen get fleeced inside prison simply trying to fit in. Predators are not easily spotted but they know how to spot you by finding out what your weaknesses are. Most every "new" inmate's weakness is thinking that their appeal will get them out early, or that there is something that cuts their sentence. The inmates
Read moreDo not set up any account or put any money on any inmate account until you know exactly who you are dealing with. This is a known scam that circulates inside jails and prisons. Inmates sometimes contact random people or use numbers found in other inmates' address books, asking them to fund accounts. The money ends up in the inmate's commissary and the person on the outside is left with nothing. If you do not know who is asking, do
Read moreWe have no idea. Craigslist is the Wild West, where anything can go. There is nothing to filter their listings, buyer beware.
Read moreIt could be that your inmate either lost your letter or simply gave it to another inmate who took it upon themselves to write something dirty. Mail is sacred in prison and inmates always receive theirs unless your inmate is having their mail hijacked by another inmate. We can't give you a "for sure" answer on what's going on, but we are more suspicious of your fiance acting out against you (for whatever reason) and we'd look to him to
Read moreYes, inmates absolutely will try to befriend people that they communicate with to do favors for them and more. Since there is so much idle time available, inmates become experts at manipulation but the person they are communicating with has to be complicit. As they say, "it takes two to tango". It starts out innocently like a pen pal relationship but it can grow into more than that, and oftentimes it does. Inmates have even married some of their suitors.
Read moreWhen something does not add up between what an inmate is telling you and what you have read in the public record, trust the public record. On the sentence calculation, federal inmates must serve 85 percent of their imposed sentence. There is no parole in the federal system. On a ten year sentence that works out to approximately eight and a half years before release, followed by three years of supervised release. The claim of being out in three
Read moreThe honest answer is that you will not know for certain right away and anyone who tells you otherwise is not being straight with you. Time is the only real test and your own intuition is a more reliable guide than anything someone says to you through a phone or a letter. What you can watch for are patterns. Genuine connection tends to be consistent, patient, and not transactional. Someone who is using you tends to escalate requests over
Read moreThis is a question we get a lot because inmates have time on their hands and use the telephone and mail to manipulate people into getting them things they think they need. You will have to use your instincts and knowledge of this person's past behavior to really know if there is something real or not. You have to be careful not to try and do too much anyway but let your internal gut feeling guide you.
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