Glossary
Commissary and corrections terms, explained
The words families hear when a loved one is in jail or prison, in plain English and with sources.
- Bail and Bond
- Money or a written promise to pay that lets a person leave jail before trial, as a guarantee they will return to court.
- Booking
- The intake process after an arrest, when staff record a person's details, take fingerprints and a photo, and store belongings.
- Care Package (Approved Vendor)
- Food, hygiene items or clothing that family orders for an incarcerated person, usually from an approved vendor's catalog.
- Commissary
- The store inside a jail or prison where incarcerated people buy food, hygiene items and other goods using money in their account.
- Commissary Markup
- The amount a commissary adds to an item's cost when it sets the price. Markups vary by state and contract.
- Commissary Spending Limit
- A cap on how much an incarcerated person can spend at commissary in a week or month, set by each facility or state.
- Cost of Incarceration Fee (Pay-to-Stay)
- A fee some states and counties charge people for their own time in jail or prison, such as room and board or medical costs.
- County Jail
- A local lockup run by a city or county that mostly holds people awaiting trial and people serving short sentences.
- DOC Number
- The ID number a state department of corrections assigns to each person it holds, used to look them up and identify them.
- Federal Prison (BOP)
- A prison run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which uses one set of national rules for money, messages and visits.
- Gate Money
- A small payment some prison systems give people at release to help cover travel, food or housing in the first days home.
- Indigent Status / Indigent Kit
- A status for incarcerated people with little or no money that can qualify them for basic free supplies, such as hygiene items.
- Inmate Locator
- An online search tool run by a prison system that shows where a person is held and other custody details.
- Inmate Trust Account
- The account a jail or prison keeps for each incarcerated person to hold money from family deposits and other sources.
- Inmate Welfare Fund
- A fund, often built from commissary profits, that a jail or prison uses for programs meant to benefit incarcerated people.
- Legal Financial Obligations (LFOs)
- Fines, fees, restitution and other charges a court attaches to a criminal case, which can follow a person after release.
- Lobby Kiosk Deposit
- A machine in a jail lobby where family can deposit cash or card payments into an incarcerated person's account, often for a fee.
- Money Order
- A prepaid paper payment that many prisons and jails accept by mail for account deposits instead of cash or personal checks.
- Pretrial Detention
- Being held in jail before trial, while a case is still open and before any conviction.
- Prison Wages
- The pay incarcerated people earn for prison jobs, often well under $1 an hour, and nothing at all for some jobs in some states.
- Reentry
- The return home from jail or prison, plus the programs that help people prepare for work and daily life after release.
- Register Number (BOP)
- The eight-digit ID number the Federal Bureau of Prisons gives each person in its custody, used for deposits and searches.
- Release Card (Prepaid Debit Card at Release)
- A prepaid debit card some facilities give people at release, loaded with the money left in their account. Fees may apply.
- Restitution
- Money a court orders a convicted person to pay a victim to cover losses such as medical bills, lost income or property damage.
- Site Commission
- A payment a vendor makes to a jail or prison, often a share of sales, in exchange for a contract.
- State Prison
- A facility run by a state department of corrections that holds people convicted and sentenced, usually for felonies.
- TRULINCS
- The federal prison system's electronic messaging service, which lets people in BOP custody send text-only messages to approved contacts.
- VINE (Custody Status Lookup)
- VINE is a free service that lets anyone check a person's custody status in local jails and sign up for alerts on changes.
- Visitation List (Approved Contacts)
- The list of people a facility has cleared to visit an incarcerated person. You usually must be on it before you can visit.
- Work Release
- A program that lets some people near the end of a sentence work paid jobs in the community while still in custody.