• How Your Secure Instant Mail (SIM) Account Works
• How to Create a Secure Instant Mail Account
• How to Send an Electronic Letter, Electronic Funds Transfer, or Money Order to a Participating Facility
• How to View Electronic Reply Letters from Your Inmate

1. Your Secure Instant Mail account is funded by transferring money from your debit or credit card to your Secure Instant Mail account. Please note - there is a $2.00 credit card processing fee added to the transaction amount each time you transfer funds from your credit or debit card to your Secure Instant Mail account balance.

2. All transactions and related fees associated with this web site are deducted from your Secure Instant Mail account balance. This includes transactions such as:

Subscription - Only Florida DOC at this time.

Pay-As-You-Go - All other DOC facilities and all county jails.

* The type of service offered is determined by the Correctional Facility or County Jail you are sending to, not by Secure Instant Mail.

Highlights of Subscription Type Services Are:

1. Each Florida facility to which you wish to send requires a subscription package. Example - If you wish to send to three inmates at the same facility you need only one subscription package. If you wish to send to three inmates a three different Florida facilities, you will need three subscription packages, one for each facility.
2. Subscription Packages start on the first day of each month. If you configure your subscription to be automatically renewing, the first day of each month your Secure Instant Mail account balance will be charged the cost of the subscription, and your subscription will be renewed. If you have insufficient funds in your account to do this, we will charge your credit or debit card, in order to renew your subscription automatically. If we do have to charge your card, you will be charged the standard credit card processing fee (if any) at this time. We will only charge your credit card the absolute minimum amount required to renew your subscription.
3. If you use the entire allocation of letters or send just one letter, the cost is the same.
4. Each subscription-based facility in our network has the ability to define its own set of subscription plans, with different pricing and characteristics. For example, one facility might define its plans this way:
   • Bronze = 15 letters (the actual number of letters and price to be determined by the facility)
   • Silver = 25 letters (the actual number of letters and price to be determined by the facility)
   • Gold = 50 letters (the actual number of letters and price to be determined by the facility)
5. A subscription can be upgraded during the month to a larger subscription. If you wish to do this, you will only be charged the difference in cost for the subscription plans, and you will receive the difference in letters in return. For example, if you had previously purchased the Bronze subscription described above for $10, and wished to upgrade to the Silver subscription which might cost $15, you will be charged only $5 to upgrade to the Silver plan. In return you will receive 10 additional transactions, the difference between the Silver and Bronze plans.
6. It does not matter what date during the month you purchase your block of letters, all unused letters expire at midnight (U.S. Central Time) the last day of the month. There are no refunds, and no rollover or carryover to the following month.

Using your Secure Instant Mail account you can manage several different subscription plans and send as many Pay-As-You-Go letters, money orders and EFTs (where available) to whomever you want at any Federal Prison, State DOC, or County Jail in the United States. Subscription plans are only available at subscription-based facilities, and pay-as-you-go services are only available at non-subscription-based facilities. You can check here to tell what kind of payment plans are used for each of our partner facilities.

There are no restrictions on how many inmates or facilities you can send letters to with one account.

1. Please look at the Current Facilities listing and review the facilities, services, and pricing associated with each. All facilities that are not listed are "Print-and-Forward" only.

2. From the black band that runs through the web page (the menu bar), click on the Register tab.

3. The "Terms and Conditions" page will be displayed; read the Terms and Conditions, and if you agree to them, click on the "Accept" button, then click "Next".

4. On the "Personal Information" page, fill out all fields on the page. Your email address is your user name. Be sure this information is accurate and complete, as this information is used as your return address for all correspondence. Additionally, the address information you supply must also match the address information that your bank or credit card company has on file for you.

5. On the "Credit Card" information page, please provide your credit card information. A $2.00 processing fee will be added to every credit card transaction.

6. When you complete your account creation, an email will be sent to you containing a temporary password. Copy-Paste this temporary password to log-in and complete your registration process. Unfortunately, many messages sent by our automated systems are flagged as 'spam' by most email providers. Please search your 'spam', 'junk mail', or 'bulk' mail folders or files for messages from 4inmates.com. When you find this correspondence, please mark it as 'not spam' (or 'not junk') so that future correspondence from us will go straight to your in-box.

7. Return to Secure Instant Mail, click on the 'login' tab.

Username: is your email address

Password: copy-paste the password that was emailed to you.

You should change your password to one of your own choosing after you log in the first time. Do this by clicking on the "change password" link on the right side of the "Member Profile" page.

1. From the Secure Instant Mail home page, log-in to Secure Instant Mail.

2. The Member Profile page will be displayed. From the black menu bar on this page you may choose from several functions. To send an Electronic Letter, EFT or Money Order, click on the Mail menu tab and select 'Send Mail / Money'.

3. From the 'Choose State' screen, select the state in which the facility to which you wish to send is located. Click 'Next'.

4. From the 'Choose Facility' screen, select the facility to which you wish to send. Click 'Next'.

5. Verify that the displayed address for the facility is correct, and click 'Next'.

6. Enter the name, ID, and housing information (if known) for the inmate to whom you wish to send. If this institution provides us with housing information, you will be presented with a drop-down box from which to select your inmate. Click 'Next'.

7. The next screen prompts you to indicate whether you would like to send a letter. If you are not sending a letter, skip to instruction number 9.

8. On the 'Send a Letter' page, use the text box to create your letter. (You may also copy-paste from a word document or from the internet). For a page count click the 'Calculate Pages' button. Helpful hint: When typing a longer letter, or if you have to leave your computer unattended, refresh the page every 30 to 40 minutes by clicking on the 'Calculate Pages' button. Otherwise your internet session will 'time-out' (be lost) and you will be disconnected from the server, and your partially finished letter will be lost.

9. The next screen prompts you to indicate whether you would like to send funds to your inmate. If you do not wish to send funds, skip to instruction 11.

10. Enter the amount to send to your inmate, and click next. Take notice of the fees that will be charged against your account for this service, as well as the means by which funds are sent (some facilities allow us to send funds electronically; most others allow money orders).

11. The next screen is for optional services. If you wish to receive an email when your letter is printed at the facility, click 'Yes' next to 'Email Me When This Letter is Printed'. If the facility permits it and you wish to purchase prepaid electronic reply letters, which your loved one can use to respond to your letter electronically, click 'Yes' next to 'Purchase Prepaid Electronic Reply Letters' and indicate the number of return pages you wish to send.

12. The next screen shows the details and costs for the services you have requested. Please review your transaction, and if correct, click 'Authorize Transaction'. Note that if you have insufficient funds in your account, you will first be prompted to add more money to your account. Upon doing so you will then be returned to this page in order to complete and authorize the transaction.

Important Note: the services and pricing varies for each facility. Please consult our list of facilities here to determine which services are available at your facility.

Important Note: if you do not authorize the transaction on the final page, your letter and/or funds will not be sent, and you will not be charged anything.

1. Be sure that you have sent an electronic letter to a facility that supports electronic return reply letters.

2. Electronic Reply' letters are delivered along with your incoming electronic letter to your loved one. At his or her leisure, your loved one hand writes an 'Electronic Reply' on the supplied pages. When complete, he or she returns the letter to the mailroom. The mailroom worker scans the pages, which contain a special code which links to the purchaser of each return letter. The hand written letters are scanned by the mailroom staff, uploaded to our Secure Instant Mail server, and are made available for viewing anytime you are logged on to your Secure Instant Mail account. The special code is used only once to ensure that you are the only one will view the letter. You will receive an email notification from us indicating that you have a new return letter available for viewing.

3. Click on the link in that email to go to Secure Instant Mail.

4. At the Secure Instant Mail log-in page, enter your user name (email address) and password.

5. Go to the 'Mail' tab on the black menu bar, and select 'Read Mail' from that menu.

6. You will see who sent you the letter, when it was purchased, and an information link.

7. You will see a jpg link, click on the jpg link, and your 'Electronic Reply' letter will be displayed for your viewing.

8. All of your 'Electronic Reply' letters will be saved on our server and will not be deleted. However, you may print your letter if you wish.

Important Note: email from our automated systems is often marked as spam or junk mail by internet mail providers. If you believe you are not receiving your email notifications, please search through your bulk, junk, or spam mail for messages from 4inmates.com Mark correspondence from 4inmates.com as 'not spam' so that our messages will be found in your inbox.