How to Send Books and Magazines to an Inmate in Missouri

INMATEAID EDITORIAL ARTICLE

Schema: Article + FAQPage

Internal links: Missouri inmate search, send money, visitation, Staying Connected hub, Missouri reentry resources

V2 NOTE: Supersedes v1 (#24). Changes: (1) magazine CTA ADDED per Scott's confirmation (June 2026) that InmateAid's magazine service CAN route a subscription through the MO resident-account/ordering process; (2) expanded from ~1,679 words (v1 was under series target) to series-standard length; original wording preserved, additions only. Please delete v1 once v2 is approved (no in-place edit / delete tool on my end).

=> Amazon book CTA REMAINS OMITTED. Families cannot order or mail books in; all book orders route through the resident's funded account and the in-facility ordering process (official doc.mo.gov). Presenting an Amazon book link would mislead.

NOTE: Governing = MO DOC (Division of Adult Institutions). ID = DOC ID#. Personal mail -> Digital Mail Center, PO Box 25678, Tampa FL 33622-5678 (scanned to media player/tablet, held 45 days then disposed; max 10 items/envelope; no greeting cards except via Securus). Rationale (well-documented): drug-soaked pages (K2, meth, fentanyl liquid form, suboxone strips in spines), tampered "vendor" packages w/ fabricated receipts, even religious texts; people found unresponsive. Reading materials must meet censorship guidelines, <= $100 value, within property limits. Libraries: 220,000+ books/mags/newspapers free + chapel/religious libraries free.

How to Send Books and Magazines to an Inmate in Missouri

A good book is one of the most valuable things you can put in the hands of someone you love inside a Missouri prison. It fills the long, empty hours, it keeps the mind working, and it is a piece of the outside world they get to hold. Missouri works differently from every other state, though, and if you try to send a book the normal way it will not get there. Let me walk you through the one way that actually works, and the good news is that once you understand it, it is not complicated and it does not have to be expensive.

I am going to explain it the way someone who has done time would, plainly and without the runaround, with the parts that actually matter and none of the noise.

The One Rule That Is Different in Missouri

Here is the thing to understand before you spend a dollar: in Missouri you cannot mail a book to your person, and you also cannot order a book from a store or website to be shipped in to them. Not from Amazon, not from any vendor, not even a brand-new copy shipped straight from a distributor. As of September 25, 2023, that entire channel was closed to family and friends. The same is true for magazines and newspapers.

This surprises almost everyone, because in most states a copy shipped by Amazon or a publisher goes through fine, and a lot of well-meaning families learn this the hard way by placing an order that quietly gets refused at the gate. Missouri is the exception. So put aside what you may have read about other states or seen on a vendor website, and follow the Missouri process below, because it is the only one that actually puts a book in your person's hands.

How It Actually Works: Fund the Account, Your Person Orders

In Missouri, you fund the purchase and your person places the order. Here is the step by step.

First, you add money to your person's account equal to the cost of the book or subscription. You can do this through Securus at securustech.net, the same way you would send funds for anything else.

Second, your person selects what they want from the catalogs available in the facility and submits a purchase request through their case manager. That request generates what the department calls a green check.

Third, the prison's offender finance unit deducts the funds from your person's account and places the order. The book or magazine is then shipped directly from the bona fide distributor to the facility.

So your role is to make sure the money is there and to talk with your person about what they want. Their role is to place the order through the facility. It is more steps than mailing a paperback, but it is the only route that works, and it does work.

A few practical notes make this go smoothly. Confirm your person's full committed name and DOC ID number on the Missouri inmate search before you send funds, since money has to land in the right account. Talk with your person ahead of time so they know the money is coming and are ready to place the order, because the deposit does nothing on its own until they submit the request. Build in some patience, since funding, the case manager's green check, and the distributor's shipping each take their own time, and a book can take a few weeks to arrive. And keep a note of what you funded and when, so if something stalls your person can follow up with their case manager and you both know exactly what was ordered.

Why Missouri Did This

It helps to understand the reasoning, because it explains why there is no workaround. Starting July 1, 2022, Missouri stopped accepting physical personal mail at its adult facilities altogether. Letters, cards, and photos now go to a Digital Mail Center in Tampa, Florida, where they are scanned and delivered to your person's tablet or printed for them. Then in September 2023 the department extended the same logic to books and publications.

The driver is drugs. The department says mailroom staff have found books and magazines, including religious texts, with pages soaked in K2, methamphetamine, and fentanyl, and with suboxone strips hidden in the spines. Because some of these drugs now come in liquid form soaked into paper and can be absorbed through the skin, they are hard to detect, and people have been found unresponsive after exposure. The department also found packages that were made to look like vendor shipments but had been tampered with, in some cases a book bought from a store, altered, and even returned to the vendor to be reshipped. Closing the family-order route entirely, and routing every purchase through the facility instead, is how Missouri responded. It is a strict answer, and it frustrates families who only ever wanted to send a paperback, but knowing the reason makes it easier to see why there is no clever workaround and why the funded-account route is the path to use.

You Cannot Use Amazon to Ship a Book In

Because families ask this constantly: no, you cannot order from Amazon and have it shipped to a Missouri prison, even sold and shipped by Amazon, even brand new. In most states that works. In Missouri it does not, because the state removed the family-order channel completely, not just unapproved sellers. If you order a book from Amazon to the facility, it will not be delivered, and depending on the facility it may simply be discarded rather than returned, so you can lose the money entirely. Put the money in your person's account instead, and let them order through the facility process described above. It is the same book in the end, just bought through the one channel Missouri allows, and your money goes just as far.

Magazines and Newspapers Work the Same Way

Magazines and newspapers follow the identical model. You do not start an ordinary outside subscription and have it mailed in, because a subscription that simply shows up from a publisher is turned away the same way a book would be. The subscription has to run through the facility's ordering process, funded by money in your person's account.

Whether you arrange it through InmateAid or have your person request a title directly, the underlying mechanic is the same: the money sits in their account, the order goes through the facility, and the issues ship from the distributor to the prison. A subscription is one of the best values going, because once it is set it arrives on its own each month and gives your person something to look forward to without anyone having to act again. Stick to mainstream titles, since reading materials still have to meet the department's censorship guidelines, and a rejected issue is a wasted one. Newspapers work the same way, through a subscription routed by the facility rather than clipped and mailed.

Format, Cost, and Content

A few limits apply to whatever your person orders. Books should be paperback, since hardcover and spiral bindings are generally not accepted. Any reading material has to meet censorship guidelines, so nothing sexually explicit, violent, or otherwise prohibited. Each item must not exceed one hundred dollars in value, and everything counts against your person's property limits, so they cannot stockpile without running out of allowed space. Keep these in mind when you decide how much to fund, and lean toward a few titles your person genuinely wants to keep rather than a large pile that may bump up against those limits. If a specific book matters to your person, it is worth confirming it can clear the content guidelines before the money goes in, since a rejected order still costs time even when the funds come back.

Lean on the Library

Here is the genuinely good news, and Missouri leans on it hard. The state's prison libraries hold more than two hundred thousand books, magazines, and newspapers, and using them is free. On top of that, chapel and religious libraries offer religious texts of all kinds at no cost. For a family watching every dollar, the library is the most powerful tool your person has, so encourage them to use it heavily and to request titles through the librarian. Between the library and funded orders for the specific titles your person wants to keep, they can read widely without large costs. Encourage your person to build a relationship with the librarian and to put in requests for titles the library does not already carry, since a request that costs nothing often gets a book in front of them faster than a funded order would. For many families, the smartest plan is to let the library carry most of the reading and to fund the account only for the handful of books or the magazine subscription that your person really wants to own.

Tablets and Digital Mail

Missouri issues media players, essentially tablets, and your person's scanned mail, messages, and some media show up there. You and your person can exchange electronic mail, digital greeting cards, photos, and short videos through a Securus JPay account, which is now the main way to stay in regular contact since paper letters are scanned at the Digital Mail Center and the originals are not delivered. Treat the tablet as the hub for staying connected, and use funded orders and the library for books. The tablet may also carry some e-books and other media, which can be a cheap supplement, though the catalog tends to be limited and some titles carry a charge, so it works best alongside the library rather than as a replacement for the specific titles your person wants.

Free Books

With the family-order route closed, the prison library is your person's main source of free reading in Missouri, and it is a deep one. Outside nonprofit book-donation programs, which mail free books in many other states, are constrained here by the same rule that blocks family shipments, so do not count on a donation program mailing a book straight to your person the way they could elsewhere. Encourage library use, and fund the account for the specific titles your person wants to own. We keep current pointers to programs and resources that serve Missouri on our Missouri reentry resources page, which is the best place to check as procedures change.

Get It Right the First Time

Here is the whole thing in a breath. In Missouri you cannot mail or order a book or magazine to be shipped in, not even from Amazon. The one route that works is to add funds to your person's account through Securus, then have them order the book or subscription through the facility using their case manager and the green-check process, shipped from the distributor to the prison. For magazines, InmateAid can set up a subscription that runs through that same Missouri ordering process, which takes the guesswork out of it. Keep orders to paperbacks under one hundred dollars that meet content rules, confirm your person's name and DOC ID before you fund, and lean hard on the prison library, which is free and holds hundreds of thousands of titles. Stay connected through the tablet and Securus JPay.

Get it right and you become the person who reliably gets good books to someone who needs them. On the inside, that means more than you can know from out here.

FAQ

**Can I mail a book to a Missouri inmate myself?** No. Missouri does not accept books mailed by family or friends, and it does not accept books you order from a store or website to be shipped in. You must fund your person's account so they can order it through the facility.

**Can I order from Amazon and have it shipped to the prison?** No. Even a copy sold and shipped by Amazon will not be delivered. Missouri closed the family-order channel entirely as of September 25, 2023. Add funds to your person's account instead.

**So how does my person actually get a book?** You deposit money equal to the cost into their account through Securus at securustech.net. They select the book from facility catalogs, submit a request through their case manager (a green check), and the finance unit places the order. The distributor ships it to the facility.

**How do magazines work in Missouri?** They run through the same funded-account ordering process as books, not as a mailed-in outside subscription. You can have InmateAid set up a magazine subscription that is routed through Missouri's ordering process, or have your person request a title directly through their case manager. Either way, the money comes from their account and the issues ship from the distributor to the facility.

**Why is Missouri so strict about this?** The department says books and magazines have arrived with pages soaked in drugs like K2, meth, and fentanyl, and with suboxone hidden in spines, including packages disguised as vendor shipments. It closed the family-order route to keep these out.

**Are there limits on what my person can order?** Yes. Reading materials must be paperback, meet censorship guidelines, stay under one hundred dollars in value, and fit within property limits.

**What is the cheapest way to get my person reading material?** The prison library, which is free and holds more than two hundred thousand books, magazines, and newspapers, plus free religious texts in chapel libraries. Encourage your person to use it heavily and to request titles through the librarian, and fund account orders only for the books or the magazine subscription they want to keep.