Address:
417 N. Chesley Street
Bellville, TX 77418
Phone:
979-865-5321
The Austin County Jail provides a service which allows secure electronic messaging for their inmates.
The email service they use is called gettingout / GTL / Viapath.
gettingout / GTL / Viapath 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 gettingout / GTL / Viapath inmate emailing and texting, scroll down for more information about it or call the jail at 979-865-5321.
Austin County Jail contracts with GTL GettingOut, the same service that handles Inmate Phone Systems and Video Visitation, for sending secure messages and photos between you and your inmate.
If you are not already registered, do so here, or Log in.
Then use the Facility Finder to:
1. Select Austin County Jail,
2. Add your inmate to your list of contacts,
3. Add a credit or debit card to cover your costs.
How Messaging Works
Watch this video on how to send a message.
1. Messages can be up to 500 characters long, including punctuation. At the bottom of your message there is a 'character countdown' feature.
2. After you click the “CONTINUE” button, you can review the cost to send your message to your inmate. You can also attach credits for your inmate to reply to your message. Be sure to accept the Terms and Conditions and click the “SEND” button for your message to be successfully delivered to your inmate.
How Uploading Photos Works
Watch this video on how to upload a photo.
1. Select the Photos Tab.
2. Select “Take New Photo” or “Upload New Photo”.
3. Take a new photo with your webcam, or select "Choose File" to upload a photo from your computer.
4. Give your photo a Title or add it to the "Gallery" of your choice.
5. Select the "Share" button.
6. Select your inmate(s) and then select "Share".
7. Once the photo is approved, it will be shared with your inmate(s).
Customer Service Questions
'Online' Contact Form, or
Call 866-516-0115
Can inmates send and receive texts and emails?
How much does it cost for an inmate to use a text or email service?
Can inmates send and receive photos through their messaging system?
Can I send an inmate a link to a video to watch?
What device does an inmate use for texting and emailing?
What is the inmate text and email system used in the Austin County Jail?
What are the companies that provide electronic messaging services to jails and prisons?
How do I fund the inmate’s messaging system?
How often can an inmate text and email?
Can inmates text or email any time of the day or night?
Can an inmate email or text inmates in other jails or prisons?
Almost all jails and prisons have adopted or are adopting 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 Austin 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 outside contact, 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 Austin County Jail 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 Austin 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 this facility has recently changed companies or does not have this service available. Call 979-865-5321 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, but only a few of them take America Express.
When available, 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 they are limited to the use of a wall mounted kiosk terminal in their unit, they can only use it during the hours they are allowed off their bunks or out of their cells; usually 7:00AM to 10:00PM, excluding meals, head counts and shift changes.
No, inmates in jail are not allowed to communicate 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.
