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

Once your account is set up and the number is active, the next step is simply getting that number into his hands, because he cannot use it until he knows what to dial. There are two straightforward ways to do that. The first is through InmateAid's letter service. You can send him a letter directly through the platform with the new number included, and it will arrive through regular mail within a few days. The second option is to mail it...

No, and that protection exists specifically for people in your situation. Juvenile records are confidential by law in every state. Facilities that house juvenile offenders are not permitted to publish or share lists of current or former inmates, and your record is not accessible to the general public the way an adult criminal record would be. You will not show up in a public inmate search, and your case will not appear in court databases that anyone can browse online. The reason...

In virtually every facility we are aware of, personal checks are not accepted for inmate accounts. The reasons are practical ones. Personal checks can bounce, can be fraudulent, and create administrative headaches that understaffed mailrooms and finance offices are not equipped to handle. Facilities moved away from accepting them years ago as electronic payment options became available. The good news is that putting money on an inmate's books is easier now than it has ever been, and there are several reliable...

Prison gets a bad reputation across the board, and some of it is deserved. But the reality is more nuanced than either the horror stories or the official line suggest. The best way to think about prison care is this: it is the minimum required by law, delivered consistently, without much warmth but without deliberate neglect either. The government funds it, which means it is adequate by a baseline standard and not much more. Nobody inside is going to confuse it...

Yes they do. As you can imagine, the best classes are the ones that you show willingness and openmindedness to learn from them. The challenge is getting your loved one to accept that they need to have feedback. Once they agree that it's goiong to benefit them, they will gain a lot of knowledge and it will make them better parents when they get out. It is important to try and let them come to the conclusion that they need...

Depends on the three-way...:)  if we are tlking about a 3-way call, then my advice would be to NEVER attempt it. The phone companies provide the prisons with the latest detection technology that sniffs out three-way calling. It is 100% against the rules of all institutions and loss of phone privilege for six months or more is the penalty. The people that get away with it do so for only a few calls before getting caught. With InmateAid's Discount Calling Service, we...

IOP stands for Intensive Outpatient Program. It is a structured treatment program designed for people dealing with substance abuse or mental health issues who do not require around-the-clock medical supervision but still need more support than a once-a-week counseling session can provide. The way it works is that participants come in for treatment sessions several times a week, typically three to five days, for a few hours at a time. The schedule is intentionally designed to be compatible with holding a...