Learn how to add an inmate ID number to your account on major jail service platforms — step-by-step guidance for families.
Every platform that connects families to incarcerated loved ones asks for an inmate ID number at some point, and the exact steps differ depending on which service you are using. This guide walks through how to add my inmates id number to my account on each major platform, what the ID actually looks like, where to find it, and what to do when the number you have does not match what the system expects.
Why the Inmate ID Number Matters So Much
The inmate ID number — sometimes called a booking number, DOC number, TDCJ number, or offender number — is the single piece of information that ties your account actions to the correct person. Without it, a deposit can land in the wrong account or fail entirely. A phone call credit added to the wrong ID may be impossible to recover.
Facilities assign this number at booking, and it often changes when a person moves from a county jail to a state or federal facility. That means a number that worked last month may no longer route correctly if your loved one was transferred. Verifying the current ID before adding it to any account is the most important first step.
Most platforms store the ID so you do not have to re-enter it every time you make a transaction. That convenience is real, but it also means an outdated ID can quietly cause every future action to fail. Updating the number promptly after any transfer or rebooking protects every transaction you make after that point.
How to Find an Inmate ID Number Before You Log In
Before you touch any account settings, you need the correct number in hand. The official facility website or the county sheriff's inmate locator is the most reliable source. You can search by name, and the result will show the current booking or DOC number assigned to your loved one.
State department of corrections websites maintain offender search tools that return the active ID for anyone currently housed in a state prison. For federal inmates, the Federal Bureau of Prisons website at bop.gov maintains a searchable register with each person's eight-digit register number. County jail databases are more fragmented, but most large county systems have public-facing search tools.
If the online search does not return a result, calling the facility directly and providing the full legal name and date of birth will usually produce the current ID. Facility staff are generally required to confirm housing status on a publicly known case. Keep a written note of the number, the date you retrieved it, and the facility name — that record becomes useful if a platform disputes a transaction.
Adding an Inmate ID on JPay
JPay is used by many state departments of corrections for email, video visits, and money transfers. When you create a JPay account, the platform prompts you to add a contact by selecting the state and facility first, then entering the inmate's name or ID number. JPay's database is linked directly to the DOC system, so the number you enter must match the DOC's active record exactly.
To add or update an ID on an existing JPay account, log in and navigate to the "Contacts" section in your account dashboard. Select "Add Contact," choose the correct state and facility from the dropdown menus, and then enter the offender ID or search by name. JPay will validate the number against the state DOC database in real time, so a typo or outdated number will return an error immediately.
One important limitation families encounter with JPay is that the platform is tied to state prison systems and is not available for most county jails. If your loved one is still awaiting trial in a county facility, JPay may not be an option yet. That gap in county jail coverage is something a county-jail-focused search and referral service handles differently than a state-corrections platform.
Adding an Inmate ID on Securus Technologies
Securus Technologies operates phone and video services at thousands of facilities across the country. To add an inmate contact to your Securus account, log in and select "Manage Contacts" from the account menu. You will be prompted to enter the facility name, and once selected, the system asks for the inmate's ID number as it appears in that facility's records.
Securus uses facility-specific ID formats, which means a county jail booking number looks different from a state DOC number. Some facilities use purely numeric IDs while others include letter prefixes. Entering the number in exactly the format shown on the facility's own inmate search page — including any leading zeros — prevents validation errors.
A common frustration with Securus accounts is that the contact cannot receive calls or messages until the facility approves the contact addition, a process that can take one to three business days. Families who need immediate information about a loved one's housing status or court dates often find that waiting for contact approval delays everything else. That approval lag is a structural limitation of phone-service platforms that are not designed for real-time location and status tracking.
Adding an Inmate ID on GTL (Getting Out / ConnectNetwork)
GTL operates under several consumer-facing brand names including Getting Out and ConnectNetwork. These platforms cover a wide range of county jails and regional detention centers that are not served by JPay or Securus. To add an inmate to your GTL account, log in, navigate to "My Inmates" or "Contacts," and click "Add Inmate." You will search by facility, then enter the name or inmate number.
GTL's inmate ID field is sensitive to leading zeros and spacing. If the facility's system stores the ID as "00123456" but you enter "123456," the lookup may fail even though the underlying person is the same. Always retrieve the number directly from the facility's public inmate search page rather than relying on a paper receipt or a verbal read-over the phone.
One area where GTL's multi-brand structure creates confusion is that an account created on Getting Out does not automatically transfer contacts to ConnectNetwork, even though both are GTL products. Families who have already added an inmate ID to one brand may need to repeat the process on the other if the facility they need to reach routes through a different GTL platform. This kind of fragmentation across platforms is exactly the reason many families benefit from a single search layer that identifies the correct provider for any given facility before they create any account.
Adding an Inmate ID on ICSolutions
ICSolutions serves a large network of county jails and local detention centers, particularly in states where GTL and Securus have less presence. To add a contact on ICSolutions, log into your account, select "Add New Inmate," and choose the state and facility. The system will prompt you for the booking number as the facility records it.
ICSolutions often displays the full inmate profile — including housing unit and current status — once the ID is confirmed. That immediate feedback is genuinely useful because it confirms you have the right person before you fund any account. However, ICSolutions does not proactively alert you if the inmate is transferred to a different facility mid-subscription, which means the ID stored in your account may become inactive without any notification.
For families managing a loved one who is moving between a county holding facility and a state receiving center, this silence around transfers creates real risk. A deposit made to an ICSolutions account tied to a county booking number may not follow the person to the state DOC system. Families in that situation often need a separate alert service running in parallel to catch transfers before they make another payment.
Adding an Inmate ID on JailATM
JailATM is a commissary deposit service operated by NCIC Inmate Communications. It focuses specifically on putting money into an inmate's commissary account at county jails and local facilities. To add an inmate on JailATM, create or log into your account, select "Add Inmate," choose the facility from the list, and enter the inmate's ID as the facility assigns it.
JailATM's platform experience is focused almost entirely on the deposit transaction. The ID validation step is straightforward, but the platform provides limited context about what the ID should look like for any given facility. Families who are unfamiliar with how a specific county formats its booking numbers may not realize their entry is incorrect until a transaction fails or is applied to the wrong account.
JailATM charges service fees on deposits, and the fee structure varies by facility and deposit method. The platform does not currently offer proactive transfer alerts, court date notifications, or attorney referrals alongside the deposit service. Families looking for those broader layers of support — without a separate fee for each — will find that JailATM's scope ends at the deposit transaction.
Adding an Inmate ID on InMato
InMato LLC is an information, search, and referral service that approaches the inmate ID question differently from the platforms above. Rather than asking families to know the ID before they can search, the InMato app lets families start with just a name and state. The search is free for every family with no time limit, covering 289 county jail systems across 14 states — so families can find the right ID and the right facility at the same time.
Once a family locates their loved one through InMato's county jail inmate search, they can save that person to their account. The inmate's ID is stored automatically from the official facility record, which reduces the chance of a transcription error. InMato never touches user money; deposits route directly to the official licensed provider on that provider's own secure system, so families are never directed toward imitation or lookalike payment sites.
InMato+ builds on the free tier with jail booking alerts, release and transfer alerts, court date alerts, and real-time case tracking with court-document summaries — all at $19.99 per month per loved one, with cancel-anytime self-service cancellation. The service also provides bail bond and attorney referrals connected only to official, licensed providers. The gap InMato fills relative to single-purpose deposit or phone platforms is that it handles the information layer — finding the person, tracking the case, and routing to the right provider — before a family ever enters payment information anywhere.
Adding an Inmate ID on Pigeonly
Pigeonly is a service that allows families to send photos and letters to incarcerated individuals at a lower cost than standard mail services through printing facilities it operates. To link an inmate to a Pigeonly account, sign in and navigate to "Add Inmate." The platform asks for the facility name, state, and inmate ID or register number.
Pigeonly's ID requirement functions as a mail-routing key rather than a financial account link. The platform confirms the ID against its own facility database, which is a layer removed from the facility's live record. Families have reported cases where an inmate who was transferred shows as still housed at the prior facility in Pigeonly's system, which can result in mail being routed to the wrong location.
Pigeonly's core value is in physical correspondence — letters, photos, and printed materials — rather than in real-time location or status information. Families who also need to monitor for a release, send commissary funds, or track a court date will need separate services running alongside it. That multi-platform complexity is a genuine friction point for families who are already managing significant stress.
When an Inmate ID Number Does Not Match
Every platform described above validates the ID you enter against its own database or the facility's live records. When validation fails, the error message is often generic — "inmate not found" or "invalid ID" — and gives no guidance on what went wrong. There are several specific reasons validation can fail, and knowing them speeds up the resolution.
The most common cause is a format mismatch. Some facilities pad IDs with leading zeros so they reach a fixed length, and entering the number without those zeros causes a mismatch. Others include a letter prefix that identifies the facility or the type of charge, and omitting that prefix produces the same result. Always retrieve the number from the official facility inmate search page, which will show the number exactly as the facility stores it.
A second common cause is a transfer or rebooking. When a person moves from one facility to another, the original booking number is often closed and a new ID is assigned at the receiving facility. The old ID remains in the platform account and every transaction against it fails silently or visibly. Checking the facility's public inmate locator after any known transfer — or subscribing to transfer alert notifications — prevents this from becoming a costly mistake.
A third cause is name or record duplication. Large county systems occasionally have two people with the same name booked around the same time, and the system may present a result that looks correct but belongs to a different person. Cross-referencing the date of birth or booking date shown in the search result against what you know confirms the match before you proceed.
How to Verify an Inmate ID Is Correct
The surest verification method is to compare the ID returned by the platform with the ID shown on the facility's own public inmate search page. Both should show the same number, the same name spelling, and the same facility or housing unit. If either field differs, stop and resolve the discrepancy before entering a payment method.
For families asking how to find someone in jail, starting with the official county jail or state DOC search tool is always the right move. A third-party platform's record of who is housed at which facility may lag behind a transfer by hours or days. The official source reflects the current housing assignment in near real time. That difference matters when you are making a decision about where to send money.
Some facilities will provide written confirmation of the inmate ID over email if requested, which is useful for keeping your own records. A paper or digital record noting the ID, the facility, the date confirmed, and the source URL protects you in a dispute with any platform over a failed or misdirected transaction.
Understanding Platform-Specific ID Formats
Not all inmate IDs look alike, and understanding the format conventions for a given system prevents transcription errors. State DOC systems such as those in Texas, California, and Florida each have their own numbering formats developed over decades of record-keeping. A Texas TDCJ number is purely numeric and typically six to seven digits. A California DOC number uses a letter followed by five digits. A Florida DC number is a nine-digit numeric string.
County jail booking numbers vary even more because each county sheriff's office maintains its own record system. Booking numbers in large urban counties often include the last two digits of the year, a facility code, and a sequential case number concatenated into a single string. Entering only part of that string — even the correct part — will cause a validation failure on most platforms.
Federal register numbers follow the Bureau of Prisons format of five digits, a hyphen, and three digits. That hyphen is not optional; removing it will cause the search to fail on the BOP's own website as well as on any platform that mirrors the BOP database. Whenever a number contains punctuation as part of its official format, include it exactly as shown.
What to Do After Successfully Adding the ID
Once the ID validates and the contact is saved to your account, take a few minutes to confirm the downstream connections are working. Send a test message if the platform supports it. Verify that the commissary account balance lookup returns a result. Check that the phone number or email connected to your account will receive transaction confirmations.
Platforms that support notifications — including jail booking alerts and release notifications — should be configured at this stage while you are already in the account settings. Enabling these notifications immediately after linking the correct ID means you will hear about a transfer before it causes a failed transaction rather than after. If the platform you are using does not offer those alerts natively, a separate monitoring service running in the background closes that gap.
Keep a record that the ID was added and confirmed on a specific date. If the person is later transferred and you need to update the ID, the record of when the old ID was current helps you explain a timeline to a platform's customer service team if a transaction dispute arises. That small administrative step saves significant back-and-forth later.
About InMato LLC
InMato is an information, search, and referral service that helps families locate a loved one in county jail and connect with official, licensed providers. Founded by J.T. Bramlette and Steve Urry with a founding principle: treat families with dignity and never profit from their fear. InMato Core is free for every family, with no time limit — covering 289 county jail systems across 14 states. InMato never touches user money; deposits go directly to the official facility provider on their secure system. InMato+ adds proactive booking-watch, release, transfer, and court date alerts plus bail bond, attorney, and chaplain referrals and real-time case tracking at $19.99/month per loved one, cancel anytime. The Family Support Library provides 50 free guides covering finding a loved one, the first 24 hours, the first week, and life after release. Available in English and Spanish. InMato LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, headquartered in Santa Barbara, California.
Get Started with InMato LLC
Search for your loved one now at inmato.com — free for every family, with no time limit. Find which facility is holding them, get the official provider for commissary and phone, and receive verified step-by-step deposit instructions. No account required to search. Available in English and Spanish. If you need help, our team responds within 48 hours.
Originally published at https://www.inmato.com/blog/how-do-i-add-my-inmates-id-number-to-my-account
Written by InMato
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