If you have someone locked up in South Carolina, 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 Corrections works one way, a county jail works another, and the federal system 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.
South Carolina state prisons (SCDC)
South Carolina runs a fully cashless system. Every inmate has what the state calls a Cooper Trust Fund account, and here is the part that surprises people: the back of the inmate's ID card has a magnetic strip, so the card itself works as a debit card. They swipe it to buy commissary, drawing on that account. The commissary stocks snacks, hygiene items, writing materials, and over-the-counter basics.
To put money on a Cooper Trust Fund account, South Carolina uses GTL, also branded ViaPath and ConnectNetwork. You can deposit online, by phone, or at a retail location, and electronic deposits usually post within about a business day. If you mail a deposit, the state takes only a money order, and it must go with a deposit slip to GTL's processing center in Dallas, not to the prison or the facility. A money order sent straight to SCDC or to an institution gets returned, so use the Dallas lockbox address every time. One more thing to plan around: the state pulls a share of incoming funds toward restitution, child support, or other court-ordered obligations.
Care packages for SCDC residents
South Carolina handles packages through Access Securepak. The state's own twist is that an inmate can order a package for themselves, or even for an incarcerated immediate family member at another SCDC facility, by filing a Cooper Trust Fund withdrawal form with the Securepak order. Either way, it runs through the approved vendor and is paid from a trust account, not packed and shipped by a family member at home.
That leads to the one warning worth repeating. Order only through the approved vendor, because a box from a private sender gets refused, and the trust account plus the vendor catalog is the real channel.
South Carolina county jails
County jails are their own world. Each county sheriff runs its own deposit and commissary contracts, so what is true in one county is wrong in the next.
A few real examples. Greenville County's detention center lets inmates order commissary twice a week through its vendor, with deposits by kiosk and online. Newberry County uses McDaniel Supply for its commissary. Larger counties like Richland, Charleston, and Horry each run their own systems. Across counties you will see kiosks, online vendors, and mailed money orders, with cash and personal checks usually refused. City lockups often have no package program and allow commissary only.
The takeaway is simple: never assume a county jail uses the same vendor or rules as the state. Pull up that specific jail's page and confirm the deposit vendor, the spending cap, the cutoff, and the package policy before you send anything.
Federal custody and South Carolina
South Carolina has four federal Bureau of Prisons facilities, all medium-security institutions with an adjacent minimum-security camp, and all in the Southeast Region: FCI Bennettsville in the northeast near Bennettsville, FCI Edgefield near the Georgia line above Augusta, FCI Estill in the southern part of the state, and FCI Williamsburg at Salters. If your person has a federal sentence, confirm the exact facility on the inmate locator, since they could be at any of these or anywhere else in the country.
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 restricted, and the rules shift by facility and by contract. In South Carolina, remember that the ID card doubles as the commissary debit card, that mailed money orders go to GTL in Dallas and never to the prison, and that state packages run through Securepak off the trust account. The one constant through all of it 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.