Address:
901 Main Street
Maynardville, TN 37807
Phone:
865-992-6262
The Union County Jail provides a service which allows secure electronic messaging for their inmates.
The email service they use is called Inmate Sales.
Inmate Sales is not directly connected to the internet like normal email, but instead each correspondence is first intercepted by the jail's servers. This gives the staff an opportunity to review the messages before delivering them to both inmates and the people that the inmates are communicating with.
Electronic messages received by the inmates are read either on kiosks within the inmate's unit, or or on tablets provided by the third party service that oversees the program.
Allowing inmates access to email has many upsides:
For a list of Frequently Asked Questions and Answers about Inmate Sales inmate emailing and texting, scroll down for more information about it or call the jail at 865-992-6262.
Chirping is the product name for inmate texting.
This product allows inmates to send chirps (texts) to friends and family members.
Here's how it works:
Cost of Chirping:
Almost all jails and prisons have adopted a messaging system which allows inmates to communicate with their friends and family using an electronic messaging system. It’s neither email nor text, it’s something in between.
The inmate and their contacts do not use their regular email accounts or phone numbers, but account numbers that are set up with the company providing the service.
All communication goes through them. Think of them as a middleman.
Once a contact of the inmate is approved, like the approval process a visitor goes through, an account is set up, using a credit or debit card to fund the account.
To start, the inmate’s contact can send a message that has a limit of so many characters, usually about one page of text.
The message is then reviewed by a computer that scans the message for certain keywords or phrases that are not allowed, almost like a censoring service. If the machine scanner finds problems with the message it sends the message to the Union County Jail staff to review, and if they find no issues, will then forward it to the inmate’s account so that they can read it.
If there are problems with the message, it is possible the message will not be sent. The sender will be notified of the decision and will not get a refund.
Once the inmate receives the message, should the account holder have funded the account allowing replies, the inmate can respond with a similar length message.
The cost to use the electronic messaging service, which is like texting or emailing, costs between $0.50 and $1.00 per page; a page being about 500 characters.
Photos can be sent by the inmate’s contact that is not incarcerated, but not by the inmate due to security concerns. There is an extra cost, usually about $0.50 for each photo attached.
The photos must go through a security screening where nudity, violence and other things are checked before the photo can be delivered. If the photo is rejected, the sender will be notified, but no refund will be given.
The inmate does not have the ability to print out the photos that make it past the screening, but the photos will stay in their account so that they can view them at their leisure.
No. Because this is a closed system, the inmate has no access to the internet, thus the inmate will have no access to any links that you send them.
Yes, just as you can send text and photos, you can send a video message, or if not a message, then a video of your children or yourself. Every company has a limit on the length of the video, usually no more than one minute, and at a cost of approximately $2.00 to $3.00 per video.
The video will first be screened for any nudity, excessive vulgarity, violence, etc. If it is rejected on any of the grounds the sender will not be given a refund.
As with the policy of photos, the inmate cannot reciprocate. They cannot send videos of themselves or anything in jail.
The jails that contract with the electronic messaging service is given a certain number of kiosks within each unit for inmate use. Inmates can log on as they might with a public computer terminal.
In addition to the public terminal kiosks, inmates are given (or can rent) access to individual tablets like a bulky, almost indestructible ipad. These allow an inmate to use them to access your messages, photos and videos in a more private manner.
Should the inmate damage the tablet, they will be responsible for replacing it. The money will be deducted from their commissary account.
The electronic messaging system used by Union County Jail, if there is one, can be found at the top of this page. If there is no information about the ability to text or email with an inmate, it is possible that the facility has recently changed companies or does not have this service available. Call 865-992-6262 to confirm.
This is a list of all the companies in the United States that work with jails and prisons, providing text and email messaging between inmates and their friends and families:
Access Corrections
CIDNET
City Tele Coin
Correct Pay
Corrlinks
Ctel
Edevo
Express Account
Gettingout
GTL
Homewav
IC Solutions
Inmate Canteen
Inmate Sales
JailATM
J Pay
NCIC
Paytel
Pigeonly
Prodigy Sales
Reliance
Securus
Smart Communications
TBE
Visitel
You fund the messaging service with credit and debit cards. All of them take Visa and MasterCard, most also take Discover, and just some take America Express.
There is no limit to the amount of texting and email that an inmate can have with their family and friends.
If an inmate has their own tablet, then they can text any time of the day or night, however if the must use the wall mounted kiosk terminal in their unit, they are limited to using it only during the hours they are allowed off their bunks; usually 7:00AM to 10:00PM, excluding meals, head counts and shift changes.
No, inmates are not allowed to communicate with each other, nor with inmates in other institutions. There is always a way to get around it, for example if one of the inmates has access to a phone with an internet connection, but this would be the only way.
To receive phone calls from inmates in Union County, or to assist them in making phone calls to other people, follow these steps:
For all the information regarding phone calls with Union County inmates; rules, policies, phone calling times, limits and more visit our Inmate Phone Page.
Inmate Sales also handles inmate phone systems, video visitations, email and texting (they call it chirping) and digital letters.
The tablets can be rented on a monthly basis (or are given to the inmate use for a limited time) and while not directly connected to the internet, the inmates can use them for the following activities:
Here's how it works:
Questions:
Other than 'at the jail' visits between you and your inmate at Union County Jail, which is explained and outlined in detail on our Visit Inmate Page, Union County remote video inmate visitation can be done using the services of Inmate Sales utilizing the following instructions:
In order to have a successful video visit with an inmate in Union County, these are the steps to follow:
* All the information you need to have complete knowledge about inmate visitation; policies, rules, fees, schedules, tips, dress codes, and children, lawyers and clergy visitation in Union County, can be found on our Visit Inmate Page.
Union County Jail Phone: 865-992-6262
For inmates receiving mail in the Union County Jail there are different addresses and policies depending on the inmate's status, as well as what type of mail they are receiving; personal mail, legal mail, subscriptions or books sent from a third-party such as Amazon.
All mail is to be shipped to the Union County Jail:
Inmate's Full Name & Inmate ID#
Union County Jail
901 Main Street #98
Maynardville, TN 37807
For complete information on mail policies, what you can send an inmate and what address to send them, check out our Inmate Mail page.
To send a secure email message to an inmate in Union County Jail follow these steps:
- Chirping is the product name for inmate texting.
- This product allows Union County inmates to send chirps (texts) to friends and family members.
- Inmates will be charged a monthly service fee of $4.00.
- Inbound and Outbound Chirps are $0.10 each.
Inmate Sales Apps
iphone app
Google Play app
For all information on how to Text/Email an Inmate in Union County Jail check out our Secure Messaging Guide for Union County.
To send a commissary carepack (food, snacks and goods) directly to an inmate in Union County Jail follow these steps:
For all information, tips and available items for shipping Commissary packages to an inmate in Union County Jail check out our Commissary Instructions Page for Union County.
To send commissary money to an inmate in Union County Jail follow these steps:
For all information on how to Send Money to an inmate's account check out our full money and commissary guide for Union County Jail.