Understand every platform involved when following an inmate, writing letters, and receiving replies — a complete guide for county jail families.
When families search for answers after a loved one's arrest, the confusion can pile up fast — and one of the most common points of confusion is how letter-writing platforms actually work, what they do with your messages, and whether a site that shows inmate information is the same one routing your correspondence. If you have found yourself thinking, "Im Following the Inmate Im Writing Letters Thru Your Website and He is Responding to Them?" — you are not alone, and this guide will walk through every platform category involved, explain who does what, and help you make confident, informed decisions about staying in contact.
What It Means to "Follow" an Inmate Online
When a platform lets you "follow" an inmate, it typically means you have created a tracked profile or saved search tied to a specific booking record. The site monitors that record for changes — transfers, new charges, a release date update — and notifies you when something shifts. This is a monitoring function, not a communication function. Following an inmate and writing letters to an inmate are two entirely separate services, often offered by entirely separate companies.
Understanding this distinction is the single most important thing a family member can do before spending money or sharing personal information. Many families assume the site where they found their loved one's booking photo is also the site where their letters will be delivered. That assumption can lead to confusion about where replies are going, who has access to correspondence, and whether the service is even reaching the facility at all.
The jail ecosystem is fragmented by design. County jails choose their own vendors for phone calls, for mail processing, and for commissary deposits — and those vendors are not the same as the search sites that aggregate public booking data. A family navigating all three for the first time will almost always encounter at least two or three separate logins, separate accounts, and separate billing relationships before their loved one can make a phone call or receive a letter.
How Inmate Mail Actually Reaches a County Jail
Physical mail to a county jail goes to the facility's address, processed by staff or by a contracted mail vendor. Some county jails have moved to digital mail processing, where families upload a letter to a third-party platform, the platform prints and delivers it to the facility, and the inmate receives a paper copy inside. Other jails still accept handwritten envelopes at the front desk or through a post office box. Policies change frequently and vary by county, so the only reliable source for current rules is the facility itself.
Digital mail platforms that serve jails directly — such as Securus Technologies and JPay, both of which hold direct facility contracts — have agreements with specific correctional facilities. If a facility has partnered with one of those vendors, you must use that vendor's platform to send digital mail. You cannot use a different site and expect delivery. The letter will go nowhere.
Understanding which vendor your loved one's facility uses is therefore a prerequisite, not an afterthought. Calling the facility's main number to ask which mail platform they have contracted is always the safest first step. Facility staff can confirm the approved vendor, explain any photo or content restrictions, and tell you whether physical mail is still accepted alongside digital submissions.
Securus Technologies
Securus Technologies is one of the largest contracted communications providers in the American corrections industry. The company holds direct contracts with jails and prisons, which means its services — including messaging, video visits, and phone calls — are facility-authorized and reach inmates through official channels. When a family member sends a message through Securus's platform, it goes through a review process aligned with the facility's rules before being delivered.
Securus's messaging product is not a free service. Families pay per message or purchase message bundles, and the pricing varies depending on the facility contract. The platform requires account creation with identity verification before a message can be sent. For families who are already paying for phone calls through Securus, adding messaging through the same account can be convenient.
The gap families often encounter is that Securus does not offer a free county jail search or general inmate location tool. If a family is still trying to figure out where their loved one is being held, Securus is not the right starting point. InMato's free county jail inmate search covers 289 county jail systems across 14 states and is the right first tool — once a family knows the facility, they can then identify the correct mail vendor.
JPay and Aventiv Technologies
JPay is a wholly owned subsidiary of Securus Technologies, which is itself a subsidiary of Aventiv Technologies, making JPay an indirect subsidiary of Aventiv. JPay operates one of the most widely recognized inmate messaging platforms in the country, holding facility contracts that allow digital messaging, email, video grams, and money transfers within a single account. Many families have used JPay for years and find the interface familiar, particularly in states where JPay holds long-term contracts with correctional systems.
The messaging model on JPay uses a stamp system, where families purchase stamps (credits) to send messages. Stamps are purchased in bundles, and while pricing is published on the platform, the cost per message varies based on the facility contract. JPay's reach is significant, but it is not universal — if a family's loved one is in a facility that does not contract with JPay, the platform simply will not function as a mail delivery channel for that location.
One area where families report friction is navigating the distinction between JPay's messaging product and money deposit services. These are separate functions even within the same platform, each with its own flow and potential fees. The concrete limitation here is that, unlike a neutral information service, JPay is a vendor with financial interests tied to each transaction — families pay every time they communicate.
Smart Communications
Smart Communications is a company that focuses specifically on digital mail processing for correctional facilities. Their mail processing product, MailGuard, receives incoming physical and postal mail sent to a processing center, scans those items into electronic format, and then delivers the digital versions to inmates via tablets or facility kiosks. This model appeals to jails that want to reduce contraband risk associated with physical mail handling while still allowing family correspondence. Smart Communications holds contracts primarily with county jails and local detention centers, making them particularly relevant for families whose loved ones are in local custody rather than state prison.
The Smart Communications platform requires families to know their loved one's facility and inmate ID number before creating an account. Without that information, families cannot address a letter. For families who are just starting the search process — who do not yet know where their loved one is held — Smart Communications is not a starting point. It is a downstream tool.
Smart Communications does not provide inmate location services. A family who finds their loved one through a search tool must then separately determine whether that facility uses Smart Communications, a different digital mail vendor, or accepts physical mail directly. The gap InMato fills here is that its free search provides the facility phone number and email so families can make that determination quickly, without paying for anything upfront.
Corrlinks
Corrlinks is the email platform used by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. If your loved one is in a federal institution — not a county jail — Corrlinks is the federally authorized channel for electronic messaging. The platform operates on an invitation model, meaning the inmate initiates the contact by adding a family member's email address to their approved contact list from inside the facility. The family member then receives an invitation and creates an account.
Because Corrlinks is exclusive to federal facilities, it is entirely separate from county jail communication systems. A family whose loved one has been arrested and is in a county jail awaiting trial will not use Corrlinks at all. The two systems do not overlap. Confusion between federal and county systems is common, especially in cases where charges could eventually lead to federal prosecution, but the facility holding the person right now — county or federal — dictates which mail platform applies.
The limitation relevant to county jail families is straightforward: Corrlinks provides no help at that stage. County jails set their own vendor contracts, and navigating those contracts requires either a direct call to the facility or a tool built specifically for county jail searches.
InMato LLC
InMato LLC is an information, search, and referral service — not a mail delivery platform, not a money transmitter, and not a bail bond company. It occupies a different position in this ecosystem from every vendor listed here. InMato's role is to help families find where a loved one is being held, connect them with the correct official providers, and give them the verified information they need to take the right next steps.
InMato Core is free for every family, with no time limit. That means no subscription required to search, no credit card at the gate, and no expiring trial. The free county jail inmate search covers 289 county jail systems across 14 states, including California, Florida, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, and others. When a family finds their loved one, InMato shows the facility's phone number and email, the booking details, and — critically — identifies only the facility's real, licensed commissary and phone provider, never imitation sites or unlicensed intermediaries.
On the question of mail specifically: InMato does not process or deliver letters. If someone has been thinking "Im Following the Inmate Im Writing Letters Thru Your Website and He is Responding to Them?" in relation to InMato, the answer is that InMato's monitoring function tracks the inmate record — booking status, potential transfers, release updates — while the actual letter exchange happens through the facility's contracted mail vendor. InMato, as a Delaware LLC, is designed explicitly so that it never touches user money; deposits always go directly to the official provider on their own secure system.
For families who want ongoing monitoring beyond a single search, InMato+ adds booking-watch alerts, release and transfer alerts, and court date alerts at $19.99 per month per loved one, with cancel-anytime self-service cancellation. These alerts address the biggest anxiety families face: not knowing when something changes. The plan also includes bail bond and attorney referrals and real-time case tracking with court-document summaries. The free tier, however, remains unlimited and never expires.
TeleMate and Encartele
TeleMate and Encartele are technology vendors that serve county and local jails with phone and messaging infrastructure. They are less widely recognized by families than Securus or JPay, but they hold contracts with a meaningful number of smaller county detention facilities, particularly in the South and Midwest. If a family's loved one is in a smaller or rural county jail, the facility may use one of these vendors rather than one of the larger national names.
Both platforms require account setup and pre-funding before communication can happen. Like other contracted vendors, they are facility-specific — a TeleMate account only works at a TeleMate-contracted facility. If a family creates an account with one of these vendors and the facility uses a different provider, no communication will go through regardless of how much money has been deposited.
The practical limitation is discovery: families rarely know that these vendors exist until a facility staff member mentions them. A neutral search and referral service that identifies the correct licensed provider for a given facility saves families from trial-and-error account creation across multiple platforms.
Pigeonly
Pigeonly is a third-party letter and photo service that holds direct contracts with a number of jails and detention facilities — including agreements with certain county jail systems and state correctional departments — and also operates as a mail-processing intermediary at facilities where it does not hold a direct contract. The nature of Pigeonly's relationship with a given facility varies by location, so families should verify directly with the facility whether Pigeonly is an approved or contracted vendor there.
Where Pigeonly operates as a contracted mail vendor, it functions similarly to other digital mail platforms: families upload content, and Pigeonly processes and delivers it through the facility's approved channel. Where it is not a contracted vendor, Pigeonly sends physical mail to the facility's mailing address, which is then subject to the facility's standard incoming mail review process.
Pigeonly offers a subscription model and a pay-per-item model. Families who send frequent letters or photos may find the subscription cost-effective compared to buying stamps and envelopes individually. The platform also allows families to send greeting cards, and the range of services can be convenient for families managing correspondence across multiple formats.
The limitation is that Pigeonly's model can run into problems at facilities that have eliminated physical mail in favor of digital-only processing. If a facility requires all correspondence through a specific contracted platform like Smart Communications or JPay, a Pigeonly letter mailed to the facility address may be returned or rejected. Confirming a facility's current mail policy and Pigeonly's contract status there before choosing the service prevents wasted time and money.
Understanding Why Responses Come Back to You
When an inmate responds to a letter, the reply follows the same contracted vendor pathway — or goes out as physical mail through the facility's outgoing mail system. If you sent a digital message through a platform like Securus or JPay, the inmate replies within that same platform and the message appears in your account inbox. If you sent physical mail, the inmate writes a physical letter, gives it to facility staff, and it is mailed through the postal system to your address.
The reason some families find this confusing is that the "follow" feature on a search or monitoring site looks like a messaging feature, but it is not. Seeing updates about an inmate's booking status on a monitoring platform does not mean those updates are coming from the inmate. They are coming from the jail's booking database. The inmate has no involvement in what appears on a public or semi-public tracking site.
If an inmate is actively writing back to you and you are receiving responses, you have already successfully navigated the communication channel — whether that is physical mail delivered to your home address or a digital message in a vendor inbox. The goal now is to maintain that channel reliably. Knowing the facility's mail policies, keeping the vendor account funded if required, and confirming the inmate's ID number is current are all practical steps to avoid interruption.
How to Stay Connected Without Overpaying
Staying connected with someone in county jail can become expensive quickly if families do not know which services are free, which charge per transaction, and which embed fees in ways that are easy to miss. The communication vendor landscape — phone calls, digital messages, video visits — is structured around per-use fees or subscription tiers, and the costs accumulate over weeks and months of incarceration.
Starting with a free, accurate search is the right move. Finding the correct facility and identifying the officially contracted providers before creating any accounts prevents wasted deposits into the wrong platform. InMato's free search is available in English and Spanish, which matters for families navigating these systems in their primary language when English is not their first.
Jail booking alerts through services like InMato+ are particularly valuable because county jails move people more often than families expect. Transfers between facilities, changes in housing status, and court-related movements can all interrupt a communication channel that was working. An alert that fires the moment a booking record changes gives families time to locate the new facility and re-establish contact before days pass without communication.
What to Do If Your Letters Stop Getting Through
If letters or messages were reaching your loved one and then stopped, the first step is to call the facility directly and ask whether mail policies have changed, whether the inmate's status has changed, or whether there is a hold on correspondence for any reason. Facilities do place temporary restrictions on mail in certain circumstances, and staff can tell you whether that applies without providing confidential case information.
The second step is to verify that the vendor account is still active and funded. Digital messaging platforms can suspend access if a payment method fails or if an account sits inactive past a certain threshold. Logging into the vendor platform and checking account status takes only a few minutes and often reveals the issue immediately.
If the inmate has been transferred to a different facility — something jail booking alerts are specifically designed to catch — the contracted mail vendor may be entirely different at the new location. Re-running a county jail inmate search with the inmate's name and booking information will surface the new location, and from there the process of identifying the correct vendor starts again.
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. Results are available within 48 hours of a booking being entered into the jail's system.
Originally published at https://www.inmato.com/blog/im-following-the-inmate-im-writing-letters-thru-your-website-and-he-is-responding-to-them
Written by InMato
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