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

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, absolutely. Downstate Correctional Facility is a New York State prison and accepts mail including postcards through standard USPS delivery. There is no issue sending directly to his new location. If you had already sent a postcard to the county jail before the transfer and it did not reach him because he moved, InmateAid will resend it to Downstate at no charge. Just email aid@inmateaid.com with the details of the transfer, his new facility information, and the team will take care...

CDU stands for Control and Discipline Unit, sometimes called segregation or the hole depending on the facility. It is where inmates are sent when they are found to have violated a facility rule, whether that violation involved a verbal order, a written directive, or a more serious infraction. Being sent to CDU means the facility determined your fiance broke a rule serious enough to warrant removal from general population. As for what specific order he disobeyed, the facility will not tell...

Fighting inside a correctional facility triggers an immediate and structured disciplinary response, and the consequences stack depending on how serious the incident was. Both participants get pulled out of general population and placed in the SHU, the hole, right away. From there the case goes to the Disciplinary Hearing Officer, known as the DHO. That title sounds formal but the reality is more concentrated than a courtroom. The DHO functions as lawyer, judge, and jury all in one. The hearing happens...

The short answer is that most of his personal information is protected by the same privacy laws that cover anyone outside these walls, and the facility is not obligated to share it with you. Disciplinary records, program participation, housing assignments, medical information, none of that is automatically available to a spouse or family member without the inmate's consent. That said, there is one avenue worth trying, and tone is everything when you use it. His counselor is the most accessible point of...

Not necessarily, but the transfer is a signal worth reading carefully because it points in one of two directions and which one matters a great deal. When an inmate gets into a fight, spends three weeks in the hole, and then gets transferred to a different facility, the move is almost always deliberate. Facilities do not transfer people after a fight without a reason, and there are two common ones. The first is that he was the aggressor or a willing participant...

FPC, or Federal Prison Camp would be without question considered the best way to do prison time. There are no fences, no cells, the living arrangements are similar to an army barracks where there are rows of bunk beds and lockers. They share a common bathroom and laundry room. All inmates have are required to have a prison job. Orderlies clean the areas, landscaping the property, some work in recreation, education, the library, the chapel, commissary, the chow hall. None of...

They are not being starved, but hungry is a real and fair description of how most inmates feel, and there is a specific reason for that. Jail and prison meals are required to meet a minimum nutritional standard of roughly 2,000 calories per day. That requirement is taken seriously because facilities face legal exposure if they fall below it. The food is not good; it is not meant to be, but it checks the nutritional box on paper. The problem is that...

Yes, and the process for doing it is more straightforward than most people expect. What you are looking for is called a special visit. Facilities have a formal mechanism for approving visitation outside of the standard scheduled days, and out of state travel is exactly the kind of circumstance that warrants one. Wardens and their staff deal with these requests regularly and understand that not everyone lives close enough to work around a Friday and Saturday only window. The right move is...