Corrlinks – How to send email to a Federal Inmate

Part 1: About CorrLinks

CorrLinks is a privately owned company established through a relationship between a Corrections Agency and ATG, an email based system that allows inmates who are unfortunately incarcerated in prison to communicate with their friends and families.

The company operates the Trust Fund Limited Inmate Computer System (TRULINCS) which allows friends and families to use the system and subscribe to the CorrLinks service, being a fee-based system inmates need to pay in order to send or receive mail.

Setting up an account is very convenient and once you are a part of our family sending and receiving mails from your loved ones will become your second nature.

Their products and Services integrate seamlessly to deliver security, financial value, and ease of operations for their valued customers. CorrLinks understand the communication barrier which is why they provide direct email access to federal inmates.

The CorrLinks email mailing system has been around for a few years now and encourage everyone to be a part of their family, they offer good rates in order to provide the financial saving for the family of an inmate, using CorrLinks is much more cost effective as it is much cheaper than using the phone by paying just $0.05 per minute inmates can use their services and messages can be printed at the cost of $0.15 per page.

Part 2: How to use CorrLinks

CorrLinks is one of the most effective ways to communicate with your loved ones, to get started you need to create an account which is quite a simple process.

The first thing you have to do is have an email address in order to login, after filling all the essential details you have to wait for 30-35 minutes for your account to be approved.

Once your account has been approved, you can start using their services and send or receive message to your inmate, all communications are monitored by the institute housing an inmate for security reasons so there can be a delay in your message.

With your account you can add inmates with whom you wish to communicate. CorrLinks request their customers to be careful with their messages as institutions house has the final authority for the delivery of messages after reviewing it.

How long does it take to receive CorrLinks messages?

Due to staff monitoring, messages to an inmate take around an hour to be delivered. Messages from an inmate to an outside contact take around 20 minutes to be delivered to an outside contact’s Corrlinks.com inbox.

if your messages are not delivered it might have been held up or rejected by the institution for security reasons and therefore fee will not be refunded as the fee charged by them is the cost of transporting the message to the facility. Their customers can pay for the services through Credit Cards which are password protected.

CorrLinks also offer a Text Message service which has been introduced keeping all generation and financial situations of families of an inmate who cannot afford or is not equipped to use email mailing system.

It allows messages to be sent and receive directly to phones using only messaging services and is compatible with the four carriers, which are AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint, you are required to enter a credit card to pay for the service.

Your inmate will send you message via the email service available at their institute which deliver on your phone in the form of text message, the system defaults to send only the first 150 characters of the message, however if the message is long you have an option to receive up to the first 1000 characters through 8 text messages.

Part 3: How much does CorrLinks cost?

Currently, Text Message Service is only for phones with the U.S number and only one number can be associated with the active CorrLinks account, therefore you can only text message inmates that have been established in your CorrLinks account. You can choose from the below mentioned package as per your requirement.

                     $6 per month

                     $12 for 3 months

                     $36 for 12 months

Please note you may incur charges for each message depending on your telephone carrier. Click on the link below in order to sign for this service.

CorrLinks believes in serving their customers to the best if you prefer to speak to one of our executives for any clarifications, click on the link below.

https://www.corrlinks.com/Help.aspx

Part 4: Frequently Asked Questions via CorrLinks.com:

1. How do I use CorrLinks?

You must sign-up by agreeing to the terms and conditions of usage and creating an account. If you’re communicating with an inmate at a subscribing state or county facility, you will also need to fund your account using a Mastercard or VISA credit card.

If you’re communicating with a federal inmate you will need to add inmates with the identification code sent to you by email.

With your account, you’ll be able to add inmates with whom you wish to communicate. You will need to know the inmate number to add them to your address book.

Once the inmate is added, you can compose and send a new message.

2. Is there a charge for using CorrLinks?

Charges for using this site are based upon agreements with Correctional agencies. This site does not charge the public for messages from/to inmates residing at facilities operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons or CoreCivic (CCA). The charge for messages from/to inmates residing at facilities operated by State DOC (Iowa, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Nevada and Oklahoma) and ICE facilities (Farmville) is per the rates approved by the respective agency.

3. When are messages delivered?

Messages are generally delivered by the institution staff at a time of their choosing.

4. Can my message be held up for delivery?

The institution staff have the final authority for delivery of any and all messages and may review it, hold it or reject it just like any other package or letter entering the institution.

5. If my message is rejected, do you refund the fee?

Just like any other letter mailed to the inmates at an institution, the fee to send a letter is the cost of transporting the message to the facility. If the institution rejects a letter, no fee will be refunded.

6. My loved one is no longer at the facility. Will you refund my balance?

Yes. If all inmates in your address book have been released from our subscribing institutions, you may request a cancellation of your account and a refund of your remaining balance. We will issue the refund to your credit card within 48 hours.

7. I can’t figure out this site. Can I call you for help?

Sorry, we keep the fees for users of this site low by providing online support only. The process to use this site is very simple – please see Question #1 – How do I use this site.

8. When will I be able to send messages to inmates at xyz institution?

We are working on adding facilities for friends and families to communicate with incarcerated loved ones but are not able to predict when a facility may be added. If your loved one is at a subscribing facility, you’ll be able to add them to your address book with the inmate number.

9. Are my messages monitored?

The institution housing an inmate determines its need for monitoring messages, letters and other communication. If desired, the institution may monitor any or all messages for any or all inmates. CorrLinks staff does not monitor your messages but may need to assist the institution in such monitoring from time to time.

10. I have forgotten my login and/or password. Can you reset it?

We have provided a self-reset tool for your user name and password that utilizes the questions and answers you provided at sign-up. Our staff does not reset user passwords, nor can provide a previously used username or password.

11. How will the charge appear on my credit card statement?

Credit card charges made on the CorrLinks web site will appear on your credit card statement as CorrLinks/AdvTecGrp.

12. How can I contact CorrLinks?

You can contact CorrLinks from Customer Support

13. Why do I see a $1.01 charge on my credit card statement?

Depending on your credit card provider, you may see a temporary $1.01 authorization charge on your statement. This authorization is processed by our credit card processor, to validate the account and is automatically removed within 3-4 business days.

14. I signed up for your service but never received my verification link, what happened?

Please check your spam folder to make sure that your email provider did not mark it as spam. Be sure to add web@corrlinks.com to your address book so that messages from CorrLinks don’t get flagged. If you still cannot find your link, click here to have it sent again.

15. I have already signed up and added one inmate to my account. Now the system won’t let me register another inmate as it says the ’email address is already in use’. What do I do?

Please follow these steps:

1. Login to www.corrlinks.com with your account (use Forgot My Password link if you don’t remember the password)
2. Click Account Management
3. Click Manage my inmate list
4. Select Federal Bureau of Prisons as the agency
5. Type in the ID code (not the register number )
6. Click Go

16. Is there anyway to alert my regular email when I have a message in CorrLinks?
    1. Login to www.corrlinks.com
    2. Click Account Management
    3. Click Manage My Inmate List
    4. Click the box under email alert next to the inmate’s name

Alerts will begin going to the email address under which you registered.

17. How do I send a message?

1: Login to the site at www.corrlinks.com
2: Click Mailbox
3: Click New Message
4: Where it says “Click to add recipients”, click the mouse and then place a check in the box next to the inmate’s name
5: Click Ok
6: Type in a subject and message
7: Click Send

18. Why does it say my inmate is unavailable?

Periodically, a correctional institution may restrict an inmate’s access to messaging. During those times, the inmate will be unavailable for you to contact. You will be notified when they are again available for messaging.

19. How do I unblock an inmate?

To unblock an inmate you must then send a written request to the institution to notify them that you would like the block removed. You can find the appropriate mailing address by visiting www.bop.gov. Once the block is removed the inmate will need to re-add your email to generate a new invitation to you with a new id code. When you get that log in to your Corrlinks account and add the id number.

20. Why am I being charged sales tax when I recharge my account?

Per Iowa Rule 701-18.20(1), CorrLinks.com is required to collect sales tax from Iowa customers.

21. It says I have unread messages but I can’t see them.

By default the inbox displays messages received in the last two weeks. To see all unread messages, click the “Unread Messages Only” checkbox. If you still don’t see messages, try deleting your temporary internet files.

22. Where can I find more information about CorrLinks Video Service?

We have created a YouTube channel with multiple videos to help navigate through the CorrLinks Video Service. You can watch them here.

23. What is Text Service?

The Text service allows CorrLinks emails to be sent and received directly to phones that do not have data plans and is currently only compatible with four carriers; Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T. Text service is an optional premium service and will require you to enter a credit card to make the payment(s). You will be required to enter your phone number and carrier on initial setup. Please note, a phone number can only be associated with one active CorrLinks account.
To use the Text service, the inmate must be a valid/active contact and all other rules pertaining to emailing inmate contacts will still apply.