Jail commissary

According to the San Diego County Sheriff, inmates use their account for stationery, food items, reading glasses, hygiene products, and personal items. San Diego prices match what a regular convenience store charges. Cash the person had at arrest goes into the account, along with money family and friends deposit.

This inside store is called the canteen at some facilities. Canteen accounts at the Colorado Department of Corrections pay for food, clothing, hygiene products, and materials for communication. A commissary account, as the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office similarly defines it, is a pre-paid account you use for phone calls and food.

Weekly cutoff times and ordering schedules

An inmate can't just walk up to a counter at any time. For each cell block, the jail assigns specific order and delivery days. Clothing, snacks, writing supplies, and toiletries can be bought 1 time a week by each housing unit at the Fulton County Jail.

Your deposit has to clear ahead of the jail's cutoff time, because commissary runs on a weekly schedule. The Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center in South Carolina operates a cashless system in which every inmate holds a spending account. You must make the deposit before 8:00 a.m. Monday so the money is ready ahead of that week's canteen.

A payment that comes in after the deadline means your person has to wait for the following week's delivery. Call the jail first and find out the day their housing unit sends in orders.

Debt deductions and holds on accounts

Snacks and phone calls won't get every dollar you send. When an inmate owes fees from a previous stay, the facility takes its portion first. Normal collections for debts the inmate owes apply to any money you deposit, according to Commissary Deposit.

Some counties cap what they take out of each payment, which leaves the person with spending money. Salt Lake County allows up to 50% of new money added to an account to go toward balances owed to the jail. Under that rule, the jail collects on unpaid balances, and food and phone calls still get paid from the rest of your deposit.

Check with the booking desk about any unpaid balance your person has before sending a large deposit. Reading how to add money to inmate books also helps you prepare your payment details.

To stock the jail commissary and handle deposits from families, sheriffs and state prisons bring in private companies. Keefe Group, for instance, has served the correctional market exclusively since 1975. Facilities across the nation receive food, clothing, electronics, personal care products, technology, and telecommunications from it.

The choice of payment company isn't yours. Every detention system picks its own approved vendor. For Colorado state prisons, CorrectPay is the only deposit vendor, but California state prisons take deposits through GTL/ConnectNetwork, JPay, or Access Corrections. First, run an inmate lookup so you can identify the correct facility and the vendor assigned to it.

Ways to pay and when money posts

Family and friends can add money to a prisoner's account in person at the jail, by mail, or online. Most county jails set up a lobby kiosk at the visitor entrance. To add money at a lobby kiosk, an ATM-style machine, you feed in cash or swipe a card.

You'll pay a processing fee for online and kiosk transfers, but the money gets there faster than mail. Electronic transfers cost a fee in California's state prison system and reach the account in 1 to 3 days. Mailing a personal check, cashier's check, or money order to California's lockbox costs nothing.

Some vendor portals deal with more than just canteen funds. Access Corrections lets you look up your inmate and pay with a MasterCard or Visa card. From anywhere, you can make court-ordered payments and post bail on that same portal.

County jail rules for deposits

Every county sets its own walk-in rules and phone numbers. At Salt Lake County, you pay through ConnectNetwork at 888-988-4768 using site ID 143, or at the Metro Jail.

For commissary at Davidson County in Tennessee, use postal money orders or CorrectPay, JailATM, CashPayToday barcodes; phone accounts run through ICSolutions. Compare the deposit vendor setup at 4 other county jails:

You can't mail an inmate a box of snacks or clothes that you packed at home. To stop contraband, meaning banned items hidden in the mail, detention facilities block packages from home. State prisons in California, for example, don't let family members send packages straight to an inmate.

All packages must instead come through an authorized private vendor that the state or county approves in advance. You can bring specific items in person at only a few local jails. Orange County Corrections in Florida accepts approved property items brought to the Video Visitation Center. Phone your local jail before you drive over, since most facilities turn away bags dropped at the front desk.

Vendors approved for packages

If a facility allows gift boxes, you order through the jail's contracted package supplier. Salt Lake County lets you skip loading a jail commissary account and buy food on the Access Securepak website instead. The vendor then sends that food order directly to the prisoner at the jail. Families can use Access Securepak to send incarcerated loved ones name-brand food, clothing, and electronics.

Keefe Group's Access Securepak page says all orders get packed at secure processing centers so contraband stays out. Union Supply Direct is another major supplier, sending packages to inmates all over the United States since 1991. Except for music, Union Supply Direct ships every product the same day.

How to order a package

Each jail sets strict rules on how many items you may send and what products an inmate is allowed to receive. While you shop, vendor websites apply those rules so you don't purchase banned items. To send an approved package, follow these steps:

1. Choose your state and detention agency in the vendor's locator tool to see that facility's catalog.
2. Put items in your cart; Access Securepak's software enforces quantity limits there, and Union Supply Direct takes out anything the state hasn't approved.
3. At Access Securepak, place your order with pre-printed forms, online, or by phone.
4. Union Supply Direct lets you order by phone, by fax, by mail, or online.