You can send short typed messages to someone held at Cook County Jail, a lot like texting or email. They read your message on a jail tablet and can write back. The service is called GettingOut, run by the company ViaPath. It is often the fastest way to reach someone inside.
The Sheriff's Office can read every message, both the ones you send and the ones you get back. Write as if a jail officer is reading over your shoulder.
It will not be delivered, and you will not get your 6 cents back.
Messages are not private. There is no way to mark a message as a lawyer message. Lawyers should not send legal advice this way, and family members should not discuss the case. Anything written can be read by jail staff.
Check inside the app. If photo sharing is turned on for Cook County, the app will show you the option and the price before you send. Paper photos can still be mailed (see our mail guide for the rules).
It is much faster. Mail at Cook County Jail is searched closely for drug-soaked paper, which can slow it down. Many families use messages for quick check-ins and letters for longer notes.
Prices and features on GettingOut can change. The app always shows what a message costs before you send it.
Address:
2700 South California
Chicago, IL 60608
Phone:
773-869-7100
Can inmates send and receive texts and emails?
How much does it cost for an inmate to use a text or email service?
Can inmates send and receive photos through their messaging system?
Can I send an inmate a link to a video to watch?
What device does an inmate use for texting and emailing?
What is the inmate text and email system used in the Cook County Jail - Department of Corrections?
What are the companies that provide electronic messaging services to jails and prisons?
How do I fund the inmate’s messaging system?
How often can an inmate text and email?
Can inmates text or email any time of the day or night?
Can an inmate email or text inmates in other jails or prisons?
Almost all jails and prisons have adopted or are adopting a messaging system which allows inmates to communicate with their friends and family using an electronic messaging system. It’s neither email nor text, it’s something in between.
The inmate and their contacts do not use their regular email accounts or phone numbers, but account numbers that are set up with the company providing the service.
All communication goes through them. Think of them as a middleman.
Once a contact of the inmate is approved, like the approval process a visitor goes through, an account is set up, using a credit or debit card to fund the account.
To start, the inmate’s contact can send a message that has a limit of so many characters, usually about one page of text.
The message is then reviewed by a computer that scans the message for certain keywords or phrases that are not allowed, almost like a censoring service. If the machine scanner finds problems with the message it sends the message to the Cook County Jail - Department of Corrections staff to review, and if they find no issues, will then forward it to the inmate’s account so that they can read it.
If there are problems with the message, it is possible the message will not be sent. The sender will be notified of the decision and will not get a refund.
Once the inmate receives the message, should the account holder have funded the account allowing replies, the inmate can respond with a similar length message.
The cost to use the electronic messaging service, which is like texting or emailing, costs between $0.50 and $1.00 per page; a page being about 500 characters.
Photos can be sent by the inmate’s outside contact, but not by the inmate due to security concerns. There is an extra cost, usually about $0.50 for each photo attached.
The photos must go through a security screening where nudity, violence and other things are checked before the photo can be delivered. If the photo is rejected, the sender will be notified, but no refund will be given.
The inmate does not have the ability to print out the photos that make it past the screening, but the photos will stay in their account so that they can view them at their leisure.
No. Because this service is a closed system, the Cook County Jail - Department of Corrections inmate has no access to the internet, thus the inmate will have no access to any links that you send them.
Yes, just as you can send text and photos, you can send a video message, or if not a message, then a video of your children or yourself. Every company has a limit on the length of the video, usually no more than one minute, and at a cost of approximately $2.00 to $3.00 per video.
The video will first be screened for any nudity, excessive vulgarity, violence, etc. If it is rejected on any of the grounds the sender will not be given a refund.
As with the policy of photos, the inmate cannot reciprocate. They cannot send videos of themselves or anything in jail.
The jails that contract with the electronic messaging service is given a certain number of kiosks within each unit for inmate use. Inmates can log on as they might with a public computer terminal.
In addition to the public terminal kiosks, inmates are given (or can rent) access to individual tablets like a bulky, almost indestructible ipad. These allow an inmate to use them to access your messages, photos and videos in a more private manner.
Should the inmate damage the tablet, they will be responsible for replacing it. The money will be deducted from their commissary account.
The electronic messaging system used by Cook County Jail - Department of Corrections, if available, can be found at the top of this page. If there is no information about the ability to text or email with an inmate, it is possible that this facility has recently changed companies or does not have this service available. Call 773-869-7100 to confirm.
This is a list of all the companies in the United States that work with jails and prisons, providing text and email messaging between inmates and their friends and families:
Access Corrections
CIDNET
City Tele Coin
Correct Pay
Corrlinks
Ctel
Edevo
Express Account
Gettingout
GTL
Homewav
IC Solutions
Inmate Canteen
Inmate Sales
JailATM
J Pay
NCIC
Paytel
Pigeonly
Prodigy Sales
Reliance
Securus
Smart Communications
TBE
Visitel
You fund the messaging service with credit and debit cards. All of them take Visa and MasterCard, most also take Discover, but only a few of them take American Express.
When available, there is no limit to the amount of texting and email that an inmate can have with their family and friends.
If an inmate has a rented tablet, then they can text any time of the day or night. However if they are limited to the use of a wall mounted kiosk terminal in their unit, they can only use it during the hours they are allowed off their bunks or out of their cells; usually 7:00AM to 10:00PM, excluding meals, head counts and shift changes.
No, inmates in jail are not allowed to communicate with inmates in other institutions. There is always a way to get around it, for example if one of the inmates has illegal access to a phone with an internet connection, but this would be the only way.