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

The dramatic version of prison farm labor that circulates online and gets portrayed on television does not reflect the day to day reality for most inmates assigned to agricultural or outdoor work details, though the broader conversation about prison labor and fair compensation is a legitimate one worth understanding. Farm duty and outdoor work assignments are generally considered among the better details available inside. Inmates assigned to these jobs are outside, physically active, doing something that feels purposeful, and breaking the...

Arriving one to two hours before your scheduled visit time is the safe approach at most correctional facilities, including Allegheny Valley County Prison. That window might seem excessive but the processing involved in getting cleared for a visit takes more time than most first-timers expect. You have to check in at the front, present your identification, get verified against the approved visitor list, pass through security screening, and wait for staff to be available to process you through. Each of those...

What is permitted in visitation photos varies by facility and in practice often comes down to which officer is working that day and how strictly they apply the rules. At most facilities, arms around each other, a brief kiss, and a parent kissing a child on the cheek are generally tolerated and considered acceptable within the spirit of the visit. These are the kinds of normal family moments that most staff recognize as reasonable and do not interfere with. The security level...

You will have to always pay Securus as they are the company that has the contract where your inmate is incarcerated. In the majority of cases we can get you a number that will bring this $15 call to about $3 but to be 100% certain, we would want to know the name of the facility and your telephone number. We would then direct you to set up a Securus account with the number we provision. The money on that...

It's not fair, but prison is not there for fairness, it is there for the housing of inmates until their sentence is served under rules that we on the outside can't imagine.  Visitation is considered a privilege, not a right - and when they take it away it is usually for some sort of egregious act from a group of inmates. The rules that are imposed are not to punish the visitors, they are there to keep the order and control the acts...

When Securus is the company with the contract for all inmate outbound calling and to tape record the calls, you have to look carefully at the per-call price because they are doing things differently than the other prison phone carriers..  Securus has a rate calculator on their site and we use it to get you the BEST number for inmate calling - and now the local number isn't always your best option.  Regardless, you have to use them to receive calls. The choice...

It depends entirely on the state and the facility, but yes, some systems have moved to free calls for inmates. New York and Pennsylvania are two of the most notable examples. The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision eliminated charges for calls made from state prisons, making them free for both the inmate and the person receiving the call. Pennsylvania's DOC followed a similar path. These policy shifts were driven by years of advocacy around the financial burden...