Sending Money to an Inmate in Orange County and Los Angeles County

Two completely different things get called “putting money on someone’s account”, and families mix them up constantly. Commissary money buys phone time, snacks and hygiene items. Bail is what gets someone out. Depositing $200 to an inmate account does nothing whatsoever to shorten custody, and every week someone spends their available cash on the wrong one.

The difference, stated plainly

What commissary money is actually for

The single most useful thing it buys is phone time. Jail calls are expensive, and a person with no money on their account may be unable to call you at all — which is why families sometimes cannot reach someone who very much wants to be reached. If you are trying to establish what the charge is so you can work out the bail amount, funding the phone account is often the fastest route to a conversation.

Understand before you do it that those calls are recorded, and that recordings are routinely reviewed and used as evidence. See inmate phone calls before you say anything about the case on one.

Orange County

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department runs custody at the Intake Release Center, Theo Lacy and the James A. Musick Facility. Deposits are generally accepted through a lobby kiosk at the facility, online, and by phone through the contracted vendor, and each route carries its own transaction fee. The vendor and the fee schedule change from time to time, so confirm the current arrangement with the facility rather than relying on any third-party page — including this one.

You will need the person’s full name, date of birth and booking number. If you do not have the booking number, start with the Orange County inmate search — noting that it requires an account and does not display charges.

Los Angeles County

Los Angeles County books men and women into different facilities, and this is where most wasted trips happen. Men are processed at the Inmate Reception Center downtown; women are held at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood. Depositing to the wrong facility’s system is a common and frustrating error.

Los Angeles also publishes no inmate record at all for roughly the first two hours after an arrest, so if you cannot find the person yet, wait rather than assuming they were moved. See LA County inmate search.

Before you deposit anything, check whether you need to at all

If the person is about to be released, commissary money is wasted — it can be slow and awkward to reclaim. Work out the bail position first.

A word about scams

“Send money to get them out tonight” is the oldest bail scam there is, and commissary confusion is what makes it work. No legitimate bail agent will ask you to load a gift card, wire funds to an individual, or deposit to a personal account. California bail agents are licensed by the Department of Insurance and the lookup is free — ours is 1841014. See avoiding bail bond scams.