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

Yes, and two years of silence is not as insurmountable as it might feel right now. People inside have a lot of time to think, and that thinking does not always land on resentment. For many inmates, the longer they are in, the more they come to value genuine connection over pride or the reasons a friendship went quiet. Two years without contact hurts, but it also means two years of reflection on both sides about what actually matters. The key is...

Finding someone who is not showing up in a search can happen for several reasons, and there are a few steps worth trying before assuming the information is simply unavailable. Start with VINELink at vinelink.com. Search for his full legal name, making sure you use the name he was booked under rather than a nickname. If you know the state where he was arrested or sentenced, search there first since VINELink is organized by state and jurisdiction. If he is in federal...

ST/SP is also referred to as protective custody (PC). This is a type of imprisonment to protect a person from harm, either from outside sources or other prisoners. Sometimes it is the administration that decides, other times the inmate asks for protection. This is isolation or solitary confinement, not necessarily a "punishment" but a safety concern and it's for their protection. Jail and prison officials must know of the signs and characteristics of inmates that may need protective custody. Inmates such as first time...

Not every county jail publishes an online inmate roster, and Dickson County is one of the facilities that does not make that information easily searchable from the outside. That is frustrating when you are trying to locate a family member, but it does not mean she cannot be found. Start with VINELink at vinelink.com. Search her full legal name and the system will pull custody information from Tennessee facilities including county jails that participate in the network. VINELink also lets you...

The starting point for all of those questions is knowing which system she is in, and that single piece of information opens up every other answer you are looking for. If she was convicted of a federal offense, the Bureau of Prisons inmate locator at bop.gov is where everything begins. Search her full legal name or federal register number and it will show her current facility, which gives you the address for mail and the starting point for visitation applications. From...

To submit a complaint about a prison, you must file through the US Department of Justice. Explain your example of mistreatment of an inmate. This may fall under violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. The Special Litigation Section enforces the constitutional rights of people held in state or local government institutions, such as prisons, jails, juvenile correctional facilities, mental health facilities, developmental disability or mental retardation facilities, and nursing homes. Contact the Special Litigation Section at...

Yes, you receive a paycheck from your employer the same way any worker does. The difference is that you do not keep all of it. Work release programs require inmates to return a portion of their gross earnings to the facility, typically between one-third and one-half of the gross pay before taxes. The exact percentage depends on the specific program and facility rules. What remains after that deduction is yours. Most programs also allow or require you to put a portion...

The parole board for the state where your person is incarcerated is the authoritative source for this, and many state parole boards now publish their guidelines online in downloadable form. Start by searching the state's parole board website directly. Look for sections labeled something like conditions of supervision, sex offender supervision guidelines, or special conditions of parole. What you will find there outlines the standard conditions that apply to sex offenders on supervised release, which typically go well beyond what standard...

It depends on the facility and who is processing the mail that day, which is not the most satisfying answer but it is the honest one. Most facilities use the inmate ID number to match incoming mail to the correct person, particularly at larger institutions where multiple inmates may share similar names. Without that number, the mailroom has to rely solely on the full legal name to make the match. At smaller facilities with manageable populations, that works fine. At larger...

When you order the phone line, the process is automated by software to the utility for procurement. Once the utility issues the phone line, there are no refunds from them, therefore we cannot issue refunds either. The no refund policy is displayed in several places on the site before you sign up so that there are no misunderstandings. We go so far to say, "if you buy the service on Monday and the inmate gets released on Tuesday, there are no...

It's not the institution being civil, it's the population make-up. Neither have reports of unrest or violence that would give them a bad grade. The idea of being incarcerated for anyone that hasn't is frightening. The shows on TV edit their programs to show the worst and most shocking. Don't let your imagination get the best of you. Once they get settled and into a routine, get a feel for the other inmates, they tend to fit right into the prison community....

The fix depends on how the calls got blocked in the first place, and there are two separate places the block could be sitting. If you blocked the calls on your personal phone, through your carrier's call blocking feature, a third party app, or your phone's built-in blocking settings, you can unblock them directly on your end without involving the facility at all. Go into your phone settings or call blocking app, find the number associated with the facility's phone carrier,...