You get a 3-day free trial when you create a new account with ParakeetInmate, powered by InmateDB. Three days is enough to find your loved one, get the inmate side set up, and send a few real messages back and forth, which is exactly what you should use it for. The point of the trial is not to browse the app. It is to prove the whole loop works before money comes out of your account.
Here is what that loop looks like, where it usually breaks the first time, and what to check before day three ends.
What the trial actually gives you
New accounts get three days free. During that window you can set up your family member, get them added on the facility side, and text back and forth. The trial is time-based, not message-based, so the clock starts when you sign up, not when your first message goes out.
That detail matters. If you sign up on a Sunday evening and your loved one cannot get to a TRULINCS terminal until later in the week, you may burn most of the trial before a single reply comes back. Federal inmates send electronic messages from TRULINCS terminals inside the facility, and how quickly they see your message depends on when they can get to one. You do not control that timing, and neither does the service.
So the smartest thing you can do is start the trial when you know they have regular access to a terminal, and get the setup done in the first hour rather than the first day.
Step one: find them and start the trial
You need two things: their full name as it appears in Bureau of Prisons records, or their BOP register number. Register numbers look like 12345-678. If you do not have it, the BOP inmate locator on bop.gov will give it to you.
- Search for your loved one by name or register number.
- Start the 3-day trial from their profile.
- Note the exact date and time your trial ends, and put a reminder on your phone for the day before.
If the search comes up empty, check the spelling of the name against the BOP locator before you assume anything is wrong. Name mismatches are the most common reason a family cannot find someone. It is also worth confirming the facility is a federal one, since the service works with federal Bureau of Prisons facilities that use CorrLinks, about 93% of them, and does not work in state prisons or county jails. If you are unsure which side of that line your facility falls on, this review of where ParakeetInmate works and where it stops lays it out.
Step two: the inmate-side contact, which is where most trials stall
This is the part families underestimate. Starting the trial on your phone does nothing until your loved one adds one InmateDB contact in TRULINCS on their end. You cannot do it for them, and staff cannot do it for them.
What you should do is send them the setup instructions in whatever way you already communicate, whether that is a letter, a phone call, or an existing CorrLinks message. Keep it short and concrete. They need to know the name of the contact to add and that after it is added, they text by putting a phone number in the subject line and the message in the body. That subject-line step is the one people forget. A message with the number in the body instead of the subject line will not go where it is supposed to.
If your loved one is new to CorrLinks entirely, this guide to how inmate messaging works is written for exactly that situation and is worth reading before you try to explain it secondhand.
What to test during the three days
Do not spend the trial sending one message and waiting. Work through these deliberately, because each one is a different part of the system and each one can fail on its own.
- An outbound message from you. Send something plain and specific, like your name, the day, and one question they can answer in a line. Long first messages are harder to reply to.
- A reply from them. This confirms the subject-line format is right and that the contact was added correctly. If nothing comes back, ask them directly whether they added the contact and whether they put the number in the subject line.
- A reply from a second family member. If a spouse, parent or sibling will also be texting, have them send one message during the trial. Plans differ in whether replies are open to everyone, and you want to know how that feels for your family before you commit.
- The device you will actually use. Families do not need an app. You can reply from your normal texting app, the InmateDB website, the InmateDB app, or Telegram. Try the one you will really use at 6am on a school morning, not the one that looks nicest.
- A photo order, if photos matter to you. You can upload up to 10 photos per order and have standard or glossy prints made and mailed to the facility. Running one order during the trial tells you how the upload flow feels and whether your photos are the right size and format.
Two lists is enough for one post, so treat the above as the checklist and keep it open while you work through it.
Settings and expectations to sort out before day three
Two things are worth deciding during the trial rather than after it.
The first is which plan fits. Texting is $9.99/month and sends from a shared number, which means people can reply once the inmate has texted them first. Texting + AI is $14.99/month and adds AI chat with ChatGPT, Gemini and Grok, plus news, sports, weather and trivia apps. Full Access is $19.99/month and adds a personal phone number anyone can text first, email, and 15+ more apps. If your family is large, or you want relatives to be able to reach him without waiting for him to message first, the personal number is the feature that decides it. If it is just you and one other person, the $9.99 plan may be all you need. This comparison of inmate texting apps helps if you are weighing the service against other options at the same time.
The second is expectations about privacy and speed. Facility staff can monitor messages. Write accordingly, from the first message, not the hundredth. And replies arrive when they next get to a terminal, not on your schedule. If you go into the trial expecting instant back-and-forth, you will read a normal delay as a broken setup.
If it is not working by day two
Most trial failures are one of three things, and all three are fixable.
The contact was never added in TRULINCS. Ask your loved one plainly whether they added it, and if they are unsure, have them check rather than guess.
The subject-line format slipped. Confirm they are putting the phone number in the subject line, not the message body.
The facility is not one the service covers. Roughly 7% of federal facilities are outside it, and state and county facilities are outside it entirely. If that is your situation, no amount of retrying will change it, and you are better off knowing on day one.
Quick answers
Does the trial charge me automatically?
It is a free trial for new accounts, and it is three days, not five. Set a reminder for the day before it ends so the decision to continue or stop is yours and not a surprise on a statement.
Can I keep texting after the trial without choosing a plan?
No. The trial is a window to test the setup. To keep messaging after it, you pick one of the plans, starting at $9.99/month for texting.
What if my loved one is in a state prison?
ParakeetInmate, powered by InmateDB, works with federal Bureau of Prisons facilities that use CorrLinks. It does not work in state prisons or county jails, so the trial will not help there. Check with the facility about its own messaging options instead.
The trial is short on purpose. Use the first hour to set up, the first day to confirm a message goes both ways, and the rest to decide whether the plan matches how your family actually talks. Find your loved one and start the clock when you are ready to work through it.