How to Contact an Inmate in Escambia County Jail

To contact an inmate in the Escambia County Jail in Pensacola, you have five options: postal mail, prepaid phone calls the inmate places to you, scheduled video visits, electronic messages through a tablet system, and money deposits that pay for commissary and communication credits. Each method has its own account, address, or form to get right. Before you start, you’ll want the inmate’s full legal name and booking number.

Look Up the Booking Number First

Escambia County runs a free inmate search at inmatelookup.myescambia.com. You can search by first or last name, booking date, or release date, and filter for current inmates, released inmates, or both.¹ Write down the inmate’s full legal name and booking number. Mail, deposits, and visitor registration all ask for one or the other.

Sending Mail

The jail inspects every piece of incoming mail for cash, checks, money orders, and contraband, and mail that breaks the formatting rules is returned or discarded.² Address your envelope with your full name and mailing address in the top left corner (required, or the mail won’t be delivered), the inmate’s full name and housing assignment in the center, and the facility address:

Escambia County Jail, P.O. Box 17800, Pensacola, FL 32522-7789.

What You Can and Can’t Put in an Envelope

Write in blue or black ink on plain white paper. Colored ink, highlighters, markers, crayons, and decorative stationery are not allowed. Envelopes must be plain, with no stickers, glitter, tape, or confetti, and self-adhesive stamps are prohibited. Inmates are capped at 15 envelopes at a time.²

Photos are where senders most often slip up. Only digital photographs printed on standard 8.5-by-11-inch paper are accepted. Traditional prints, Polaroids, and instant photos are rejected. You can fit as many images on a sheet as you like, but each sheet counts toward the inmate’s 100-sheet paper limit. Subjects must be clothed to visitation standards, and anything depicting violence, gang activity, weapons, or inappropriate poses is turned away.²

Books, Magazines, and Packages

Inmates cannot receive packages, with legal materials the only exception. A package you mail directly will be returned. Books and magazines have to arrive from a publisher, bookstore, or approved online retailer; you can’t send your own copy. Softcover is preferred, and no notes or attachments should be tucked inside.² For snacks and hygiene items, see the care package section below.

Phone Calls

You can’t call in. Inmates place outgoing calls only, through the ConnectNetwork system, and you need a prepaid AdvancePay account to receive them. Register at ConnectNetwork.com and fund the account with a credit or debit card.³ Calls are charged per minute and carry time limits. Every call is monitored and recorded, and any attempt at a three-way call disconnects it immediately.

Calling from Outside the U.S.

ConnectNetwork supports international calling to nearly 200 destinations, but only where the facility allows it. Email GTL’s international customer service at AdvancePayInternational@GTL.net to confirm that Escambia County Jail supports international calls and to set up the account. International accounts are funded by Western Union transfer or bank wire; credit and debit cards are not accepted. Once funded, the inmate dials 011 before the number.⁴

Video Visits

The jail uses video visitation instead of in-person visits. You can visit on-site at the Video Visitation Center, 3080 N. Pace Blvd., Pensacola, FL 32505, or connect remotely from your own computer.⁵

How to Schedule

All visits are booked through GettingOut.com. Register as a visitor, watch your email for an auto-generated password, log in and reset it, then schedule. For help, call 1-855-516-0115.⁵ You must be on the inmate’s approved visitor list and present a valid government-issued photo ID. Minors can visit only with a parent or legal guardian. On-site visits have a dress code, and cell phones and food are not allowed in the visitation area.

Electronic Messages

Electronic messaging through GettingOut.com is usually the fastest written channel. Inmates read messages on tablets in their housing units, and the service runs through ViaPath Technologies (formerly GTL).²

To connect, either accept an email invitation the inmate sends you through the GettingOut “Contacts” feature, or add the inmate as a contact from your GettingOut.com account. You then buy credits and send messages, photos, or short videos to the tablet. Tablet time is billed per minute, roughly three to five cents depending on the inmate’s profile, so inmates need to log out to avoid extra charges. Staff review and approve messages, photos, and videos before delivery, and credits spent on blocked content are not refunded.²

Sending Money

Funds pay for commissary, phone calls, and messaging credits. There are three ways to deposit.

Online, use the county’s approved service, Access Corrections, at accesscorrections.com. Transaction fees vary by amount, so check the current fee schedule before you send.⁶

By mail, send a U.S. Postal Money Order made payable to “ITF Inmate First and Last Name,” and include the inmate’s full name and ID number. Address it to Inmate Accounts, P.O. Box 17800, Pensacola, FL 32522. Cash and personal checks sent by mail are prohibited.⁶

In person, kiosks in the Main Jail Lobby at 3080 N. Pace Blvd. accept cash 24 hours a day. Kiosk deposits generally post faster than mailed money orders.⁶

Care Packages

Since you can’t mail packages, the way to send snacks or hygiene items is through Access Securepak, the jail’s approved vendor. Every product on the site has been pre-approved by the facility, so you don’t have to guess what’s allowed. Order online and the package ships directly to the inmate.⁷

1
Escambia County. JAIL View – Escambia County
2
Escambia County. Inmate Handbook – Escambia County
3
Escambia County, Florida. Escambia County Correctional Facility
4
ConnectNetwork. International Customers
5
Escambia County. Video Visitation Information
6
Escambia County. Deposit Money
7
Access Securepak. Escambia County Package Program