A letter from home arriving at mail call is one of the most powerful moments in an incarcerated person's day. It is proof that someone on the outside is thinking about them, that life is continuing, and that there is something worth coming home to. But sending mail to a correctional facility involves rules that vary by institution and mistakes can mean your letter never arrives. This section covers how to address mail correctly for federal and state facilities, what the mailroom screening process looks like and how long it adds to delivery time, what content is and is not permitted in letters, how to send photos and why sending them through InmateAid's service is more reliable than printing and mailing them yourself, how to send mail from outside the United States, and what the InmateAid return letter service does for inmates who want to write back. The guidance here makes sure every letter you send reaches its destination. See also our sections on Inmate Care Packages, Send Books and Magazines, and Inmate Phone Calls.
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Subject: Send inmate mail
if you have selected the correct facility, they will get it very shortly and then you'll know for sure!
Subject: Send inmate mail
Absolutely... the loneliness and feeling that you've been forgotten is sometimes overwhelming. A postcard goes a long way for a little gesture.
Subject: Send inmate mail
Oh yeahhh, the freakier, the better :))
Subject: Send inmate mail
You can send the USA Today newspaper into the Florida DOC facilities
Subject: Send inmate mail
OMG YES! If you could see the inmate's faces at mail call, you would know how vitally import getting something. Not to be a commercial, but that is what InmateAid is all about. The services on the site are the ONLY things we can do for our loved ones stuck inside. Letters with great quality photos, postcards where you can upload any picture to the other side of your message, greeting cards for every holiday and meaning, magazine subscriptions -...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
you can call the prison and ask to speak to the mail room
Subject: Send inmate mail
Sending a postcard or photo through InmateAid is straightforward. Create an account, add your friend as an inmate by entering their name, inmate ID, and facility, and then go to the Letters or Postcards section to upload a photo or write a message. InmateAid handles the printing and mailing from their office in South Florida. The postcard typically reaches the facility within a day or two through the US Postal Service. After that, it goes through the facility mailroom where...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
Once your inmate writes a response and mails it to the InmateAid return address, the letter typically arrives and gets processed within a day or two of InmateAid receiving it.
The full round-trip timeline breaks down into two legs. The first is how long it takes your inmate to actually write and mail the response, which depends entirely on them and their access to mail call at the facility. Once they drop the letter, it travels through USPS to InmateAid. Standard...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
No, there is no cost to the inmate on either end of the process.
When you send a letter, postcard, or photo through InmateAid, the cost is covered on your end when you place the order. The inmate receives the physical mail at no charge to their commissary account. Nothing gets deducted from their books when a letter arrives.
On the response side, your inmate writes a letter by hand and mails it back to the InmateAid return address the same way...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
The correspondence rules are similar for all detention centers (jails, prisons, penitentiaries), the letters may be and probably are read by the Correctional Officers. Unless this offender is on some mail restriction for things you should already know about (terrorist-type charges), mail is considered sacred and they don't censor much. You cannot speak of business issues like moving money around, buying/selling real estate, stocks or bonds. You cannot speak of escape or anything conveying surveillance of the institution. And you...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
On delivery confirmation, the honest answer is that there is no tracking mechanism once mail enters a correctional facility. InmateAid sends everything through USPS, and like standard mail it does not go out certified or with return receipt requested. Once it clears the facility's mailroom inspection and gets distributed at mail call, there is no digital ping that comes back to confirm it landed in your person's hands.
The most reliable confirmation is the low-tech version: ask them. If they received...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
Postcards are sent immediately upon ordering from our partner in San Francisco. It takes a day or two for it to make it to your inmate's facility. It is a great vaslue and excellent service. Don't forget to check out the Greeting Cards, also only 99 cents, too... never miss a holiday, special event or birthday - let your inmate know you're always thinking of them.
Subject: Send inmate mail
Yes, absolutely. Downstate Correctional Facility is a New York State prison and accepts mail including postcards through standard USPS delivery. There is no issue sending directly to his new location.
If you had already sent a postcard to the county jail before the transfer and it did not reach him because he moved, InmateAid will resend it to Downstate at no charge. Just email aid@inmateaid.com with the details of the transfer, his new facility information, and the team will take care...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
The short answer is that you should not, and involving the attorney in this creates problems that are significantly worse than the problem you are trying to solve.
Attorney-client mail is privileged, meaning it is supposed to be opened only by the inmate and is not subject to the same mailroom inspection as regular correspondence. Some people try to exploit that privilege to get items into a facility that would otherwise be rejected. Facilities are aware of this and take it...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
No they do not, the recipient however pays a fee of $1.49 to retrieve the letter that the inmate sent to you, through InmateAid.
