# The part of this site that does something Everything else here is a page you read. These four act on your behalf: they watch the Bureau, they carry a question out of a facility, and they collect the letters your lawyer asked for. **Two of them need no account at all.** Facility alerts and the inmate tracker take an email address and nothing else, and either one is running in about a minute. ## The four — Pick the one you came for No account Facility alerts ### Receive alerts when visiting stops One email when a facility you watch suspends visits, and one when it lifts. No account Inmate tracker ### Track inmate location An email when the BOP moves them, revises the release date, or lets them out. Free account Insider Mail ### Let them reach me through TRULINCS The person inside asks their own questions and gets answers back. You get a copy unless they ask otherwise. By request Vouch ### Track and manage character references Collect letters for a hearing, approve them, and download the set for your attorney. ### Facility alerts No account The visiting room closes without warning. The BOP (the federal Bureau of Prisons) publishes an operations level for every facility and changes it without telling anybody. People find out at the gate, after the drive, with the kids in the back. I check every facility every five minutes. Pick the places you care about and you get one email when a visiting suspension starts and one when it lifts. No newsletter, no drip sequence, nothing else, ever. The BOP also under-reports. Quiet means they have not said anything, not that nothing is happening. An email address is the whole signup. An account is only useful if you want the alerts sitting next to your other tools. ### Inmate tracker No account Transfers are how families find out late. The Bureau publishes where every federal inmate is and when they are due out. It does not tell you when that changes. Most people learn about a transfer from a phone call that stopped coming. Give me a register number and I read the locator once a day. You get an email when the facility changes, when the projected release date moves, or when the release date lands. Nothing on a quiet day. It is the same public data anybody can load at bop.gov, read on a schedule so you do not have to. It is not inside information, it is often days behind an actual move, and a projected release date is an estimate the Bureau revises. ### Insider Mail Free account The questions belong to the person inside. The person doing the time has the questions. You are the one with the browser. That gap is the whole problem, and what gets lost in it is the specific stuff: the thing their case manager (the staff who run your daily life) said, the number on their FSA credits (time off earned through programming) sheet, what actually happened on the unit last week. So they get an address of their own. You generate it here, you give it to them, and from then on they email me directly from TRULINCS (the inmate email/phone/money system, all monitored) without going through you. - **You generate an address.** It is dedicated to one person. Give it to that person only, never reuse it, and never let it get passed around. A shared address is how it becomes a problem at the facility. - **They add it as a contact in TRULINCS.** Same as any other contact they add. - **The Bureau approves it.** On their schedule, not mine. This part takes as long as it takes. - **They ask. I answer.** Same questions I answer by email from anybody else, and same price, which is nothing. - **You get a copy** , if you asked for one when you generated the address. ### Vouch By request Twenty people said they would write one. Six of them actually will. Three of those six will say what a great guy you are and nothing a judge can use. Two arrive the week after the deadline. You spend the worst month of your life chasing your own aunt for a Word document. Vouch is the tool for that month. You add the people, each one gets their own private link, and they write on the page with your instructions sitting next to them. You see who has started and who needs a nudge. Nobody makes an account. When it is done you download the approved letters as a single file and hand it to your attorney. It works the same for a bond hearing or a halfway house (the halfway house before release) decision. Same people, different ask. **This one is not on the free account.** I turn it on case by case, because what comes out of it goes in front of a judge and I would rather look at your situation first than hand out a login and hope. ## The rule — Their privacy comes first You can get a copy of every exchange that goes through Insider Mail. But if they ask me to keep one between us, I keep it between us, and you will not see that one. That is not negotiable and I am telling you upfront rather than after. They are the one serving the sentence. If the only way they will ask an honest question is knowing it does not get forwarded home, then that is the deal, and it is a better deal for both of you than them not asking. None of it is private from the Bureau either. TRULINCS messages are monitored like everything else that moves through it. [The TRULINCS rules, annotated](https://federalprisondude.com/resources/bop-program-statements/5265-13-trulincs-electronic-messaging). ## The cost — Free, and not a funnel The account is free, the address is free, the alerts are free, the tracking is free, and the answers are free. It is the same offer as emailing me from the outside, just pointed at the person who actually has the question. Vouch is the one exception. What I charge for is [a consult](https://federalprisondude.com/federal-prison-consultant), which is a different thing and a much smaller number of people. "You don't need to pay anyone for this" is still my most common answer, and it does not change because you made an account. If you want the honest version of how this industry works before you trust any of it, that is [over here](https://federalprisondude.com/resources/before-you-pay-anyone). ## Straight answers — What this is not - **Not a way to message your loved one.** Insider Mail is a way for them to reach me. Your own mail with them runs the way it always did. - **Not legal advice.** I did the time, I am not a lawyer, and when the answer is "ask your attorney" that is the answer you get. - **Not unlimited.** I run a finite number of TRULINCS addresses at a time. If I am out when you go to generate one, the page will say so, and emailing me usually opens more up. - **Not instant.** The Bureau's approval step is theirs, and I answer in the order received, usually within a couple of days. - **Not a tracking service for anybody you feel like looking up.** The locator is public, but I am not building you a surveillance tool. ## Getting started — About a minute, for two of them The alerts and the tracker want an email address and a confirmation click. There is no account at the end of it. The TRULINCS address is the one that needs you to sign up, because it generates something that belongs to 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=Insider%20Tools%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.