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

Do not wait. Switch over as soon as possible because the two services work together rather than replacing one another. InmateAid does not replace your GTL account. Your GTL account stays open and the balance remains available. What InmateAid does is provide a different number for your inmate to dial that triggers a lower rate on the GTL system. The calls still run through GTL and still draw from your GTL balance, but at a significantly reduced per-minute cost because of...

You may use your cell phone in most cases. The phone service is run by ONE company at any one facility. The companies that provide service win a competitive bid contract for 3-4 years. THEY are the ones that set the pricing and the rules in conjunction with the jail or prison. It used to be that you needed a land line to receive calls from the inmate. Now, with everything revolving around the smartphone, the rules have changed. BUT,...

This is one of the harder conversations a parent has to navigate, and how you handle it matters for your children's relationship with their father long after this period is over. The most important rule is to keep your own hurt and anger out of the explanation you give the children. Whatever happened between you and their father is separate from who he is to them, and children who hear negative things about a parent from the other parent carry that...

Phone call hours at most correctional facilities are fairly consistent day to day and do not change frequently without a specific reason. The schedule is set by the facility and posted for inmates, and the expectation on both ends is that it stays predictable. That said, there are circumstances that can disrupt the normal calling window. A facility-wide lockdown triggered by an incident, a shakedown, a count that runs long, or a staffing shortage can all push phone access back or...

Yes, and the approach to getting it approved is worth understanding clearly. This situation came up with my own step-children, and the way to frame the request makes a real difference. Correctional facilities are evaluated in part by their recidivism rates, meaning how often their released inmates come back. Funding and reputation flow to facilities with low rates, so wardens and administrators have a genuine institutional interest in anything that reduces the likelihood of reoffending. Family connection is one of the...

As a general rule, the inmates have to work in some small capacity as part of the programming and participation of the prison operations. Whether it be in sanitation, custodial, kitchen, landscaping, education, construction or other roles, the inmates run the prison overseen by COs (corrections officers). Some prisons have no inmate working as it is intake and assessment, usually at the beginning of the sentence. As a rule, pre-trial inmates do not have to work but each facility has...

Your InmateAid phone service continues after a transfer and there is no additional charge to update it. When an inmate moves to a new facility, the phone carrier and the local rate structure change, which means the number assigned to your account needs to be recalibrated for the new location. InmateAid handles that automatically at no cost every time it happens. There is no limit on how many times the number can be changed due to transfers, which means a quarterly...

The documentation you have is exactly what you need, and using it proactively is the right move. Request a meeting with your probation officer as soon as possible, bring every document you have, FEMA assistance records, damage assessments, proof of displacement, financial statements, and anything else that demonstrates the financial impact of the disaster. Do not wait for the violation process to unfold without getting your side of the story in front of the right person first. Probation officers have more...

The most important thing to establish right now is exactly where the case stands in the legal process, because that determines what options are actually available. If he has not yet entered a plea and the case has not gone to trial, he is entitled to a public defender at no cost if he cannot afford private counsel. What most people do not know is that the right to counsel also includes the right to an investigator paid for by the...

The short answer is yes, but how he gets them depends on which direction this case goes. If this is a criminal matter, meaning someone reported the theft of federal pandemic funds, the FBI has jurisdiction. Stimulus checks are federal money, and stealing them is a federal crime. If an investigation is open, federal agents can subpoena email records directly from the provider. Your husband would not need to produce anything himself, the investigators would gather that evidence through their own...

When an altercation occurs at any correctional facility, including Halawa in Hawaii, both participants are typically removed from the general population and placed in the Special Housing Unit. That placement comes with immediate and significant restrictions on all privileges, including phone access. In the SHU, phone access is reduced to one 15-minute call per week. That is the standard allowance across virtually every correctional system and it applies regardless of which facility or state the inmate is in. One call, fifteen...