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

You can stay in contact but you need to be careful about which methods you use and what information they require you to provide. Writing a letter is your safest option right now. Through InmateAid's letter service your personal address does not appear on the envelope, which provides a layer of privacy that direct mail does not. The letter reaches your husband without exposing your location to anyone processing the mail at the facility. Phone calls carry more risk depending on how...

Do not go. This is one of the most certain ways to get arrested outside of walking into a police station. Every visitor to a correctional facility goes through an identity check before they are admitted. That is not optional and it is not cursory. Staff run every visitor's identification through the NCIC, the National Crime Information Center, which is a comprehensive federal database containing criminal records, felonies, outstanding warrants, and records of confinement from jurisdictions across the entire country. There...

The silence since November 13th is most likely the result of the transfer process itself rather than anything more concerning, and understanding what happens during that transition helps explain the gap. When an inmate transfers from a county jail to a state or federal facility, they go through an Admission and Orientation process before most privileges are reinstated. Phone access and visitation are typically suspended during that period while the facility processes the new arrival, assigns housing, completes medical and classification...

The charges are public record and accessible through the Clerk of the Court in the county where he was arrested. That office maintains all case filings including charging documents, and you can contact them by phone or in person to ask what is on the docket under his name. In many jurisdictions the court's website also has an online case search function where you can find basic case information by name or case number at no cost. If you want a...

The timing is the issue. When someone is first booked, the information does not flow instantly to every database. VINELink, state DOC websites, and county jail rosters all update on different schedules, and fresh arrests can take anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days to propagate fully across all systems. Finding her on VINELink is a good sign that the booking is in process, but the facility's own public roster may simply not have caught up yet. The...

If you are being held, the arraignment should come within a few days, maybe the next day. This has a lot to do with the charges and what level profile is this case. If there are many jurisdictions involved, they love to create a whole staged media scene patting themselves on the back. They read the charges before a magistrate that sets bail or not. In most cases, the prosecution makes a deal with the defense lawyer for a bail...

Arraignment timelines vary based on the charges and how busy the courts are, but in most jurisdictions, including New Mexico, the law requires an initial appearance before a judge within 48 hours of arrest. That initial appearance, sometimes called a first appearance or preliminary hearing, is where bail is addressed and the charges are formally presented. The full arraignment, where a defendant enters a plea, can follow quickly or be scheduled for a separate date depending on the case. For misdemeanor...

Confinement in Response to Violation (CRV) centers house and provide intensive behavior modification programs for those who have committed technical violations of probation. CRV centers incarcerate violators for 90-day periods in response to violations of probation, parole or post-release supervision. The CRV centers utilize dormitory style housing similar to a minimum-security prison and offer intensive programming designed to modify behavior of probation violators.  Probation officers and case managers work closely with offenders as they progress through treatment and programming including cognitive...

Failing to appear in court after being released on bail creates several serious problems that compound whatever the original charges were. The first immediate consequence is that the bail bond is forfeited. Any money posted as bail is gone, whether it was paid in cash or through a bondsman. The bondsman, if one was used, will also send a bounty hunter to locate and return your brother to custody. The second consequence is a new charge. Failure to appear, also called bail...