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

There is nothing easy about it, and anyone who tells you otherwise has not lived it from either side. Separation is painful in a way that is hard to describe to someone who has not experienced it. The uncertainty, the financial pressure, the social stigma, the loneliness of holidays and milestones passing without the person you love present, all of it accumulates. Time does help, but it does not make the weight disappear. What does help is staying connected in whatever ways...

All correspondence sent to the inmates has the InmateAid corporate address on it. We do not share your information whatsoever. Inmates do write back to our members via the Letters from Inmates service. The letters are received here and we scan them into your My Account area and then notify you by email that you have inmate mail. The cost to retrieve the letter is $1.49. If you include your address in the letter then the inmate would probably correspond...

The parole threshold dates are set by the judge in his Judgment and Commitment Order. If the inmate has already served 80% of their sentence, there were either no parole opportunities offered or they were denied. We know that the states offer 15% good time and if your inmate does indeed have a clean record, he might be within a year of being released to a halfway house. Of course, we are guessing because we do not have the benefit...

That depends on the facility. Some require that you fill out a visitation form that is sent into the national crime database (NCIC). Most if not all jails and prisons will nt allow a felon or former inmate to visit a current inmate without pre-approval for a special visit by the warden. There are other facilities that will allow a visit with your driver's license. You should call them directly to make sure you are in compliance before making the...

A parole violation hold is one of the most frustrating situations a family member can face from the outside, because the system has almost no obligation to explain itself while it plays out. Here is the reality. A parole hold carries no bond. There is no amount of money that gets someone out while a violation is being investigated or processed. Your friend sits until the system decides what happens next, and that timeline is entirely at the discretion of the...

Technically it may be possible, but practically speaking it is unlikely to get approved and probably not worth pursuing. Inmate marriage requests go through the warden's office and require administrative approval. Facilities are more inclined to accommodate marriage requests when the inmate is facing a long sentence and the union serves a meaningful purpose in terms of legal rights, visitation, or financial matters. When someone is a few months from walking out the door on work release, the facility's response is...