What Can You Buy on Jail Commissary: A Complete List by Category

01

Families trying to support a loved one in county jail often hit a wall of confusion the moment they start asking practical questions. One of the most common is simply: what can they actually buy in there? Understanding What Can You Buy on Jail Commissary: A Complete List by Category takes the guesswork out of one of the few ways you can meaningfully support someone who is incarcerated, and knowing the categories helps you decide how much to send, when to send it, and how.

02Why Commissary Matters More Than Most People Realize

Commissary is not a luxury program. For most people in county jail, it is the only way to supplement state-issued meals, maintain basic hygiene beyond what the facility provides, and stay connected to the outside world through phone credits or writing supplies.

County jails typically issue minimal supplies on intake: a toothbrush, a small bar of soap, perhaps a single-use razor. After that, anything additional comes from commissary. A family that understands the system can make sure a loved one has what they need during a period that is already disorienting and stressful.

Commissary access also carries real social weight inside a facility. Someone without enough funds may be unable to make phone calls, which cuts off contact with attorneys and family alike. Keeping a commissary account funded is one of the most direct acts of care a family can provide.

03How Commissary Ordering Works

Most county jails operate commissary as a weekly or biweekly ordering cycle. An incarcerated person submits a paper or kiosk-based order form during a designated window, and the items are delivered to their housing unit — often in a mesh bag — within a day or two of the order cutoff.

Spending limits vary by facility. Some jails cap weekly purchases at $50 to $75. Others allow up to $150 or more. Items are priced at or above retail to cover the cost of running the commissary operation, so a bag of chips or a ramen noodle packet that costs fifty cents at a grocery store may be priced at two or three times that inside the facility.

Orders are drawn directly from the incarcerated person's trust account, which is the internal financial account the jail maintains on their behalf. Families fund that account by making a jail commissary deposit through an official provider — sometimes a third-party vendor like JPay or Access Corrections, sometimes the facility itself. Knowing the right provider matters because lookalike websites exist that mimic official providers and charge fees without actually delivering funds.

04Category One: Food and Snacks

Food is consistently the most purchased commissary category, and for good reason. Institutional meals in county jails are nutritionally sufficient by law but often calorie-light and monotonous. Most people in jail are hungry much of the time, and commissary food fills that gap.

Snack items are the backbone of the food category. Ramen noodle soups are the most iconic commissary item in American jails and prisons — cheap, calorie-dense, and versatile. Packaged chips, crackers, cookies, pork rinds, and corn nuts are also standard offerings. These items are easy to store in a cell and do not require any preparation beyond eating them as-is.

Protein items show up in most commissary lists as well. Canned or pouch-format tuna, salmon, mackerel, and chicken are popular because they provide protein without refrigeration. Beef jerky, hard salami, and summer sausage appear in many facilities. Peanut butter — in single-serve squeeze pouches rather than glass jars — is a common high-calorie staple.

Sweet items include a wide range of candy bars, hard candies, gummy candies, and honey buns. Instant oatmeal, granola bars, and breakfast pastries round out the breakfast-adjacent offerings. Many jails also stock shelf-stable drink mixes: powdered lemonade, iced tea, instant coffee, and hot cocoa packets. These beverages are a significant quality-of-life item for people who find the institutional coffee or water unpalatable.

05Category Two: Hygiene and Personal Care

The hygiene category is the second most important for most people in county jail. Facility-issued hygiene is minimal, and many people want to maintain a sense of personal dignity through their own grooming products.

Soap is universally available on commissary, usually in bar form or occasionally as body wash in small bottles. Shampoo and conditioner are common offerings, though brand selection is limited. Deodorant — typically a stick format rather than aerosol, because aerosol products are a security concern — is on virtually every commissary list in the country.

Dental care is a consistent category. Toothpaste, toothbrushes, and dental floss are widely available. Some facilities carry mouthwash in small bottles, though alcohol-free formulas only. Feminine hygiene products are available in most co-ed and women's facilities, though advocates have long noted that access is inconsistent and sometimes inadequate.

Skin and hair care items vary more by facility. Lotion, lip balm, and petroleum jelly appear in many commissary catalogs. Some jails stock hair grease or pomade for people with textured hair. Razors — usually the single-blade, institution-style disposable type — are sold individually or in small packs. Nail clippers appear in some facilities; others prohibit them for security reasons.

06Category Three: Clothing and Bedding

Clothing commissary availability depends heavily on the individual facility. Some county jails issue all clothing and prohibit personal purchases entirely. Others allow limited clothing purchases to supplement what the facility provides.

Where clothing is available, the typical options include white T-shirts, underwear, and socks. These items wear out and are not always replaced promptly by the facility, so having the ability to buy a replacement pair of socks or an extra shirt matters. Thermal underlayers sometimes appear on commissary lists in colder states or during winter months.

Shower shoes — foam or rubber slip-on sandals — are one of the most practically important clothing items on commissary. Walking barefoot in communal showers in a jail setting carries real hygiene risks. Shower shoes are inexpensive and widely available on most commissary lists.

Bedding upgrades sometimes appear on commissary as well. An extra blanket or a thin foam mattress pad can be purchased at some facilities, which matters enormously for someone sleeping on a thin institutional mattress. These items tend to be among the higher-cost commissary purchases.

07Category Four: Writing and Reading Materials

Staying mentally engaged and connected to the outside world is a documented factor in how well people manage long stays in county jail. The commissary writing and reading category supports both of those needs.

Stamped envelopes are one of the most-purchased items in this category. Pre-stamped envelopes allow someone to write letters without needing to request a stamp from staff, which can involve delays. Writing pads or composition notebooks are also widely available, as are pens — though jails typically require flexible-body pens rather than rigid ones for safety reasons.

Books and magazines sometimes appear on commissary lists, though many facilities channel book access through a facility library or donation program rather than commissary purchase. Word search, crossword puzzle, and Sudoku booklets appear in many commissary catalogs as an inexpensive entertainment option.

Some facilities sell postcard packs or holiday greeting cards on commissary, giving people a way to send something more personal than a plain letter. Envelopes with transparent windows are sometimes sold to allow drawings or photos to show through — a way for parents to share artwork from children at home.

08Category Five: Electronics and Communication

Electronics available on commissary are strictly limited by security requirements, but this category has grown significantly over the past decade as jails have adopted tablet programs and kiosk-based communication systems.

The most universally available electronic item is the personal radio with earbuds. AM/FM radios in clear plastic housing — designed so there is nowhere to hide contraband — are sold on commissary at most county jails. Access to radio breaks the monotony of confinement and keeps people connected to news and music from the outside world.

Tablets are now available on commissary or through a separate tablet rental program at a growing number of county jail systems. These devices typically provide access to music, e-books, educational content, and a messaging system — though not open internet access. Tablet programs are usually managed by companies like Securus or GTL, and some facilities bundle tablet costs into their commissary vendor arrangement.

Phone credits are technically a separate account from commissary at many facilities, but some jail systems handle phone credit purchases through the same commissary order process. The ability to make phone calls depends entirely on having funds in this account. For families wondering how to find someone in jail or ensure contact is maintained, keeping phone credits funded is as important as food or hygiene.

09Category Six: Health and Over-the-Counter Medications

Over-the-counter medications and health items occupy a meaningful portion of commissary catalogs at most county jails. The facility provides medical care, but access to a nurse or doctor for minor complaints can involve a wait of days.

Pain relievers are the most common OTC purchase: ibuprofen and acetaminophen are widely available. Antacids are nearly universal, given that institutional food is not always gentle on the digestive system. Cough drops and throat lozenges appear in most catalogs, particularly during cold and flu season.

Vitamin supplements — typically a basic multivitamin — are available at many facilities. Some commissary lists include vitamin C packets, B-complex vitamins, or electrolyte powders. These items matter for people serving longer sentences who are concerned about nutritional gaps in the institutional diet.

Eye drops, antihistamines, and sleep aids appear less consistently but are present at many facilities. Commissary health items never substitute for actual medical care, but they give people a way to manage minor discomfort without waiting for a sick-call appointment.

10Category Seven: Miscellaneous and Facility-Specific Items

Every county jail commissary operates somewhat differently, and there is a category of items that appears at some facilities but not others, depending on policy, security level, and the population served.

Typewriter correction tape, playing cards, and dominoes appear at some facilities as recreation items. Crossword dictionaries and small reference books are available at others. Some jails sell instant soups or noodle bowls that require hot water, while others prohibit these because they require access to boiling water, which is a safety concern.

Greeting card services — where a family member can pay to have a card printed and delivered through a vendor service — are growing in availability. Facilities with photo programs sometimes allow families to order printed photos through a commissary-adjacent vendor, which are then delivered to the incarcerated person's housing unit.

Religious items, including small prayer books and rosaries, occasionally appear on commissary or are made available through the chaplain program. The specific inventory at any single facility is managed by the commissary vendor and is subject to change, so checking the actual commissary list for the specific jail is always the best approach.

11How Families Can Support a Loved One Through Commissary

Understanding the categories is step one. The practical question families face is how to get money into the account that funds these purchases. The answer starts with identifying which facility is holding their loved one and which vendor manages that facility's trust account deposits.

This is where errors happen. Families searching online for "send money to someone in jail" or "jail commissary deposit" often land on unofficial sites that charge high fees and may not reliably deliver funds to the correct account. Using the official provider — the one the facility actually works with — is essential.

A county jail inmate search is the first step for many families who are not entirely sure where their loved one has been transferred. Booking information can change quickly in the first 24 to 48 hours, and people are sometimes moved between facilities without advance notice.

InMato LLC was built specifically to solve this problem. As an information, search, and referral service, InMato helps families locate a loved one and then connects them with the official, licensed commissary and phone deposit providers for that specific facility. InMato never holds or processes user money — deposits go directly to the official provider. Families asking "is InMato legit" can verify that InMato LLC is a Delaware limited liability company operating strictly as a referral and information service, not a payment processor or money handler.

12Comparing the Tools Families Use to Navigate Jail Commissary

Several services and platforms have emerged to help families navigate jail systems, and understanding how they differ helps families make informed decisions when time is short.

GTL (now Aventiv Technologies) is one of the largest providers in the corrections communications space. They manage commissary, phone, and tablet services for a significant number of county jails across the country. For families whose loved one is held in a facility where GTL is the vendor, the GTL platform is the official way to deposit funds. GTL does charge fees on deposits that vary by transaction and state, and the platform is specific to facilities in their network — families in a GTL facility have no alternative within that system.

JPay operates as the primary deposit and communication platform for a large portion of state correctional systems and some county jails. JPay is now owned by Securus Technologies and processes money transfers, email messaging, and video visitation within its network. For families looking to send money quickly, JPay is the established route in covered facilities. However, JPay's service is limited to its contracted facilities, and families must first know exactly which facility holds their loved one before they can use the platform correctly.

Access Corrections handles commissary deposits for a different segment of county jails and is most visible in states like Iowa, Mississippi, and parts of the Midwest. Families in these jurisdictions will be directed to Access Corrections when they ask facility staff how to add money to a trust account. The platform is functional but not always intuitive, and fees apply per transaction.

InMato LLC sits in the search layer before any of these deposit platforms — helping families run a county jail inmate search to confirm where their loved one is, then pointing them to the correct official vendor. The InMato app and the InMato website are free for every family with no time limit, covering 289 county jail systems across 14 states. Families do not need to know the facility in advance; InMato finds it. The gap these other platforms leave is the one InMato fills: they assume you already know where to look, while InMato helps you find out.

ICSolutions provides phone and video services to county jails and some state systems, with a focus on call management. They have a deposit mechanism for phone credit accounts specifically. Like the other vendors, ICSolutions is network-specific and requires families to know which facility they are funding before starting a transaction.

TigerCommissary is a commissary management vendor used by some smaller county jails. They handle the logistics of commissary ordering and delivery inside the facility. Families whose loved one is in a TigerCommissary facility may find the platform less familiar because it is not consumer-facing in the same way as JPay or GTL. Getting the correct deposit instructions from facility staff directly is important for TigerCommissary facilities. The broader challenge remains: families often find out mid-process that the site they trusted first was not the official provider, which is exactly the kind of confusion InMato's referral model is built to prevent.

13What Families Should Do First

Before funding a commissary account, confirm the facility. Before choosing a deposit method, verify the provider is the official one. Before assuming what your loved one can buy, check the specific commissary list for their facility, because lists vary widely.

If your loved one has just been booked, use a free county jail search tool to confirm which facility is holding them — booking data updates in the system within hours but sometimes takes up to 48 hours to appear. Setting up jail booking alerts can help families know immediately when a transfer or new booking occurs, which prevents missed communication windows.

Once the facility is confirmed, request or look up the current commissary list. Many county jails post this publicly on their website, or facility staff can provide it by phone. Knowing the categories and approximate costs helps families decide how much to deposit based on what their loved one actually needs.

14About 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.

15Get 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 delivered within 48 hours where live data is not immediately available.

Originally published at https://www.inmato.com/blog/what-can-you-buy-on-jail-commissary-a-complete-list-by-category

Written by InMato