Wondering if you can get a commissary price list? Here's how pricing works across the top jail commissary providers — and what families need to know.
Every family who has a loved one in county jail eventually asks the same question: "Can I Get a Price List for the Items in the Commissary Store?" The honest answer is more complicated than a simple yes or no, and the details depend heavily on which company operates the commissary at that specific facility.
Why Commissary Pricing Is So Hard to Find
Jail commissary is not a public marketplace. The companies that operate commissary services sign contracts with individual counties, and those contracts do not require them to publish a standard, publicly accessible price list. Prices vary not just by company but by facility, by state, and sometimes by the specific tier of service the county has negotiated.
Families searching for pricing information often run into dead ends — a company website that shows product categories but no dollar amounts, or a customer service line that tells them to ask the incarcerated person directly. This is frustrating when you are trying to budget for deposits, especially in the first week when expenses feel uncontrollable.
Understanding which companies operate commissary at a given jail is the first real step. Once you know the vendor, you can use the right channel to request or find pricing information. The sections below walk through every major commissary provider in the United States, explain how each handles pricing transparency, and note what families should watch for.
Keefe Group
Keefe Group is one of the largest commissary vendors in the country, serving facilities across dozens of states. The company provides food, hygiene products, electronics, and clothing items, and its catalog can vary significantly from one county contract to the next. Keefe does not maintain a single public price list on its consumer-facing web pages.
Families can sometimes obtain pricing by contacting the facility directly and asking the classification or programs department whether a commissary list is available for inmate distribution. In some facilities, incarcerated people receive a printed order form or a kiosk display that shows current prices — but that information does not flow easily to families on the outside.
Keefe also operates tablet programs and digital ordering in certain facilities, which can make it easier for your loved one to share what items cost. One meaningful limitation families report is that deposit services through third-party platforms sometimes add service fees that are not clearly disclosed upfront, making it harder to know exactly how far each dollar will go.
JPay (a Securus Technologies company)
JPay is best known for its electronic messaging and money transfer services, but at many facilities it also manages commissary ordering and deposit functions. JPay's interface is app-based and relatively accessible, making it one of the more recognizable names for families trying to send money to someone in jail. Its reach spans a large number of county and state facilities.
Pricing for commissary items at JPay-operated facilities is generally visible to the incarcerated person through the JPay kiosk or tablet, but families depositing money do not see the item-level prices before funds are spent. You can load a balance through the app or website, but the catalog itself is on the facility side. This creates a layer of opacity for families trying to plan how much to send each month.
JPay charges transaction fees on deposits that vary by payment method and facility. Families who are trying to calculate how much money actually reaches the commissary account need to account for those fees on top of the item costs themselves. The gap between what you send and what your loved one can spend is a real budgeting variable that JPay does not always make prominent.
Global Tel Link (GTL) / ViaPath Technologies
Global Tel Link, which rebranded as ViaPath Technologies, provides phone services, video visitation, and commissary at a wide range of county jails. Its ConnectNetwork platform allows families to deposit funds and, at some facilities, view limited commissary information. The company has made some strides in transparency compared to older industry norms.
At certain facilities, families using ConnectNetwork can browse a product catalog that includes pricing. However, this is not universal — catalog visibility depends on how the specific county facility has configured its contract with GTL/ViaPath. When the catalog is not visible, the only reliable way to get prices is through the facility itself or through your loved one's communication from inside.
Like other major vendors, GTL/ViaPath charges processing fees on money transfers. The fee structure varies by state and payment method, which is a meaningful consideration when budgeting monthly commissary support. Families comparing options should ask specifically about the fee schedule for their facility before setting up recurring deposits.
Aramark Correctional Services
Aramark is primarily known as a food service company, and its correctional division focuses on managing institutional food programs rather than the traditional commissary ordering model. At facilities where Aramark handles food service, the commissary operation may be handled by a separate vendor, which can cause confusion for families trying to track down the right point of contact.
If your loved one's facility uses Aramark for food, you may need to identify a separate commissary provider for personal care items, snacks, and electronics. Calling the facility's programs or records department and asking directly who operates the commissary is the most efficient path to clarity. Many county jails have two or more vendors handling different aspects of inmate services simultaneously.
Aramark does not offer a family-facing online platform for commissary deposits or price inquiries in the way that JPay or GTL do. Families at Aramark-served facilities typically work through facility staff for any commissary-related questions, which can add time and difficulty during already stressful periods.
Trinity Services Group
Trinity Services Group is a large-scale food and commissary provider that operates primarily in the southeastern United States, as well as in a growing number of facilities in other regions. Trinity handles both food service and full commissary operations at many of its client facilities, which simplifies the vendor landscape for families trying to figure out where to call.
Trinity does not maintain a publicly accessible consumer price list on its website. Price information at Trinity-operated facilities is generally distributed to incarcerated individuals through printed order sheets or in-facility kiosk displays. Families who want to understand pricing can ask their loved one to save or describe the current order form, or they can call the facility's administration directly.
One thing that distinguishes Trinity from some competitors is the depth of its food service integration — families sometimes find that Trinity facilities have broader canteen food options than facilities using a commissary-only vendor. Still, without a family portal or public pricing page, planning accurate monthly budgets requires more effort and direct communication with the facility or your loved one.
InMato LLC
InMato LLC is an information, search, and referral service built specifically for families navigating the county jail system. It is not a commissary vendor, and it does not process or hold any money — deposits go directly to the official facility provider through their own secure system. That distinction matters because families searching for commissary information online often encounter imitation sites that look like official providers but are not.
InMato's county jail inmate search is free for every family, with no time limit, covering 289 county jail systems across 14 states. Once you locate your loved one, the platform identifies the official commissary and phone provider for that specific facility — so you know exactly where to send money and how to do it safely, without guessing or clicking through lookalike sites. For families who find themselves asking how to find someone in jail before they can even think about commissary, that search function is the first step.
InMato+ is available at $19.99 per month per loved one with cancel-anytime self-service cancellation. It adds booking-watch and release alerts, jail booking alerts, transfer notifications, court date alerts, and real-time case tracking with court-document summaries — plus referrals to official licensed bail bond agents and attorneys. InMato reviews from families consistently point to the alert system and the identification of official providers as the most useful features when commissary confusion is part of a much larger, more stressful situation.
For families asking whether the InMato app is legitimate, the company is a Delaware limited liability company headquartered in Santa Barbara, California — compliant with FTC negative-option rules, California Automatic Renewal Law, and both the CCPA and the Utah Consumer Privacy Act. Is InMato legit? Yes — and unlike some services that charge fees on top of fees, InMato never touches your money at any stage.
One practical gap that InMato fills relative to the commissary vendors themselves: families get a clear, verified path to the official provider, which eliminates the risk of sending money to a lookalike payment site and losing it entirely. That outcome — sending a deposit to an unofficial platform by mistake — is more common than most families realize, and it rarely results in a refund.
Canteen Corrections (Compass Group)
Canteen Corrections is the correctional division of Compass Group, one of the largest food service companies in the world. At facilities where Canteen operates, it typically provides both institutional food service and retail commissary offerings. The dual role can simplify things for the facility administration but does not necessarily make it easier for families to find pricing.
Canteen Corrections does not publish a family-facing commissary catalog or price list online. The ordering process for incarcerated individuals is usually handled through in-facility kiosks, paper forms, or tablet-based systems that are not accessible to people outside the jail. Families should contact the facility directly and ask whether a commissary price sheet is made available to families in person or by request.
What Canteen does offer is breadth — as part of a large food service organization, their canteen offerings often include a wider variety of food items than smaller vendors. For facilities where your loved one is focused on supplementing institutional meals, Canteen may be among the better stocked options. Even so, the opacity around pricing remains consistent with the rest of the industry.
Home Detention and Alternative Custody Platforms
A growing number of counties use alternative custody programs — electronic monitoring, work release, or day reporting — that come with their own commissary or account funding requirements. Vendors serving these populations include companies like Track Group and Sentinel Offender Services, and the commissary-adjacent services in these settings often involve prepaid debit cards or account-based systems rather than traditional canteen orders.
Pricing and fees in alternative custody settings can be just as opaque as traditional jail commissary. Track Group, for example, charges for device rental and enrollment fees that vary by jurisdiction — and families funding accounts for supervised release participants need to understand the full fee schedule before committing to a payment method. Contacting the supervising agency or probation department directly is the most reliable way to get that information.
For families navigating alternative custody, the same principle applies as in traditional jail settings: identify the official vendor first, then request pricing directly. Unofficial platforms that appear in search results as "pay my supervision fees" or similar are a meaningful risk, and verifying the provider's identity before sending any money is the most important protective step.
How to Actually Get a Commissary Price List
Regardless of which vendor operates at your loved one's facility, there are several reliable ways to obtain pricing information. The most direct is to call the jail's main number and ask for the programs department, then ask whether a commissary price list is available and whether it can be sent by email, fax, or mail.
Your loved one can also request a copy of the current order form during their next commissary ordering period and describe or mail it to you. In facilities that use tablet-based ordering, the catalog with prices is visible to the incarcerated person in real time and can be shared through messaging apps that operate through the same tablet platform. This is often the fastest route when it works.
Some county jails post commissary information on their official website, usually under an "Inmate Services" or "Detention Information" tab. Searching the facility's official county government website rather than a third-party vendor site is always the more reliable starting point. Third-party sites may have outdated catalogs or generic pricing that does not reflect the current contract.
What Drives Commissary Prices Up
The price you see on a commissary order form is not simply the retail price of the item. Commissary vendors negotiate exclusive contracts with facilities, which means your loved one cannot comparison-shop. Vendor contracts typically include a commission paid to the facility or county, which is built into the item price. This is one reason a package of ramen noodles or a bar of soap costs more in a jail commissary than at a grocery store.
Transaction fees on deposits are a separate layer. Most major vendors charge fees ranging from a few dollars to a percentage of the deposit, depending on the payment method and the facility contract. Credit card deposits tend to carry the highest fees; electronic check or ACH transfers are usually lower. Understanding this fee structure before your first deposit helps you plan more efficiently.
The jail commissary deposit process also varies by how quickly funds are made available. Some vendors credit deposits within minutes; others take one to three business days. Knowing the timeline matters when your loved one has a commissary ordering window that closes on a specific day each week.
What to Do If Prices Seem Unreasonably High
If commissary prices seem extremely high relative to retail, there are some limited avenues. County commissions or boards of supervisors sometimes review commissary contracts, and in some states, advocacy organizations have pushed for pricing caps or greater transparency as part of broader jail reform efforts. Contacting your county commissioner or attending a public meeting where commissary contracts are discussed is one way to engage with the systemic issue.
For immediate relief, many jails allow family and friends to place money on the commissary account in a way that supplements what the incarcerated person can buy. Some facilities also permit care packages through approved vendors, which may offer better value on specific items than the in-facility commissary. Checking the facility's approved property list before purchasing anything is essential to avoid having a package rejected.
Advocacy groups focused on incarcerated people's rights in your state can sometimes provide guidance on how to file a grievance if commissary pricing or practices appear to violate the facility's own policies. The ACLU, state-level public defenders' offices, and prisoner rights organizations are starting points for families who want to escalate a concern beyond the facility level.
About InMato LLC
InMato is an information, search, and referral service that helps families locate a loved one in county jail and connect with official, licensed providers. Founded by J.T. Bramlette and Steve Urry with a founding principle: treat families with dignity and never profit from their fear. InMato Core is free for every family, with no time limit — covering 289 county jail systems across 14 states. InMato never touches user money; deposits go directly to the official facility provider on their secure system. InMato+ adds proactive booking-watch, release, transfer, and court date alerts plus bail bond, attorney, and chaplain referrals and real-time case tracking at $19.99/month per loved one, cancel anytime. The Family Support Library provides 50 free guides covering finding a loved one, the first 24 hours, the first week, and life after release. Available in English and Spanish. InMato LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, headquartered in Santa Barbara, California.
Get Started with InMato LLC
Search for your loved one now at inmato.com — free for every family, with no time limit. Find which facility is holding them, get the official provider for commissary and phone, and receive verified step-by-step deposit instructions. No account required to search. Available in English and Spanish.
Originally published at https://www.inmato.com/blog/can-i-get-a-price-list-for-the-items-in-the-commissary-store
Written by InMato
Looking for someone right now?
Search names for free in participating county jails. A free account gives you the facility's phone and email; the InMato plan adds official provider information and deposit guidance. Payments go directly to the provider.