County jails provide the essentials like 3 meals per day, soap, toothpaste and a tooth brush. There is the commissary which is a store inside the jail. You can add money to their inmate trust account that would allow them to shop for some "extras" to make their time a little easier; $50 per week would set them up nicely. Any more is a luxury. Do what you can afford.  Calling cards are not available everywhere but where they are, it is a great way for the inmate to communicate. They cannot receive calls, they make outbound calls. If you are long distance, the cards last for one or two calls, if that. InmateAid gets local line for you to give your inmate that will ring on your current phone. This will stretch their dollar getting many more calls per card. Once they are moved to state or federal, their time will go by a lot faster. There is a lot more things to do and the routine in them seems to just kill time faster. Federal prison time is probably the best for an inmate as the BOP is funded properly, the food is better and the staff is higher paid and better trained. Commissary is also better as the choices and selections are much wider. Medical and Dental are provided on an as-needed basis. There is a small fee for the visits that come out of the inmate's commissary account. Education is provided for the inmates who have not gotten their GED equivalent. Many provide vocational training to give them a trade when they are released. You can look into college courses (or ask us) and get your inmate enrolled in a four-year program so that they can get a college education. This is not provided by the institutions, someone on the outside would have to fund this endeavor for the inmate - it is with an actual university they call this "distance learning".  Let us know if you need more information if this is something that you'd like to do for your inmate.