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

A traffic warrant from a foreign country is a very different situation than a warrant from another county or state within the United States. Here is the distinction that matters. US county jails run background checks on visitors through domestic law enforcement databases. A warrant issued by a foreign government's traffic authority is generally not going to appear in those systems and would not typically trigger a detainer or result in you being held when you arrive for a visit. In...

Attending a court hearing where your friend is present is not the same as visiting them, and the distinction matters significantly. Members of the public can generally attend court proceedings as observers since most hearings are open to the public. You can sit in the gallery and be present in the courtroom. However, that is where it ends. Making eye contact, waving, mouthing words, passing notes, or any form of acknowledged communication with the inmate during a court proceeding can create...

The fastest and most reliable way to get the new number to your inmate is through a letter. Once they have the number in writing, they can submit it to their counselor or case manager for approval through the facility's phone system. InmateAid's letter service is the most straightforward way to do this. Log into your account, write a brief letter that clearly states the new local number, and send it. Letters to most facilities arrive within a few business days. When...

If you arrive at a facility and your family member has already used their maximum visitation allowance for the week, you will most likely be turned away without a visit. Facilities track visitation credits and enforce the limits strictly in most cases. Getting a message to an inmate through staff is possible but not reliable. Guards and correctional officers are generally not in the business of passing along informal messages from visitors who were not able to get in. Some facilities...

The phone service gets a local telephone number for your inmate to call you on - still using the prison telephone company to run the number through. The local line makes the calls at the lowest possible rate, because it is now local and not long distance. You will have to get the number to the inmate either by sending a letter or getting a message via a visit or one last "expensive call". Unfortunately, the prison staff will not...

When a visitation request gets denied, the reason given is not always the real reason, and it is worth digging deeper before accepting the outcome. Age similarity to another approved visitor is not a standard basis for denying a visitation request. That explanation does not appear in any typical visitation policy and should raise questions. There may be something else going on that has not been communicated directly, whether that is a restriction on the inmate's end, a concern about the...

Traveling from England to visit someone at Southport Correctional Facility in New York is a significant journey, and knowing what to expect before you arrive will make the experience much less stressful. Southport is a maximum security facility that houses inmates in special housing units. Visits there are non-contact, meaning you and your family member will be separated by a screen and communicate by phone during the visit. There is no physical contact during the visit. Before you travel, call the facility....

Video visitation availability depends entirely on the facility. Not every jail or prison offers webcam visits, and those that do use different platforms and have different procedures for setting them up. The first step is confirming whether your family member's facility offers video visitation at all. Call the facility directly and ask whether they have a video visitation program and which platform they use. Common providers include JPay, Securus, GTL, and Telmate, each of which has its own app or website...

Northern State Prison uses GTL as their phone carrier, which is the same provider used across New Jersey Department of Corrections facilities statewide. InmateAid's discount phone service works by providing a local phone number that forces the prison's carrier to bill the call at local rates rather than long distance rates. That difference is where the savings come from, typically more than $10 per call at facilities where long distance rates apply. However, the NJDOC system is structured differently. New Jersey has...

When someone is taken into custody after a court hearing, there is typically a brief intake and orientation period before visitation is permitted. The exact timeline varies by facility, but most jails require new inmates to complete some form of intake processing before their visiting list is established and approved. At Harford County Detention Center, the process works like this: your fiancee will submit a list of approved visitors, and the facility will process those requests before any visits can take...

Phone access in jail is not a right, it is a privilege, and facilities set their own rules about how often inmates can call and for how long. What feels arbitrary or unfair from the outside is simply the reality of how custody works. At some facilities, particularly smaller or more restrictive jails, inmates may only be permitted one call every day or two, with calls cut off at 12 or 15 minutes. A 300-minute monthly allotment is a federal Bureau...

Balloons, decorations, and celebratory items cannot be sent to inmates at Kent County Jail or virtually any other correctional facility. The mail room will not accept them, and anything outside of approved mail formats gets rejected and returned. What you can send depends on the facility's specific mail policy, but greeting cards are generally permitted at most jails as long as they are standard flat cards without added embellishments like glitter, stickers, or attachments that could conceal contraband. Check with Kent...