How to Make Sure Amazon Ships Books to a Prison via USPS?

Most correctional facilities only accept packages shipped via the United States Postal Service. FedEx and UPS deliveries are routinely rejected at prison mail rooms, and Amazon does not give customers the option to choose their shipping carrier directly.

There is a practical workaround that solves this problem. If a facility has a PO Box address, use that as the shipping address instead of the street address. FedEx and UPS do not deliver to PO Boxes, which means Amazon's fulfillment system will automatically route the shipment through USPS when a PO Box is the destination. The carrier selection problem solves itself.

Not every facility uses a PO Box for inmate mail, and the mail room is not always located at the same address as the facility itself. The best first step is to call the facility and ask two specific questions: where is inmate mail physically delivered, and is there a corresponding PO Box for that address? Getting the right mailing address upfront prevents the frustration of having a book rejected at the door because it arrived via the wrong carrier.

This tip applies any time you are ordering books or other approved materials through Amazon or another vendor that does not allow manual carrier selection. PO Box plus Amazon equals USPS delivery, which is what most facilities require.