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

We get you a local telephone number to use with the service at the prison. You cannot use this as a substitute for them, nor can you accept a collect call through our number. The easiest way is to have your inmate buy calling cards from the commissary and dial the local number we issued you - it will ring on your number without changing anything on your end. Calling cards are available at the commissary in denominations of $10,...

In most cases, inmates do not have access to regular email or the internet, so they cannot choose to send you a message electronically just because you provided your email or entered payment information online. If you include your home address when sending a letter, that is where the inmate will write back. Their response will come through standard postal mail, not email. They will use stamps and envelopes from their commissary account, or if they have no funds, the facility...

Within the same state system, visitation lists generally do transfer when an inmate is relocated. Missouri Department of Corrections facilities share inmate records, and an approved visitor at one facility should carry over to the new one without having to reapply from scratch, provided nothing has changed in your background or personal information since the original approval. That said, confirming your status before making the trip is always worth doing. The transfer process does not always happen instantly, and there can...

Generally no. Federal Bureau of Prisons policy restricts visitation from individuals with felony convictions. When you submit a visitation application, a background check is run, and a felony conviction on your record is one of the most common reasons applications are denied at the federal level. The exception most worth knowing about is close family relationships. If you are an immediate family member, a parent, sibling, spouse, or child of the inmate, the warden has discretion to grant special visitation approval...

Yes, you will still need to pay the prison’s phone provider in addition to the InmateAid service. These are two separate parts of the same call. The facility’s phone company controls all outgoing calls, so your husband must have funds on his account, or you must fund the account on your side depending on how that facility handles calls. That payment covers the connection from the prison phone system. What InmateAid provides is a local number that reduces the cost of those...

Yes, there are still two parts to the cost, and it can be confusing at first. Your inmate is responsible for paying for the call on their end using their facility phone account or calling card. That part never goes away because the prison phone provider controls all outgoing calls and charges for the connection. What you are paying for through InmateAid is the setup that reduces the cost of the call overall. We provide a local number that your inmate can...

Inmates cannot receive calls. Inmates have to make the outbound call to you. You will have to get involved with the payment part of the call - funding it from the outside which can and does get expensive. The service at Fannin is Securus. Depending on your number, the calls could be as little at 50 cents or as much as $12-14 each. We can give you an exact price for what each call would cost and if our Discount Telephone...

No. A spouse does not have access to another inmate's visitor list or visitation records. That information is considered private to the inmate and the facility, and it is not shared with outside parties, regardless of the relationship. The facility maintains visitation records for security and administrative purposes, but those records are not available to spouses, family members, or anyone else on the outside through a standard request. Even being legally married does not grant access to an inmate's personal records...

You will know when they decide. There is no magical process that we are in on. If he was recommended six months, more than likely he will get it. Most federal inmates are getting six months these days - even more months if they started with longer sentences. Halfway house is no joke either. The inmate must look for a job and pay the house one-third of their pay for the entire six months. Newly released inmates get a false...

When you set up a number for your son to call, the facility will not automatically notify him. It is your responsibility to make sure he knows. Best ways to let him know: Send him a letter with the new number clearly written Tell him during your next phone call (if possible) Make sure the number is easy to read and correct Important details: The number usually needs to be approved and added to his phone list Staff rarely pass along messages, so do not rely on them What happens next: Once he has the...

The telephone service at all of the TDCJ Prison facilities is a company called Securus. Securus' rules are often different than the rules at the jail so they can maximize the profit per call. Normally, the cell phone carrier should have nothing to do with the approval process of an inmate's calls. The process is supposed to approve a person, not a telephone type or it's underlying carrier. Some people use InmateAid's service to get a local number for cheaper...