Mail sent to someone in a federal prison has to reach the right address, carry the inmate’s full legal name and eight-digit register number, and contain nothing beyond a letter and approved paper items. Staff open and read most incoming letters before delivering them, and at nearly every facility the inmate receives a photocopy rather than the original. The federal prison inmate mail rules split correspondence into two categories with different handling, set strict limits on what can go inside the envelope, and route money through a separate address entirely.
How to Address the Envelope
Get any of these wrong and the letter comes back or disappears into a dead-letter pile. Every envelope needs four things:
- The inmate’s full legal name exactly as it appears in Bureau of Prisons records. No nicknames, no shortened forms.
- The eight-digit register number, written right after the name. You can look this up on the BOP’s online inmate locator.1Federal Bureau of Prisons. Inmate Locator
- The complete street address of the facility, printed legibly, with city, state, and zip.
- Your full name and address in the upper left corner. Many facilities will not deliver mail without a return address.
Use a plain white envelope and standard white paper. Skip the padding, stickers, glitter, heavy tape, or anything decorative that complicates inspection. Photograph limits vary, but many facilities cap incoming photos at about 25 per envelope so staff can process them.
What You Cannot Send
The warden can reject any letter judged a threat to security, good order, or public safety, or that could help someone commit a crime. The regulation spells out specific categories that will get mail turned away:2eCFR. 28 CFR 540.14 – General Correspondence
- Content depicting, describing, or encouraging physical violence or organized disruption inside the facility.
- Information about escape plans, criminal schemes, or ways to break BOP rules.
- Threats, extortion attempts, or gratuitous profanity.
- Anything written in code.
- Sexually explicit personal photographs or other material that could threaten safety or institutional order.
- Correspondence that amounts to directing a business from prison. Signing routine paperwork to protect existing assets, like a mortgage refinance or insurance form, is allowed.
- Any unauthorized package or physical item.
Separately, the BOP’s Mail Management Manual requires staff to return anything they cannot search without destroying it. That includes electronic greeting cards, padded cards, and layered photographs.3Federal Bureau of Prisons. Mail Management Manual 5800.16 Polaroid-style photos fall in the same bucket, because the layered backing can hide substances.
No Stamps, No Cash, No Enclosed Postage
A common mistake is slipping a few unused stamps or a pre-stamped envelope inside so the inmate can write back. Inmates cannot receive stamps or stamped items from outside senders. Postage has to come through the institution or the commissary, and any stamps you enclose will be confiscated.4eCFR. 28 CFR 540.21 – Payment of Postage Cash inside a letter is treated the same way: not accepted, not delivered.
Sending Money to an Inmate
Money never goes to the facility. All inmate funds sent by mail are processed through a centralized BOP lockbox in Iowa. Send a money order, cashier’s check, certified check, or bank draft to:5Federal Bureau of Prisons. Sending Funds Using the United States Postal Service
Federal Bureau of Prisons
[Inmate’s Full Committed Name]
[Eight-Digit Register Number]
Post Office Box 474701
Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001
Write the inmate’s full committed name and register number directly on the payment instrument, not just on the envelope. Include your return address so the lockbox can send funds back if they cannot be posted. Personal checks and cash are not accepted. Do not tuck a letter, photo, or anything else into the envelope with the payment. Anything sent to the lockbox address beyond the check or money order is thrown away.
Books, Magazines, and Newspapers
You cannot mail a used book from home in most cases. Hardcover books and newspapers can only come from a publisher, book club, or bookstore at every BOP facility. At medium-security, high-security, and administrative institutions, the same publisher-only rule extends to softcover books, magazines, and newspaper clippings.6eCFR. 28 CFR Part 540 Subpart F – Incoming Publications The unit manager may make an exception if the inmate provides written proof that a particular publication is no longer available from its original source. Order directly from the seller and have it shipped to the facility.
Special Mail: Legal and Government Correspondence
Some senders get stronger privacy protection under the special mail category: the President and Vice President, attorneys, members of Congress, embassies and consulates, the U.S. Department of Justice (including U.S. Attorneys but not the BOP itself), federal law enforcement officers, state attorneys general, prosecuting attorneys, governors, U.S. courts including federal probation officers, and state courts.7eCFR. 28 CFR 540.12 – Controls and Procedures
To get that protection, two things have to be true on the envelope. The sender must be adequately identified, with name and professional title. And the front of the envelope must be marked “Special Mail—Open only in the presence of the inmate.”8eCFR. 28 CFR 540.18 – Special Mail If either piece is missing, staff can treat the letter as ordinary correspondence and read it. This is where attorney-client letters most often lose their confidentiality: the lawyer forgets the special mail label, and the confidentiality goes with it.
Special mail can still be opened for a physical contraband check, but only in the inmate’s presence, and the contents cannot be read or copied. Ordinary correspondence, by contrast, is opened and read out of the inmate’s presence.
What Happens to Your Letter on the Inside
Staff open and inspect every piece of incoming general correspondence, checking for physical contraband and reviewing the text for security concerns. They can read general correspondence as often as they consider necessary.9Federal Bureau of Prisons. Program Statement 5265.14 – Correspondence
At every facility except minimum-security camps, general correspondence and photographs are photocopied in color, and the inmate receives the copies. The originals are not delivered. Minimum-security camp inmates still get their physical mail directly. This is worth knowing before you send an original photograph or a handwritten card meant to be kept: unless the recipient is at a camp, they will see a color copy.
Electronic Messaging as an Alternative
The Trust Fund Limited Inmate Computer System, known as TRULINCS, lets inmates exchange short electronic messages with people on an approved contact list. All BOP-operated facilities have it, though contract facilities housing federal inmates do not.10Federal Bureau of Prisons. TRULINCS Topics
The inmate adds you to their contact list and staff approve it. The system then sends you an automated invitation through the CorrLinks platform, and you have to accept before any messages can be exchanged. All messages are screened for content that could threaten public safety or institutional security.11Federal Bureau of Prisons. Inmate Communications It is faster than paper mail but not private, and it does not replace legal correspondence, which still has to travel as marked special mail.
If Your Letter Gets Rejected
When the warden rejects a piece of correspondence, both you and the inmate must receive written notice explaining why, and the notice has to tell you that you can appeal. Rejected mail is returned to the sender in most cases. There is one significant exception: if the letter contains evidence of a crime or plans to commit one, the BOP is not required to return it or even notify anyone, and the material goes to law enforcement. Physical contraband is not returned either.12eCFR. 28 CFR Part 540 – Contact With Persons in the Community
An appeal is reviewed by a different official than the one who rejected the letter in the first place. If you want the decision reconsidered, follow the instructions in the written rejection notice you receive.