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

By using an InmateAid number, you are lowering the price of the call. You can talk longer for a lot less money. Prisons contract with only one prison phone company to provide outbound inmate calling services for each prison, jail or detention center. The prison phone company has no competition. We don't replace the prison phone company, we are simply providing a number that makes their call price less (based solely on the telephone number). People that come to InmateAid are already...

On the free call question, most facilities allow a phone call shortly after booking, typically within the first couple of hours of arrival. Whether that call is actually free varies by facility. Some provide one free call as standard practice. Others allow the call but run it through the facility's phone carrier, which means it comes at the regular rate and someone on the receiving end needs to have an account set up to accept it. Do not assume it...

Once the number has been added to the approved call list, the timeline depends on where the inmate is in the facility's intake and orientation process. For someone who has already completed orientation at Northern State Prison, the number can be active and available for calls within a few days of being submitted. The phone carrier has to process the new number and add it to the approved list in their system, and that typically takes two to four business days...

There is no set timeline, and that uncertainty is one of the more frustrating parts of this situation for families trying to plan around it. When an inmate completes their sentence but has an interstate detainer waiting, they do not walk out the door. They stay in custody at the current facility until the requesting state arranges transport. How long that takes depends almost entirely on logistics and resources on the other end. The requesting jurisdiction has to schedule a transport...

Yes, unfortunately it is, and the lawyer who promised otherwise was not being straight with you. Facility designation in the federal system is controlled entirely by the Bureau of Prisons Designation and Sentence Computation Center in Grand Prairie, Texas. Nobody outside of that office has binding authority over where an inmate gets placed. Not the sentencing judge, not the defense attorney, not the prosecutor. The judge can recommend a facility close to the inmate's home address in the sentencing order, and...

Being recently released from jail does not automatically disqualify you from visiting your husband, but it does mean you cannot walk in as a standard visitor without additional steps. Most facilities have a policy restricting visitation from people with recent criminal justice involvement, and Powell County Detention Center in Kentucky is no exception to that general rule. What works in your favor here is significant. You are legally married, you have documentation to prove it, and you have a long established...

Leath Correctional Institution is a South Carolina Department of Corrections facility housing female inmates in Greenwood, SC. Commissary spending limits at SCDC facilities are set by the department and can vary based on an inmate's custody level and disciplinary status. The most accurate and current spending limit for Leath specifically is best confirmed by calling the facility directly, as these limits are subject to change and can differ from what is posted publicly. Generally speaking, South Carolina DOC facilities impose weekly...

Yes, probation transfers are possible, but they require cooperation from multiple parties and a compelling case for why the transfer serves the interests of successful supervision. The process is called an interstate or intercounty probation transfer, and it works like this. Your boyfriend would need to formally request the transfer through his San Diego probation officer. That request gets reviewed by the sentencing judge in San Diego, who has to agree that transferring supervision is appropriate. The receiving jurisdiction, in this...

Two weeks of waiting is not unusual, and unfortunately there is no guaranteed timeline that either county is legally obligated to meet outside of one specific circumstance. Inter-county transfers in Pennsylvania happen when the receiving county, in this case Allegheny, can spare two deputies to make the trip to Butler and bring him back. That sounds simple but it depends entirely on staffing availability, scheduling, and how many other transports Allegheny County has in the queue at the same time. Large...