To send pictures to an inmate using FreePrints, order standard 4×6 prints in the app, ship them to your own address first, then label each photo with the inmate’s full legal name and ID number and mail them in a plain envelope to the address the facility requires. The app itself is the easy part. The reason photos get rejected is almost always the facility’s mail rules, not the prints, so read those rules before you place the order.
What FreePrints Costs and Why It Works for Inmate Mail
FreePrints is a mobile app for iPhone and Android that prints photos from your phone or cloud storage. You get up to 85 free 4×6 prints per month, one free print per photo, and up to 1,000 free prints per year. You pay only shipping and handling, starting at $1.99 and capping at $9.99 no matter how many prints are in the order.1FreePrints App for iPhone & Android. Get Free Photo Prints Larger sizes and premium finishes cost extra, but the standard 4×6 is almost always what a correctional facility will accept anyway.
The app takes any shipping address at checkout. It won’t screen whether the destination is a jail, prison, or a third-party mail processor. Whether the photos make it to your loved one depends entirely on the facility.
Read the Facility’s Mail Rules Before You Order
Every jail, prison, and detention center writes its own rules for incoming photos, and the differences are large. One facility caps envelopes at five photos; another allows 25. Some accept only 4×6; some allow up to 5×7. A few have gone digital-only and no longer accept physical photos at all. Check the facility’s website for a page labeled “mail rules,” “visitation and correspondence,” or “inmate services,” or call the mailroom directly. Focus on four things.
Content. Nearly all facilities prohibit nudity, sexually suggestive images, gang-related symbols, depictions of violence, and anything showing illegal activity. Federal prisons ordinarily do not permit nude or sexually suggestive personal photos, even of people the inmate knows.2U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons. Correspondence Many facilities also reject photos showing hand gestures or tattoos that could read as gang-related.
Size and quantity. The 4×6 standard is the safest choice. Quantity caps vary widely, and sending more than the limit is one of the most common reasons an entire envelope gets returned rather than partially delivered.
Format. Facilities that inspect mail by hand reject anything they cannot easily examine. Federal prisons return items that cannot be searched without being destroyed, including double-faced photos glued back to back.3U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons. Mail Management Manual Polaroid-style instant prints, laminated photos, and anything with adhesive backing tend to be rejected for the same reason. Standard FreePrints 4x6s are fine on this front.
Labeling. Most facilities require the inmate’s full legal name and identification number on the back of every photo, and require the sender’s full name and return address on the outside of the envelope. Missing any of these can get the envelope returned unopened.
Check Whether the Facility Digitizes Incoming Mail
This catches most senders off guard. At least 25 state prison systems, plus the federal Bureau of Prisons for most security levels, no longer hand inmates their original mail. Letters and photos go to a processing center, often run by a third-party vendor, get scanned into digital images, and are then either printed as copies for the inmate or delivered on a tablet screen. Originals are typically held for a limited period and then destroyed.
Practical result: the glossy 4×6 you ordered may reach your loved one as a lower-resolution photocopy or a tablet image. Reports from multiple systems describe reproduction quality as noticeably degraded, with faces sometimes blurry and colors washed out. Color copies look better than black-and-white, but neither matches the original.
When the facility uses a third-party processor, the mailing address is not the prison itself. It is a PO Box belonging to the processing company, usually formatted as inmate name, inmate number, PO Box number, city, state, ZIP. If that full address is too long for the FreePrints address fields, the facility’s mail rules page will usually offer an abbreviated version. Use the exact format the facility specifies.
Knowing your facility scans mail also tells you whether it is worth paying for anything beyond the free 4×6. If the inmate will only ever see a photocopy or a screen, upgrading the prints buys nothing.
Ship to Yourself, Then Forward
You have two ways to route the order.
Directly From FreePrints to the Facility
You can type the facility’s or processor’s address into FreePrints at checkout and skip re-mailing. Some prison systems explicitly allow photos from outside vendors like FreePrints.4Department of Corrections, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Inmate Mail Rules and Guidelines The risks: the return address on the package will be FreePrints’ business address, not yours, and some facilities reject mail without a personal sender name and return address. The photos also arrive without the inmate’s name and ID number written on the back, which is grounds for rejection at many facilities.
To Yourself First, Then to the Facility
The safer approach for most people. Order the prints to your home, and when they arrive:
- Write the inmate’s full legal name and identification number on the back of every photo.
- Count out only the quantity the facility allows in a single envelope.
- Place them in a plain white envelope with your full name and return address in the sender area.
- Address the envelope exactly as the facility’s rules specify, using the processor PO Box if applicable.
Double-check every detail. A transposed digit in the ID number or a missing ZIP is enough to bounce the envelope back.
Why Photos Get Rejected
Mailrooms screen every incoming piece, and the screening is thorough. The most common reasons photos are turned away:
- Prohibited content: nudity, suggestive poses, gang imagery, violence, or illegal activity. Sexually explicit personal photographs are returned to the sender in federal facilities.2U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons. Correspondence
- Missing, incorrect, or illegible inmate ID number. The mailroom cannot route mail it cannot identify.
- Exceeding the per-envelope quantity limit. Send 15 to a facility that allows 10 and the whole envelope may come back.
- No sender name or return address on the envelope.
- Unsearchable format: double-faced prints, laminated photos, or anything the mailroom cannot physically inspect.3U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons. Mail Management Manual
When mail is rejected, facilities typically notify both the sender and the inmate. Rejected items are usually returned, though some facilities destroy items that violate certain policies. Federal prisons return unauthorized items like sexually explicit photos with a form documenting what was refused and why.3U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons. Mail Management Manual
How Long Delivery Takes
Plan for longer than you’d expect. FreePrints usually takes several business days to print and ship, and standard shipping adds a few more. Once the package reaches the facility or its third-party processor, it enters the screening queue, which can add several days to more than a week depending on volume and staffing. At facilities using off-site scanning, mail travels to the processing center first, gets scanned, and then the copies or digital files go to the facility for distribution. From order to inmate’s hands, expect one to three weeks, with holidays and weekends adding delay. Order well ahead of any birthday or occasion.
Faster Alternatives for Digital Delivery
Physical prints are not the only option, and at scanning facilities the inmate ends up seeing a digital image anyway. Several inmate communication platforms let you attach photos to electronic messages that arrive in hours rather than weeks.
JPay offers an email-style service where you can attach a photo to a message for the price of one additional stamp, with delivery typically under 48 hours depending on the facility.5JPay. Email Stamp prices vary by location. At some facilities inmates can view photo attachments on a tablet and print them.
Securus charges one stamp per photo attachment, with stamp packages ranging from $2.00 for six stamps to $10.00 for 60 stamps, roughly $0.17 to $0.33 per photo.6Washington State Department of Corrections. Securus Services Securus also offers a “Snap N’ Send” feature at one stamp per photo.
Many families use both channels: a digital photo for the fast connection, and a batch of physical FreePrints prints for something the inmate can keep, where the facility still delivers originals.