Commissary and Care Packages in Massachusetts

If you have someone locked up in Massachusetts, two questions come up fast: what can they buy, and what can you send. The answer depends on where they are held. A state prison run by the Department of Correction works one way, a county house of correction works another, and the federal facility plays by its own rulebook. Here is how all three actually work, so you are not guessing or wasting money.

One thing worth saying up front. The most dependable way to stay in touch with anyone inside is the mail. A letter and a few printed photos get through when an account is short or when a facility takes no packages. Treat that as your baseline and the rest as extra.

Massachusetts state prisons (DOC)

In a DOC facility there is no cash. Money goes onto the incarcerated person's trust account, and they spend it at the canteen, which is what Massachusetts calls the commissary.

The state uses Access Corrections for deposits. You can send money online with a Visa or MasterCard or the app, by phone at 866-345-1884, or at a lobby kiosk that takes cash or cards. If you do not have a card, you can mail a money order to the Access Corrections lockbox made payable to "Access Secure Deposits," with the state, facility, and the person's name and ID number written on it. Deposits generally post in about 48 hours.

One Massachusetts detail is worth knowing. The DOC runs a cashless commissary and trust accounting system that separates a person's "unearned" funds, the money you send, from "earned" funds they make through work. When they place a canteen order, the system spends down the unearned money you sent first. The canteen itself carries snacks, hygiene items, postage, and similar basics.

Care packages for DOC residents

Massachusetts state prisons run a care-package program through Access Securepak. Family and friends order from the approved catalog and the vendor ships directly to the facility for inspection. You order from the vendor, not from home, and homemade or family-mailed boxes are not accepted.

That leads to the one warning worth repeating. Order only through the current approved vendor and within the posted limits and window, because programs and item lists change, and a package that does not match the current rules gets refused.

Massachusetts county houses of correction

Outside the state prisons, county jails and houses of correction are run by elected county sheriffs, and each one runs its own deposit and commissary contracts. They hold people awaiting trial and those serving shorter sentences, generally up to two and a half years, so this is where many people are held. The vendor and rules change from county to county.

A few real examples to show the spread. Worcester County takes deposits at a kiosk or by phone through Access Corrections, or by a USPS money order payable to the inmate, and caps care packages at $50 a month. Middlesex County uses Access Corrections for deposits and allows up to $125 a month in no more than two packages. Essex County runs canteen deposits through ConnectNetwork and an iCare package program, with two packages a month up to $125. Suffolk County in Boston uses Keefe Commissary Service for purchases. Barnstable County takes kiosk and money order deposits with a $300 daily deposit cap. City and town lockups usually have no package program and allow commissary only.

The takeaway is simple: never assume a county facility uses the same vendor or rules as the state, or as the county next door. Pull up that specific facility's page and confirm the deposit vendor, the spending cap, the cutoff, and the package policy before you send anything.

Federal custody and Massachusetts

Massachusetts has just one Bureau of Prisons facility, FMC Devens, near Ayer. It is a federal medical center, an administrative-security facility for men who need significant medical or mental health care, with an adjacent minimum-security camp. Because the only federal facility in the state is a medical center, a federal defendant from Massachusetts without medical needs is often held at a Bureau of Prisons facility somewhere else. Either way, your first move is the inmate locator to confirm exactly where your person is. Wherever they land, the federal system runs the same way nationwide.

Funding works through the federal Trust Fund. You can send money online or by app through JPay, mail a money order or cashier's check made payable to the Federal Bureau of Prisons with the inmate's full name and register number on it to the national lockbox, or use Western Union. No cash, no personal checks.

The commissary is the only store in the federal system, and the inmate shops it in person on an assigned day each week, usually tied to their register number. You fund the account; they pick from what is in stock. The shelves cover food and drink mixes, hygiene, a limited clothing selection, stationery and stamps, some over-the-counter medicine, and at some facilities approved electronics.

On the money, general population inmates can spend up to $360 per month, and that limit resets monthly. Stamps, phone credits, and over-the-counter medicine generally fall outside the cap. In November and December the limit typically rises to $410 for holiday shopping. An inmate who refuses the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program gets knocked down to roughly $25 per month.

Federal care packages are not allowed. The Bureau prohibits outside food, clothing, or hygiene packages from family or friends. The narrow exceptions are publications shipped directly from a publisher or approved retailer, religious items cleared through the chaplain, and legal materials from an attorney or court.

For messaging, the federal system uses an email tool families reach through the CorrLinks portal, reviewed by staff and not confidential. To find someone in federal custody, use the Bureau of Prisons inmate locator, which searches by name or register number.

Staying connected

Across all three systems the pattern is the same. Funding an account is how someone buys what they need day to day, packages are tied to approved vendors and limits, and the rules shift by facility and by contract. In Massachusetts, remember that the state's only federal facility is a medical center, so a federal sentence may mean an out-of-state placement. The one thing that does not change is the mail. A letter and photos reach almost anyone inside, which makes it the most reliable way to show up for your person while you sort out the rest.