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In-depth review · Our #1 pick · Updated October 2026
ContactMeAsap is the service we rank first for reaching someone in a federal facility. We walked through signup, pricing and day-to-day messaging to see whether it really makes texting a federal inmate simpler than the official system alone. Short answer: for most families, yes.
Our top pick for federal messaging
A relay service that lets families text and send photos to a federal inmate straight from their phone — delivered through the Bureau of Prisons' own CorrLinks/TRULINCS system. Unlimited messages, faster hands-off relay, and real support when something goes wrong.
From $20/month · unlimited messages · deducted from the balance you add.
ContactMeAsap is a relay service. It is not a replacement for the Bureau of Prisons' messaging system — it sits on top of it. Federal inmates send and receive electronic messages through TRULINCS, the BOP's internal system, which families reach from the outside through CorrLinks. ContactMeAsap connects to that same official channel on your behalf.
The practical difference is where you do the typing. Instead of logging into the dated CorrLinks web portal every time, you text and send photos from your own phone the way you'd message anyone else. ContactMeAsap relays what you send into CorrLinks/TRULINCS, and the inmate's replies come back to you. Your person reads and answers on the prison terminals exactly as they already do — nothing changes on their end except that your messages arrive, and you can include photos of home.
Getting set up is deliberately short. Most of the heavy lifting — the TRULINCS approval — is the same step you'd take for CorrLinks anyway.
ContactMeAsap starts at $20/month for unlimited messages. Rather than billing per message, it draws from a balance you add to your account, so you control how much you load and when. Unlimited texting means you're not counting characters or rationing messages the way credit-based state/county apps often force you to.
Be clear-eyed about what you're paying for: this is a convenience subscription layered on top of a free government system. CorrLinks itself costs families nothing to hold an account (the inmate pays TRULINCS time to read and compose). What ContactMeAsap sells is the phone-first experience, photo sharing, faster relay and support — not access you couldn't otherwise get. For families who message often, that convenience is usually worth it; for someone who sends one note a month, the official system may be enough.
This is where ContactMeAsap separates itself from apps like ViaPath GettingOut and Securus eMessaging, which are built mainly for state and county facilities and rarely reach federal inmates. ContactMeAsap is built specifically for the federal case: it delivers through CorrLinks/TRULINCS, which is the only sanctioned electronic-messaging path into a BOP facility.
Because everything travels over the official system, the normal BOP rules still apply. Messages are monitored, content must follow facility policy, and the inmate must have TRULINCS access and have approved you. ContactMeAsap doesn't bypass any of that — it works within it, which is exactly why messages aren't rejected for using an unauthorized channel.
No service can make a federal inmate read faster than they can get to a terminal — delivery to them still depends on their facility check-in. What ContactMeAsap speeds up is your side of the exchange. There's no portal login, no waiting on the CorrLinks web interface; you send from your phone the moment you think of it, and the relay pushes it into the system hands-off.
In practice that removes the friction that makes families send fewer messages. The outbound hop is a fast relay rather than a manual session, so the only real wait is the one the BOP controls: when your person next sits down at a terminal.
ContactMeAsap offers 24/7 support, which matters more here than in most consumer apps. When a message to an incarcerated loved one won't go through, it's stressful, and the official CorrLinks help channels are not known for fast, human answers. Having someone to reach at any hour — when a contact approval is stuck, or a message bounces — is a genuine part of what the subscription buys.
ContactMeAsap is the right pick if your person is in a federal facility, you want to message often, and you'd rather text from your phone and send the occasional photo than wrestle with the CorrLinks portal. It's for families who value their time and want support on call.
It's a weaker fit if you only send a rare message (the free CorrLinks portal may be enough), or if your loved one is in a state or county jail — those facilities use different systems, and you'd want GettingOut or Securus depending on the facility's vendor.
Our verdict
ContactMeAsap earns our top spot because it solves the real problem families have: the official system works, but it's clunky, text-only and unhelpful when something breaks. ContactMeAsap keeps the compliance and the official channel while making the experience feel like normal texting — phone-first, photos included, with support behind it. The honest caveat is that it's a paid layer over a free system, so the value is in the convenience, not in access you couldn't get otherwise. For most federal families who message regularly, that convenience is well worth it.
Our editorial rating: 9.4 / 10 — this is our own editorial assessment, not a user review or aggregated score.
ContactMeAsap lets you text and send photos to a federal inmate from your phone, through the official CorrLinks/TRULINCS system, with support whenever you need it.
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