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

GlobalTel*Link, now operating as ConnectNetwork, is the platform you need to set up on your end to receive calls from a facility that uses GTL as their carrier. Here is how the process works. Go to connectnetwork.com and create an account. During setup you will register the phone number where you want to receive calls and add funds to what is called an AdvancePay account. That prepaid balance is what gets drawn down as calls come through. You need money in...

Yes, Telmate, which operates through GettingOut.com, is the phone carrier at Winston County Jail in Alabama. Every call your boyfriend makes from that facility runs through their system. If you are paying more than $3.00 for a 15-minute call right now, InmateAid can get that rate down to $3.00 or less. The savings come from the same place they always do with jail phone carriers. Telmate charges different rates depending on the number being dialed, and InmateAid identifies the number that...

No, you do not need to pull and submit your own criminal history printout with the visitation application. The facility runs their own background check using the personal information you provide on the application. That is standard practice across most correctional facilities in California and nationally. They have direct access to law enforcement databases and conduct the check themselves rather than relying on documentation you provide. What matters is that the information you put on the application is accurate and complete....

The rules are strict on this and the answer in most cases is no, at least not through the standard visitor approval process. Correctional facilities run every visitor applicant through a background check that flags prior felony convictions. A former inmate with a felony record will be denied through the standard approval process regardless of the relationship to the person inside. That is the baseline rule across virtually every state and federal system. The exception that sometimes exists is for family members....

Yes, inmates at Leath Correctional Institution in South Carolina are paid for their work assignments, including kitchen duty. The pay is real but the amounts are startlingly low by any outside standard. Prison wages in South Carolina, like most state systems, run from a few cents to roughly forty cents per hour depending on the assignment and the skill level required. Kitchen work is considered one of the more demanding jobs inside, with early morning hours, physical demands, and the responsibility...

There is a waiting period, and it is standard across virtually every correctional facility in the country including Groveland. It is not specific to that facility and it is not a punishment. It is simply the Admissions and Orientation process that every newly arrived inmate goes through before privileges become available. During A&O, which typically runs anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks depending on the facility and how smoothly intake moves, the inmate is being processed into...

Yes, that is exactly correct and you have it set up the right way. Your personal phone number is the destination, meaning the number where you actually want to receive the calls. The InmateAid number that was emailed to you is the routing number, which is the number your inmate dials at the facility to reach you at the lower rate. When your inmate dials the InmateAid number, the call routes through to your personal number at the discounted rate rather...

The BOP line from InmateAid is local to the facility the inmate is in. The inmate has to pay for each call from their cell coming out of their Trulincs account - they use their money is for calls, emails, and commissary. The 15-minute call to your number is $3.15, the call to the local number is $0.90. You're saving $2.25 per call simply by using our local number (which rings to your long distance number). Our $8.95 fee to rent this...

In most cases no, and the reason is a standard policy that applies broadly across correctional facilities rather than anything specific to the individual situation. Having a prior felony conviction is one of the most common automatic disqualifiers in the visitation approval process. Facilities run background checks on everyone who applies to visit, and a prior felony, especially one that involved incarceration, raises immediate concerns about the nature of the relationship, potential security risks, and whether the visit could facilitate activity...

USP McCreary is a federal Bureau of Prisons facility, and InmateAid offers several services that make a real difference for inmates and their families there. On the phone side, federal inmates at McCreary get 300 minutes per month through the BOP system, with that allotment bumping up to 400 minutes in November and December for the holidays. Every call costs either $0.06 per minute for local numbers or $0.21 per minute for long distance numbers, with the money coming out of...

Visits at a halfway house can begin as early as the first scheduled visitation period after arrival, which is significantly faster than anything available inside a correctional facility. The environment at a halfway house is fundamentally different from prison visitation. There is no glass partition, no pat-down, no rigid time limit enforced by corrections officers watching over every interaction. The atmosphere is relaxed because the halfway house operates on the understanding that residents are in the final stretch of reentry and...