Is Mail Forwarded When Inmate Moves to a Different Prison?

Correctional facilities do not operate like the postal service. When an inmate is transferred, the old facility does not forward incoming mail to the new location. Mail that arrives at the previous facility after the transfer has already occurred will typically be processed by the mailroom and returned to the sender marked as undeliverable or noting that the inmate is no longer in custody there.

This is one of the most common reasons a letter fails to reach its destination, and it is particularly frustrating because the sender did everything right. The address was correct at the time it was sent. The problem is simply that the inmate moved before the letter arrived.

InmateAid handles this situation with a straightforward solution. If a letter was sent to East Baton Rouge Parish Prison and your husband has since been transferred to Catahoula Correctional Center, contact InmateAid with his name and the correct new facility address. The team will resend the letter to the updated location at no additional charge, ensuring the correspondence reaches him despite the transfer.

Going forward, any time you become aware of a transfer it is worth checking the current facility address before sending the next letter and updating the address in your InmateAid account to reflect the new location. Louisiana's Department of Public Safety and Corrections maintains an offender search tool at doc.louisiana.gov where you can look up current placement whenever you need to verify where he is housed.