How CorrLinks Works: A Plain-English Guide for Families

The short version:CorrLinks and TRULINCS are part of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ inmate messaging network. Messaging is email-style, your loved one uses it at a computer terminal inside the facility, and contacts have to be approved before messages can go through. Everything else — timing, monitoring, what’s allowed — can vary by facility.

The moving parts

• The inmate’s terminal.TRULINCS — the Trust Fund Limited Inmate Computer System — runs on computer terminals inside federal facilities. Your loved one reads and writes messages there. It isn’t an app, and it doesn’t run on a personal phone.
• The approved contact list. BOP regulations require your loved one to add you as an approved contact before messages will go through. Exact contact-list limits and review timelines can vary by facility.
• Facility oversight. Federal institutions may monitor or restrict inmate communications, and the rules and timing can differ from one facility to another.

How a message travels, step by step

1. You write a message.With official CorrLinks that’s an email-style message; with ContactMeAsap it’s a regular text from your own phone.
2. It goes to an approved contact.If you haven’t been added to your loved one’s approved contact list yet, messages can’t go through.
3. It enters the TRULINCS network.Here it may be monitored or subject to facility review. How long that takes can vary by facility — anywhere from minutes to days.
4. Your loved one reads it. They see it at a terminal inside the facility, when they have access to one.
5. Their reply makes the same trip back. With ContactMeAsap, the reply arrives on your phone as an ordinary text message.

Why it doesn’t feel like texting

A normal text is real-time: you send it and it lands on the other person’s phone. CorrLinks-style messaging isn’t built that way. It’s email-based, it’s read at a terminal rather than carried in a pocket, and it can pass through facility review. That’s why messages can take longer than you’d expect and why replies don’t always come right away. ContactMeAsap changes the family side of the experience — you text from your phone — but the federal-system side still applies, so timing can still vary. More on that in how long CorrLinks messages take.

What families can do to keep things smooth

• Ask your loved one to add you to their approved contact list as soon as they have your information.
• Make sure the contact details they enter match exactly what you were given.
• Remember that communications may be monitored, and keep messages within the facility’s rules.
• Allow for review time before assuming something is wrong. If messages still aren’t arriving, work through our not-receiving-messages checklist.

Where ContactMeAsap fits in

ContactMeAsap is an independent service that connects to the CorrLinks/TRULINCS network so you can use ordinary text messages. We add your contact email to your inmate’s TRULINCS account, your inmate “text approves” you, and replies come back to your phone as normal texts — you don’t need to manage a CorrLinks account of your own. Read more in CorrLinks text messaging, or see TRULINCS and Corrlinks Explained for a deeper look at the terminology.

ContactMeAsap serves the federal system. State prisons and county jails typically use their own separate inmate communication platforms, so check with the facility if your loved one isn’t in federal custody.

More CorrLinks help

• CorrLinks: texting, how it works & help— the full guide hub
• CorrLinks phone number — is there one, and what to text instead
• CorrLinks not receiving messages? — common causes and what to check