JPay is a private company which partners with correctional facilities to give digital communication systems allowing incarcerated individuals and their loved ones to stay in touch. This facility offers a variety of services which offers loved ones to send money to those in correctional facilities. By the way, is it safe to use JPay? Well, this article will review JPay’s services and look at whether JPay is safe or not.
What Is JPay?
As their official website, JPay is a private company which works with correctional facilities at the federal, state, and county levels to give safe, reliable, and convenient services to friends and family members with loved ones in correctional facilities. Also, they offer payment solutions for the offenders, parolees, and probationers, and a support page to address inquiries.
How Does JPay Work?
JPay has some products under its portfolio. They include:
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- Sending Money
This service allows friends and family members to send money to incarcerated loved ones. Based on the JPay’s website, this service is available in 35 states across the country. - Making a Payment
This service is available to the offenders, those under parole, and individuals on probation to make their community corrections payments. Also, these payments could entail restitution, supervision, drug testing fees, and court costs. - Email
JPay’s email service allows friends and family members to send emails to loved ones in correctional facilities. The incarcerated individual will receive the email within 24 – 48 hours. Before passing on to the intended recipient, the emails are subject to inspection by staff at the correctional facility. You need a JPay account and virtual stamp to use this service. - Video Visitation
Through this service, you are able to talk to incarcerated loved one virtually, face to face, on your computer. To use this service, you must have a JPay account and buy a video visitation using your debit card. For note: this service is limited to half an hour. - Other Services
The service allows you to make a videogram, a 30-second video clip which you can attach to an eMessage and send to an incarcerated loved one. Also, the incarcerated individual could get a progress card, which is a prepaid MasterCard. The individual will receive the card upon release, and they are able to use it anywhere where MasterCard is accepted. At the time of release, all funds remaining in the individual’s account are added to this card.
- Sending Money
How Secure is JPay?
Also, the security of the devices has been called into question because several users managed to hack and steal 225,000, which they transferred to their own accounts. The company was asked to pay $6 million in fines as restitution to former prisoners after it was found guilty of forcing them to pay fees to access their money. This was related to progress cards, where people who got these progress cards had to pay fees to retrieve this money. To correct the issue, then JPay agreed to stop charging fees on prepaid debit cards available to the customers upon release.
So, Is It Safe to Use JPay?
Based on the research, there are some people who said that JPay is safe to use. However, there are also some people who said that JPay is not safe to use. In this case, you are able to prove it by yourself. Now, try using JPay’s services such as sending money or email to incarcerated loved one, and then see whether JPay is safe or not.
A bookworm and researcher especially related to law and citizenship education. I spend time every day in front of the internet and the campus library.