I'm sorry for your pain. My daughter is an addict and in prison too. In the beginning we helped her buy shoes, basic needs. Now we send her $200 a month and she has learned to budget the money. She isn't allowed food days. I've ordered several magazine subscriptions for her. This gives her something to look forward to in the mail. It is very hard to be a concerned parent but not be an enabler to their addiction.
Peace be with you.

Tiffany,

I was in prison, so I know what goes on in there.

Sixty to one hundred dollars a month just for personal hygiene items and canteen snacks should be enough. Now if he buys some tennis shoes or sweat clothes on the canteen, that would be extra, but sixty to one hundred dollars should be enough.

I also am not including the money for phone calls. I don't know how they do it now, but when I was in prison the inmate never put money on his books for phone calls. The phone calls were charged to his family's phone bill. They may do it differently now.

I know my friend says she sends $200 a month. Unless a lot of it is spent on clothes, that is a lot of money in prison. I spent about a hundred dollars a month and I lived comfortably.

Also I did not smoke, which is costly.

Now remember, that one hundred dollars a month does not include money spent to buy sweat clothes. That is extra.

I usually did not eat breakfast or at the chow hall. Breakfast is not too bad in prison as it is difficult to mess up eggs or oatmeal, although the oatmeal was quite lumpy at times. I also had a glass of milk at breakfast.

I went to work at the education department after breakfast. At noon, I would usually go to the chow hall to have lunch. Some of the food was not too good, but I ate what I could. I am not a big or picky eater. If the lunch looked really putrid, I would go back to the cell and fix a bag of Ramen Noodles. Very cheap, easy to fix.

So far for that day I have not spent anything.

I worked until 3 PM. At 3 PM a couple of days I week I went to the canteen to get a pint of ice cream. I am a sucker for ice cream.

After work we ate supper. Once in a while I would go to the chow hall to eat supper, but many times I ate in the cell. If we ate in the cell a bunch of inmates would supply food and we would cook together. Chili, Picante Sauce, Refried beans, Spam, Hot Dogs, etc. A can of chili was less than two dollars, a five dollar bottle of Picante Sauce would last you a week, Ramen Noodles are dirt cheap, the hot dogs were cheap, etc. So even the evening meal was fairly inexpensive.

For snacks, those Little Debbie cakes, the fudge rolls or whatever Little Debbie ahs now, were very popular. Very cheap. A box is less than $1.50.

Hygiene products for an entire month did not run over ten dollars.

So, as you can see, you CAN live pretty comfortably in prison on about three or four dollars a day. Now I know inflation has affected the prices from when I was in, but three or four hundred dollars is just too much to send.

Personally, I would send no more than $150 a month at the most. If he cannot make that amount of money stretch, then he is either buying drugs or gambling his money away.

You don't need a lot of money in prison simply because there is not anything to buy. There are no Wal Mart stores in there and there is no place to spend money except on food and snacks.

The prison does your laundry, a medical appointment used to be two dollars, you can eat at the chow hall some of the time, they do give you clothes to wear, so there is no reason for an inmate to go through a lot of money.

For the extra amount needed, how often does an inmate need a pair of tennis shoes or a sweat shirt. They last many months.

The drugs in prison will really increase the amount of money an inmate spends. A small amount of marijuana---enough for just one joint--- costs over five dollars, one Valium or Xanax tablet was ten dollars, and a hit of methamphetamine was 25$, so you can see that the drug use can run up the costs greatly.

Many inmates got by very well on their families sending in $30 a month.

Hope this gives you a guideline.

rewdiazepam

Thank you so much rewdiazepam. That was very helpful and thank you also 59518577dbf.

My fiancMy fiance has been in a few times. Never have I sent him more than $40 a month. I just don't have it and he survived fine. I was the one to order from their catalog's the tv's and radio's, the sweats, etc, and I paid them He knew I didn't have much to give. He lived on ramen noodles, little Debbie's etc, just like Rew did.

He also had a job in there. They don't make much but it helped him get snacks and hygiene products. And he actually sent me a few bucks sometimes. He learned a craft, and sold what he made in the visitor's room.

They had a restaurant of sorts in the visit room. Men were learning to cook, and we could order pretty good food they made, inexpensively. I would send extra for that.

Occassionally the guys in his unit would plan a " dinner party" where they all ordered certain food to put it together to make prison pizza. I would have to maybe send ten extra bucks once in a blue moon.

Your son does not need even a hundred a month. AND they can't order shoes very often, so don't fall for that one. They usually get shoes maybe twice a year IF they order cheap ones like mine did. They don't last long.

We feel sorry for them in thy put themselves in there most of the time. YOu are doing them no good by contributing to whatever they get themselves into while in there.

Only time he asked for more was when his cellmate was threatening him and demanding I send more money so I could actually be paying for his canteen too. I figured it out soon. Eventually I went to the Warden about that man.

I know it varies from state to state, but here we order their property packages and have them sent in , this includes shoes, shorts, sweats, socks etc. I put the money on the phone from out here and I send him just $50 every 2 weeks and he gets by just fine. I also send him in his envelopes, paper and stamps so he does not have to buy them and smoking is not allowed in Florida DOC so I don't worry about that. Good luck!

In Wisconsin we set up the phone accounts, we do most of the purchasing. They tell us what they need. You can't smoke, it's pretty much the same in most states. It varies some.

I would look at their website to see if it lists what you can and can't send them. Here, they take 10% of what we send and keep it for their " gate fee" for when they get out. The prison makes interest on that money, we don't. So mine does not want me sending too much at a time. Why give them MORE than they need. I mean the prison They rip us off enough.

I send $30.00 a week. I guess I don't need to, but he does use about $10.00 a week for paper and stamps. We write a lot.
In NY they allow smoking in the prisons. I was shocked to find that out. He doesn't smoke, but he says nearly everyone else does.

Hi and welcome.
In Australia I give my love $140 per month and that also covers his calls and everything that he needs to get by hear they charge top dollar for everything.
It might be a idea to tell him you can only send x amount in per month or week and he will have to budget.

Thank you for all of your replies. They were all very helpful. I have to stand firm. My son knows how to work me. Our lives when he was young was not good. His dad was a wife beater and was in prison himself for 15 years for manslaughter. I am lucky it wasn't me. I spent years trying to make up for those years to my sons. I feel guilty they had to live and see the things they saw. I am just going to tell him this is what I am sending there is no more and make sure I stay with that. Cause it's not doing my son any good. Thank all.....

I am sorry that happened to you.... i wouldnt send him very much at all maybe 20.00 a week ... so he can learn to appreciate you. Dont enable him.... dont be their for him for money be their for emotional support...

I agree with the sentiments of others. My fianc is in and will be coming home in 2 months. The things they really "need" don't add up to $200+ a month. Think about it like this...as a single person on the outside, I didn't spend $200 in food on myself. Unless I woulda went out to a sit down place a few times a week. In there the choices are even slimmer. Yes the price is inflated some, but NOT enough to justify that $ amt. Also, they are not there on vacation. There is a difference between being a comfort and being taken advantage of. If you know he has this pattern by putting more than a bare minimum on his books, you just as well should think of it as you are his "buyer". Its harsh sounding but by enabling him to perpetuate his addiction you are setting him and yourself up for failure and heartache.