In addition to providing inmate messaging service, JailATM also allows inmates to have their financial account—funds can be made by their family or friends. They can then use their deposit to purchase their needs, such as snacks, clothes, toiletries, or commissary packages.
After making a deposit to your incarcerated loved one’s account, you are also allowed to check the inmate account balance and view your transaction history to see if your transaction was successful. To learn how to do so, you can dive into our post below!
How to Check Inmate Account Balance on JailATM?
Information on the balance of an inmate’s account is sometimes needed to know when a deposit will be made. However, a deposit will not be made if an inmate’s account is already funded with a maximum of $300.00 per week—preventing money laundering acts that may occur in the inmate’s account. Note: The deposit limit may vary depending on the facility.
Unfortunately, JailATM does not provide a direct way to check an inmate’s account balance through their system, due to privacy issues. They cannot disclose any account activity of inmates.
You can instead contact the correctional facility where the inmate you’re looking for is housed. Because of the inmate’s protection, the facility has the authority to provide or withhold inmate account balance information.
If you want to make a deposit to an inmate’s account but you’re afraid your transaction will fail since his/her account has reached the limit, no worries! You may need to try sending an email to ask him/her to provide information on account balance. If the account has not yet reached its limit, you can then make a deposit through JailATM website.
When making a deposit, you will need to pay a certain amount that will be displayed after searching for the inmate. Of course, the amount of the fee will vary depending on the facility.
How to View Transaction History on JailATM?
Since most deposits you’ve made on JailATM may arrive within 24-48 hours of processing, you may want to view your transaction history to check if your transaction was successful. If you find that your transaction fails or your deposit is missing, you may have to contact the facility immediately to check it.
To check your transaction history, you can go to the “Deposit/Charge” section. This will show you a list of transactions you’ve made for the inmates. It also includes deposits into an inmate’s commissary account and commissary orders.
Here’s how to check your transaction history on JailATM!
- First, you need to access the JailATM website.
- Once you’re at the JailATM homepage, you need to sign into your account by entering your email address and password. Click “Login“.
- After logging in, you can click the “My Account” section located at the top right corner of the screen.
- In the “My Account” section, you will find a number of menus that contain the information you need.
- To see your transaction history, you need to click “Tasks.”
- From the drop-down menu, you can choose the “Deposit/ Charge History” option.
- By clicking it, the screen will show you the list of your transactions you’ve made both last or most recent.
- From the status list, you can see whether your transaction succeeded or failed. It also shows you if an inmate has received your deposit or if it is still transmitting.
That’s how to check your transaction history to know if it was successful, especially after you’ve made a deposit to an inmate’s account.
Why Do Your Transactions Fail?
Your transactions may fail due to several reasons, including:
- Invalid card: Before making a transaction, you may need to choose the drop-down menu Accepted Payment Methods to see the list of all card types they accept.
- Cash Advance Transactions: JailATM only proceeds all deposits as a cash advance transaction. If you use prepaid cards, your transaction is sure to fail.
- Back Declines: Your cards may be declined by the bank that issues them. To be sure, you can contact your financial institution to determine the cause of the transaction’s failure.
If you’re dealing with a failed transaction on JailATM, you can try to submit a form to the JailATM team by filling out the form here.
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.
