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

In general, all inmates must have a job. There are very rare occasions where inmates get off not working. Prison is like a community. The services that make a community run have to be maintained by inmates. There is food service, landscaping maintenance, sanitation and garbage, cleaning of the living quarters, laundry, recreation, education, health and commissary are all areas where labor is needed. This is all done by the inmates and supervised by the corrections officers. After the jobs are...

A school ID is generally not accepted as valid identification for prison or jail visitation. Facilities require a government-issued photo ID, which means a state-issued driver's license, a state ID card, a US passport, or a military ID. School IDs do not meet that standard because they are not issued by a government agency and do not carry the same verification weight. If you are under 18, you will need to be accompanied by an adult who is on the inmate's...

There are two separate and urgent issues here that need to be addressed at the same time, not sequentially. On the assault and untreated injury. An inmate who was physically attacked and not provided medical treatment has a constitutional right that was violated. Deliberate indifference to a serious medical need by facility staff is an Eighth Amendment issue. Contact the warden's office in writing. State that your spouse was assaulted, that they requested medical treatment, and that treatment was not provided....

Cimarron Correctional Facility in Cushing, Oklahoma is a privately operated prison run by CoreCivic. Like all correctional facilities, new arrivals go through an Admissions and Orientation process before phone calls and visitation become available. That orientation period typically takes one to two weeks, sometimes a little longer depending on how many new arrivals are being processed at the same time. During that window your husband will be meeting with medical staff and his unit team, and he will have the opportunity...

Texas does not have a conjugal visit program. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice eliminated conjugal visits decades ago and has not reinstated them. Regardless of the sentence length or the nature of the charges, conjugal visits are not available at any Texas state prison. Texas is among the majority of states that no longer offer this type of visitation. As of 2026, only a small handful of states, including California, New York, Washington, and Connecticut, maintain any form of extended...

When your husband arrives at Colwell Detention Center, he will first go through an intake process called Admission and Orientation, often referred to as A and O. During this time, the facility evaluates him, assigns housing, and sets up his records. This intake period usually takes anywhere from a few days up to a couple of weeks, depending on the facility. In some cases, parts of orientation can extend longer, but basic processing is typically done within the first week or...

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...

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...

Generally no. Being written up and sent to the hole does not result in money being taken from an inmate's commissary account as a standard punishment. Disciplinary sanctions typically come in the form of lost privileges, loss of good time credits, or placement in segregation. Random monetary deductions as punishment are not standard practice. That said, there are several legitimate circumstances where a facility can and does deduct from an inmate's account. Restitution. If a court ordered restitution as part of the...

For Deuel Vocational Institution, you should send your visitation form to the mailing address, not the physical address. Visitation form mailing address: P.O. Box 400 Tracy, CA 95378-0004 Important tips: Make sure your form is fully completed and signed Double-check all required information to avoid delays Processing can take some time, so plan ahead before trying to visit If you want to confirm or speed things up: Call the visitation office at (209) 830-3900 (Friday mornings) Or email: dvivisiting@cdcr.ca.gov (Monday or Tuesday mornings) Visiting hours (once approved): Saturdays and Sundays: 8:30 AM – 3:30 PM Certain holidays are also included Best advice: Wait...