The JPay money order deposit form is a one-page slip you download from JPay, fill out with the recipient’s corrections ID and your return address, and mail with a money order to a state-specific P.O. Box in Pembroke Pines, Florida. Each participating state has its own version of the form with its own mailing address, and sending to the wrong one is the fastest way to have your money order come back.
Download the Form for Your Recipient’s State
Go to jpay.com/MoneyOrder.aspx and pick the agency that houses your recipient from the dropdown. JPay publishes a separate form for each participating state department of corrections, including California, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia, plus a handful of county facilities.
The form opens as a PDF, so you need Adobe Reader or any PDF viewer. You can type into the fillable fields and then print, or print it blank and write by hand. Use blue or black ink and keep your characters inside the boxes. The processing center scans these slips, and ink that bleeds past the margins can cause delays or outright rejection.1JPay. JPay Money Order Deposit Form
Filling Out the Deposit Slip
The slip at the bottom of the form has two field groups: the recipient’s details and yours.
Recipient Fields
Enter the incarcerated person’s full legal name, last name first, and their Department of Corrections ID number. New York calls this a DIN; other states label it an inmate number or offender ID. The ID is what actually routes the money, because facilities hold thousands of people with overlapping surnames. If you don’t have the number, call the facility or search the state’s offender lookup before you fill anything out.1JPay. JPay Money Order Deposit Form
Sender Fields
You provide your first and last name, street address, city, state, zip, phone number, email, and date of birth. No government-issued ID is required.1JPay. JPay Money Order Deposit Form Write the mailing address carefully. If the deposit is rejected for any reason, JPay returns the money order to whatever address appears on the slip, and JPay takes no responsibility for items lost in transit.2JPay. Payments Terms of Service
Preparing the Money Order
Three things on the money order itself:
- Make it payable to JPay, not the incarcerated person and not the facility.1JPay. JPay Money Order Deposit Form
- Keep the amount at or below $999.99. Some states set a lower cap, so check the instructions printed on your state’s form.2JPay. Payments Terms of Service
- Write the recipient’s name and corrections ID on the memo or “used for” line. That acts as a backup identifier if the money order and slip get separated during processing.1JPay. JPay Money Order Deposit Form
Most state forms accept money orders only. A few accept more. New York’s version explicitly allows money orders, personal checks, and cashier’s checks on the same form.3JPay. JPay Money Order Deposit Form Cash is never accepted. The instruction section of your form spells out what works for your state.
JPay charges no service fee for mailed money order deposits.4JPay. JPay Money Order Deposit Form Your only cost is the money order. A USPS domestic money order up to $500 is $2.55, and one between $500.01 and $1,000 is $3.60.5United States Postal Service. Sending Money Orders Walmart and Western Union are usually cheaper, often under a dollar.
Mailing It
Put the completed slip and the money order in a standard envelope. Use the address printed on the exact form you downloaded. Every state form lists a different P.O. Box in Pembroke Pines, Florida. Virginia’s goes to one box, Minnesota’s to another, New York’s to a third.4JPay. JPay Money Order Deposit Form A money order sent to the wrong box gets delayed or returned.
Standard first-class postage is enough. If you want proof of delivery, send it USPS Certified Mail with return receipt. That adds a few dollars and gives you a tracking number plus confirmation someone at the lockbox signed for the envelope.
When the Funds Will Post
JPay says approved money orders are processed within ten business days of arrival at the lockbox.1JPay. JPay Money Order Deposit Form Mail transit adds another two to five days from most of the country to southern Florida. Plan on roughly two to three weeks from mailbox to trust account.
You can check status by logging in on jpay.com or the JPay mobile app. Once the money order clears, the balance appears in the recipient’s trust account and becomes available for commissary, phone time, or whatever the facility allows.
Why Deposits Get Rejected
JPay’s terms list illegible slip information and facility-imposed restrictions as the common causes.2JPay. Payments Terms of Service In practice, the specific failure points are:
- A corrections ID that doesn’t match anyone in the system, which leaves the deposit nowhere to go.
- A money order over $999.99, or over a lower state-specific cap, which gets mailed back automatically.2JPay. Payments Terms of Service
- Facility deposit caps. Texas holds single deposits of $500 or more for 14 days before granting access, and some facilities set hard per-transaction limits as low as $250.
- The wrong payment type. Sending cash, or a personal check to a state that only accepts money orders, means automatic return.
When JPay returns a rejected deposit, the original money order and slip go back to the sender address written on the form. That’s why that address has to be right.
When Mailing a Money Order Is the Wrong Choice
Mail is the slowest route. If the recipient needs funds in a day or two, JPay also offers electronic transfers through its website, mobile app, phone line, and in-person at MoneyGram agent locations. Electronic deposits often post within one business day, but they carry service fees that vary by state and amount. Exact pricing for a specific facility is on jpay.com/Pavail.aspx. The money order route is cheapest when the amount is large or when you don’t have a debit or credit card to use online.