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.
Related InmateAid Services
Subject: Send inmate mail
He will most likely not get the mail, most institutions will not forward the mail to transferred inmates. If you send us an email to aid@inmateaid.com with the new location, we will make the change in the inmate profile and resend the letter for you at no charge.
Subject: Send inmate mail
Inmates who have money on their inmate trust accounts can purchase stamps and envelopes at the weekly commissary. If they do not have money on their books, the prison will provide indigent inmates with all the materials necessary to send out mail to their loved ones. If your inmate writes to you directly, using your address, the cost of the mailing is a 49-cent stamp. Many of our members use the Inmate Response Mail service through InmateAid.
Your inmate would write...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
The letter and photo service
from InmateAid is straightforward. You type up a letter and upload photos
where applicable - proceed to the Pay Now page and complete the transaction.
The letter order flows through
our Admin area to the Processing Department. Letters are processed immediately
upon entry unless it is after 6pm on Saturday, then the letters do not go
through the process until Monday morning. You may check in your My Account area
to see the status of your letter order.
The letters are printed, folded
and...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
Yes, that is almost certainly the reason. Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities including Terminal Island have specific requirements for incoming photographs and color copies printed on regular paper do not meet them. A copy machine printout looks like a photo but it is not and the mailroom knows the difference immediately.
The BOP requires photographs to be printed on actual photo stock, meaning standard glossy or matte photographic paper of the kind produced by a print lab rather than a home...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
You can do either. Inmates that have money on their inmate trust accounts can purchase stamps and envelopes at the weekly commissary. If they do not have money on their books, the prison will provide indigent inmates with all the materials necessary to send out mail to their loved ones. If your inmate writes to you directly, using your address, the cost of the mailing is a 49 cent stamp. Many of our members use the Inmate Response Mail service...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
The rules around photos and magazines sent to inmates are set by the facility rather than by InmateAid, and those rules vary considerably from one institution to another. Understanding both what the facility allows and what InmateAid can process helps set the right expectations.
On the magazines, most correctional facilities draw a clear line at full nudity. Publications that contain explicit nudity are rejected at the mailroom across virtually every federal and state facility in the country. Some facilities allow magazines...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
What jumps out at you that this might not be legitimate? There are over 300,000 pages of content in the site synced to 17,000 prisons in the United States. InmateAid's service is not email; it is with the US Postal Service. Inmates do not have Internet access. We estimate that it takes 2-3 business days to make it to the jail. Once there, the staff opens and reads each piece of mail and inspects it for contraband. Once they decide...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
Yes Absolutely!
Subject: Send inmate mail
You will have to set up an inmate profile. Once that is set up in your Account, you may click on "letters and photos" - follow the prompts when selecting photos from the storage on your phone. It is easy to do, but if you are having difficulties please call our offices and we will walk you through it on the phone. 866-966-7100
Subject: Send inmate mail
Create an inmate profile, click on LETTER in their profile, type out your letter (upload some photos) and then save the letter. Proceed to the Pay Now page and once it is submitted, the letter will be posted almost immediately.
Subject: Send inmate mail
The letter and photo service
from InmateAid is straightforward. You type up a letter and upload photos
where applicable - proceed to the Pay Now page and complete the transaction.
The letter order flows through
our Admin area to the Processing Department. Letters are processed immediately upon
entry unless it is after 6pm on Saturday, then the letters do not go through
the process until Monday morning. You may check in your My Account area to see
the status of your letter order.
The letters are printed, folded
and...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
Never. InmateAid does not review, censor, withhold, or share correspondence regardless of who the inmate is or how much public attention their case may be receiving.
Here is exactly how the process works. When an inmate's reply letter arrives at InmateAid, it is scanned and uploaded directly to the recipient's account dashboard. The physical letter is shredded after scanning to protect everyone's privacy. InmateAid staff do not read the contents. The scanning process is automated and the material goes directly into...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
We estimate that it takes 2-3 business days to
make it to the jail. Once there, the staff opens and reads each piece
of mail and inspects it for contraband. Once they decide the mail is
fit to be handed out at mail call, your inmate will receive it. Any delay that
occurs at the facility is out of our control. We make no guarantees as to how
long it will take as there are thousands of facilities and none of them do
things the same...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
The InmateAid letter response system still travels through the US Postal Service because that is the only option available to inmates who do not have internet access. The difference is in how the letter is received and delivered to you on the outside.
Here is how it works. When you send a letter through InmateAid the return address on the envelope is InmateAid's address rather than your personal home address. Your loved one writes their response letter and mails it back...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
We do not have a bible program currently in place. We recommend using Amazon for the sending of all books into the prison. Make sure that the books are paperback and come from Amazon itself and not one of their resellers.
