For families

# When something goes wrong

Calls stop, letters come back, and nobody will tell you anything. Most of the time it is ordinary. Here is how to tell, and what to do when it is not.

Health

## Medical

This is where families feel most helpless, and there is more you can do than you think.

They request care by submitting a sick call request. If that is not producing results, ask for the Health Services Administrator by name and title. Above that sits the Clinical Director, then the warden, then the regional health services administrator.

Document everything: when they first reported symptoms, when they submitted requests, what they were told, what medication they are or are not receiving. **Dates and specifics move things. General concern does not.**

For a genuine emergency, call the institution and ask for the Captain or the Operations Lieutenant (a shift supervisor above the guards).

Gone quiet

## The sudden silence

If calls, messages, and mail stop without warning, the most common explanations are a disciplinary placement in the special housing unit (solitary), a facility-wide lockdown (everyone confined, movement stopped), or a transfer in progress.

The locator will eventually reflect a transfer. For the others, call the unit team. You may be told very little. That is normal and does not mean the worst.

A facility support group will have someone who can ask their loved one (the inmate, referred to by their people on the outside) to report back on your loved one's status.

Lockdowns are tracked here: [each facility's page](/resources/facilities) shows current operations, and [the alert service](/lockdown-alerts/subscribe) emails you when their facility locks down and when it comes back.

Moved

## Transfers

They can be moved with essentially no notice, to a facility far from you, for reasons that will not be explained. Their property may take weeks to catch up. Your visiting approval does not automatically transfer and may need to be redone.

The hardest call

## A death in the family

Notify the institution through the chaplain (staffer who runs religion and delivers bad news), who is the correct route and who handles this well. Furloughs (a rare temporary authorized absence) for funerals exist but are rarely granted; escorted trips are possible in limited circumstances and generally at family expense.

Tell them yourself, on a call, if you possibly can. Finding out through official channels is worse.

Keep reading — part 11 of 12

### [Your life](/for-families/guide/your-life)

The guides written for them are about surviving a defined period. Yours is not defined and nobody is checking on you.

**Need help with this? Just ask.**

These pages cover the general rules. Your situation has details they don't. Email me a question. **Answers are free** , and "you don't need to pay anyone for this" is my most common answer.

[josh@federalprisondude.com](mailto:josh@federalprisondude.com?subject=Family%20question)

I answer in the order received, usually within a couple of days. I have a day job. If your situation genuinely needs more than an email, I take a limited number of consults, so say so and we'll work it out.