Email is becoming more available everyday in the prisons and jails. It depends on where your inmate is incarcerated. There is no Internet access.
The federal prisons have a program called Corrlinks, it is a closed system where an inmate will send an invite to a specific email address. The recipient will login to corrlinks.com and accept the invite. Once the connection is made, they can interact via this email program. The emails are monitored just like the phone calls. The inmates pay for the service in time increments when they login to their account. Whether they are reading email or responding, the time on the system is how they are charged. The money is deducted from the Trulincs commissary account.
https://www.inmateaid.com/ask-the-inmate/do-inmates-have-access-to-email-6477#answer
Accepted Answer Date Created: January 27,2016