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

When you order the phone line, the process is automated by software to the utility for procurement. Once the utility issues the phone line, there are no refunds from them, therefore we cannot issue refunds either. The no refund policy is displayed in several places on the site before you sign up so that there are no misunderstandings. We go so far to say, "if you buy the service on Monday and the inmate gets released on Tuesday, there are no...

The fix depends on how the calls got blocked in the first place, and there are two separate places the block could be sitting. If you blocked the calls on your personal phone, through your carrier's call blocking feature, a third party app, or your phone's built-in blocking settings, you can unblock them directly on your end without involving the facility at all. Go into your phone settings or call blocking app, find the number associated with the facility's phone carrier,...

You pay for the line and it is our knowledge of the system that allocates a phone number that you use with the prison phone company to save money. Sometimes there are no savings (we refund the deposit), other times there is a savings of $2-$4 per call, and the best we do is where some county jails are getting $15-25 per 15-minute call... our fee of $20 is covered by the savings. If you talk a lot, this is...

The transfer from Broward County to South Florida Reception Center is a short geographic move but it is still a full transition between two separate systems with their own intake processes. Give it a few days before expecting communication to resume. Here is what is typically happening on his end right now. When an inmate arrives at a reception center they go through a processing and orientation period that includes medical screening, classification interviews, property inventory, and housing assignment. Phone access...

Inmates make outgoing calls, not incoming ones. There is no phone line you can dial to reach someone inside a jail or prison directly. The communication only works one direction from inside out, which means your inmate calls you rather than the other way around. To receive those calls, your number needs to be on their approved call list. The inmate builds and manages that list themselves, submitting numbers they want to be able to dial through whatever system the facility...

The administrative transfer could mean a number of things. The first thing that comes to mind is the inmate has some issue with another inmate in that facility. It could be a co-defendant he cannot be placed in the same facility. But if this is happening often, it could be that he was a confidential informant. They get moved routinely to keep their whereabouts changing. The short-term stays (8 months at a time) make it seem like he is in protective...

There is no set timeline, and the experience varies more than most families expect going in. The transfer out of county jail depends on two things that neither you nor your husband controls. The first is bed space at the receiving processing center. Federal and state processing facilities run at or near capacity constantly, and transfers happen when space opens up rather than on a fixed schedule. The second is the transfer schedule of whoever is handling transport, whether that is...