A personal letter is a simpler problem than shipping a book, but it fails for a different reason. Facilities do not usually reject a letter over the paper it arrived on before they even reach the paper — they reject it because the envelope has the wrong name and number on it, or because a staple, a sticker, or a spray of perfume tripped a rule that has nothing to do with what you wrote. Below is what a national correspondence policy actually says, what specific mail rooms add on top of it, and what a First-Class stamp costs today.
Most mail rooms screen the address and the paper before anyone reads a word of the letter.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons runs on one correspondence policy across every federal facility, and it is narrower than most people expect. It sets who can open your letter and why, and what the address on it has to contain. It does not, at the federal level, publish a list of banned paper colors or fasteners — that layer is left to each Warden.
Institution staff shall open and inspect all incoming general correspondence. Incoming general correspondence may be read as frequently as deemed necessary to maintain security or monitor a particular problem confronting an inmate.Federal Bureau of Prisons, Program Statement 5265.14, Correspondence, §540.14(a), read 2026-09-01
The same policy sets the address format for mail an inmate sends out: full name, register number, the institution's name, and its P.O. Box or street address. Mail rooms apply that same name-plus-number logic in reverse to what comes in, which is why the money-order instructions on the Bureau's own correspondence page put it in one sentence: the inmate's full committed name and eight-digit register number have to be printed legibly on the outside of the envelope. A letter is not a negotiable instrument, but a mail room sorting hundreds of pieces a day uses the same two fields to route it.
If a letter is rejected, the policy requires the Warden to notify the sender in writing with the reason, and to tell the sender they can appeal. That notice is the only place a facility is required to explain a rejection — it will not come back stamped on the envelope itself.
This is the layer the federal policy leaves to individual institutions, and state and county systems spell it out in detail. A county detention mail policy we read is typical of what shows up across the country:
| Item | Allowed |
|---|---|
| Plain white or lined white paper, standard letter envelope | Yes |
| Colored paper, colored envelopes, envelopes with metal clasps | No |
| Staples, paper clips, binder clips, correction fluid or tape | No |
| Stickers, tape, adhesive labels, decals, wax seals | No |
| Perfume, cologne, scented paper, lipstick marks | No |
| Blue or black ink only | Yes |
| Crayon, glitter pen, gel pen, highlighter, colored ink | No |
| Return address with a legible last name on the outside | Required |
The reasoning behind most of this is contraband, not tidiness: a fastener or a seam is somewhere to hide something, and a scent or a stain is how liquid drugs have been smuggled onto paper. Following this list does not clear every facility's screen on its own, but it clears the reasons letters most commonly bounce.
Several state systems no longer hand an inmate the letter you mailed. They route incoming mail through a contracted scanning vendor first, and the address printed on the facility's own mail page reflects that.
Smart Communications will open and scan mail and photos into an electronic document that will be printed by the facility mailroom. All original mail will be retained for 45 days unless otherwise instructed by DOC. It cannot be returned to the sender. After 45 days, original mail will be destroyed.Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Inmate Mail Rules and Guidelines, read 2026-09-01
In that state's case, the mailing address printed for every state correctional institution is a P.O. box in St. Petersburg, Florida, not the prison's own street address in Pennsylvania. Your envelope goes through the vendor first; the inmate gets a printed copy of the scan, and your original handwriting or an enclosed photo sits on file for six and a half weeks before it is gone for good, with no way to get it back. This is not universal — plenty of state and county systems still deliver the physical letter — but where a facility's mail page names a central processing address in a different state, that is what is happening, and it is worth reading before you assume a rejected or delayed letter was lost rather than scanned and shredded on schedule.
An address copied from an old letter, a forum thread, or a general web search is exactly the kind of thing that goes stale, since inmates transfer between facilities and states periodically move their mail intake between a vendor's box and the facility itself.
A letter to a correctional facility is priced exactly like any other First-Class Mail letter — there is no separate inmate-mail rate. USPS puts two hard numbers on its own price list.
| Piece | Weight | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Letter, Forever stamp | up to 1 oz | $0.82 |
| Letter, metered | up to 1 oz | $0.78 |
| Postcard | — | $0.65 |
| Large envelope (flat) | up to 1 oz | $1.69 |
A First-Class Mail letter tops out at 3.5 oz; past that, or once it stops being flat and bendy, it needs large-envelope or package postage instead, and a large envelope has its own ceiling at 13 oz. A few sheets of paper alone stay well under 1 oz, but a letter with photos enclosed — and several facility policies allow up to two dozen — can cross into the next price tier fast, so weigh a thick one rather than guessing at a single stamp. USPS states delivery for First-Class Mail generally at 1 to 5 days; that figure is the carrier's own general estimate and is not specific to mail addressed to a correctional facility, where the scanning step described above adds time the postal network itself has no part in.
SMKlog prices and ships parcels, not First-Class letters or postage stamps — stamps are sold at the Post Office or usps.com. If what you are sending is closer to a box than a letter, our care package pricing guide and Forever stamp guide cover where a stamp stops being the cheaper answer.
Every facility sets its own version of the rules above on top of whatever its state or federal system requires. Nothing here substitutes for that specific facility's own mail page, checked before you address the envelope.
The inmate's full committed name and their register or ID number, plus the facility name and its current mailing address, and your own return address including a last name. The Federal Bureau of Prisons ties incoming money orders to name-plus-register-number for exactly this reason, and mail rooms apply the same logic to general letters: a name without a number is what gets a piece of mail stuck unmatched.
Not at most facilities. A county mail policy we read states incoming letters must be on plain white or lined white paper with no stickers, tape, labels, or decals, and no perfume or other scent on the page. Staples, paper clips, and correction fluid are commonly barred too, since they are contraband risks or ways to hide something under the fastener.
A number of state systems now route incoming mail through a central scanning vendor: the original is opened, scanned, and printed for the inmate, while your handwriting and any enclosed photo stay on file for a set number of days before being destroyed. One state policy we read holds originals 45 days and states plainly they cannot be returned to the sender. The address printed for that state is often a processing center's PO box in another state entirely, not the prison's own street address.
The same as any First-Class Mail letter: $0.82 with a Forever stamp for one ounce, up to 3.5 oz before it needs large-envelope or package postage instead. A letter that also carries photos or several pages often crosses into the $1.69-and-up large-envelope tier, so weigh a thick letter before applying one stamp and hoping.
For a federal inmate, use the Bureau of Prisons' own inmate locator to confirm which facility they are currently housed at, then use that facility's mail page for the address to write on the envelope — the locator itself does not print one. For a state or county inmate, the state department of corrections' own site is the source; addresses move between a scanning vendor's PO box and the facility's street address depending on the system, and an address from an old letter or a forum post is exactly the kind of thing that goes stale.