Family Services — Ask the Inmate
Incarceration affects every member of a family not just the person behind bars. Children, spouses, parents, and siblings all navigate their own version of the experience often without support or guidance. This section covers the full range of challenges families face including maintaining relationships through letters and calls, explaining incarceration to children, managing finances on a reduced income, navigating the visitation process, supporting a loved one through the emotional difficulty of incarceration, and preparing for reentry together. The questions answered here come from real families in real situations, parents who have not heard from their son in weeks, spouses managing alone, children trying to understand where their parent went. InmateAid was built by someone who experienced both sides of this equation and the guidance here reflects that understanding. Families are not bystanders in this process. They are essential to their loved one's success both inside and after release. See also our sections on Visitation, Relationship Issues, and Send Inmate Mail.
Related InmateAid Services
Yes, many correctional facilities now provide inmates with tablets and some of those tablets include a messaging function that works similarly to texting. However there are important limitations to understand before you expect this to work smoothly. First not every facility offers tablets. Availability varies widely by facility type, state, and the contracted technology provider. Federal facilities use TRULINCS for electronic messaging while many state and county facilities use platforms like JPay or GTL's ConnectNetwork. If tablets are available
Read moreYou can call/write the prison and tell them you need a document notarized. They have procedures in place to help you get that document signed. If that fails, you can send the POA to the inmate via snail mail and wait for them to return it to you.
Read moreit depends on the case current load in that jurisdiction. they will be thorough visiting the home, etc, which could take weeks at a minimum.
Read moreYes, they use the InmateAid office address - the mail comes in and is scanned and placed into your My Account Dashboard. This serves to protect the user on several fronts. If you mail into the prison/jail with a return address, and you want your inmate to know your address, it's best to put it in the body of the letter and not the return address. Other inmates use that sort of detail to extort, blackmail or otherwise menace good folks
Read moreInmates are not eligible for any government assistance including Social Security and welfare. Since you are asking, if you attempt to collect on behalf of an incarcerated person there is a very good chance you will become an inmate, too.
Read moreYes, the mother cannot keep the baby in jail, BUT it is possible that she gets the baby when she gets out
Read moreyes, mail is sacred and all facilities allow it, even for indigent inmates (the facility will provide paper, envelopes and stamps)
Read moreThis is not impossible - keep trying
Read moreYes, we have hundreds and hundreds of inmate family and friends using the Service for the telephone discount, sending great selfies and many many magazine titles... keep connected through InmateAid
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