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
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...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
The pictures are 4"x 6" which is a standard size that is allowed in all the prisons and jails.
Subject: Send inmate mail
Usually not, there are some rare cases where the state system will forward it, but neither federal and county will. It gets returned to sender.
Subject: 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
Your name appears on the envelope above InmateAid's address. Your home address is never included. If you want the inmate to write you directly, add your address inside the letter. Otherwise they write back to InmateAid's address and the response is scanned into your account.
Subject: Send inmate mail
You will not be able to send anything with the letter but photographs on 4" x 6" glossy paper - no Polaroids. You can send the Word Search from the publisher - InmateAid has several to choose from in our magazine section. Let us know if you are interested in any of them, email us the title and we will send you a discount coupon for the purchase.
Subject: Send inmate mail
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...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
Magazine subscriptions all take about 2 months to get started. It is not a product of our customer service, it is a publisher issue. If you would look at a magazine subscription insert in any magazine out there, underneath where you fill out your name and address is a line of fine print that states it takes "could take up to 8-10 weeks to begin delivery". It is nothing we can control and would have been the same issue if...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
Incoming mail generally continues to reach inmates in the hole, which is the common term for disciplinary segregation or the SHU. Mail access is one of the privileges that survives most SHU placements and a letter sent through InmateAid travels through the facility's standard mail system the same way any other letter does. It goes to the mailroom, gets screened, and gets delivered to wherever the inmate is currently housed including segregation.
That said, delivery may be slower than usual. Mail...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
It's not a good idea to leave the ID off of the correspondence. If you did the letter through InmateAid, and forgot their ID number - we will resend it at no charge once you correct the information and email it to us.
Subject: Send inmate mail
Mailing a letter to an inmate has a few basic requirements that apply universally regardless of which facility the inmate is at.
Every piece of outgoing mail must include the sender's name and a return address. This is a postal requirement as well as a facility requirement. Mail arriving without a return address is typically rejected by the mailroom and discarded rather than delivered. Using InmateAid to send letters automatically satisfies this requirement. Your name appears on the envelope and InmateAid's...
Read moreSubject: Send inmate mail
Yes you can write him. There is a waiting period at these Diagnostic facilities as they put the inmates through a thorough testing period and there are some periods of segregation from the outside.
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
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 through InmateAid. Your inmate would write you back to the...
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...
Read more