Federal prison FAQ, for families # Mail Why letters come back, how to address one so it does not, and what your kid can and cannot draw with. The envelope ## Getting it there ### How do I address it? Their committed name, their register number, and the institution's mailing address in the exact format that facility specifies. Your own full name and complete return address on the outside. Check whether their facility processes general correspondence centrally or scans incoming mail (paper letters, opened and screened) rather than delivering your original. Both arrangements exist, both change the address you use, and using the wrong one means it goes nowhere. ### Why did my letter come back? Almost always something on the rejection list. Check the envelope before you call anyone. Understand the incentive: nobody in the mailroom is paid to decide whether your letter is fine. If they pass something that turns out to be a problem, that is on them. If they reject it and you are upset, that is on nobody. **The goal is not to be reasonable, it is to be unrejectable.** [The full list](/for-families/guide/mail) is worth reading once. ### How many pages can I send? There is a limit almost everywhere and it is set locally rather than nationally, so I cannot give you a number that is true at their facility. It lives in the admission and orientation handbook, along with the photo limit. Ask them to send you that section, or find the handbook on the facility's page at bop.gov. Then stay under it, because being one page over is a rejection like any other. ### Can I send stickers, glitter, or a card? No stickers of any kind, and that includes return-address labels and decorative seals. No glitter, no glue, no tape, no padding, no musical cards, no layered or oversized cards. Also on the list: lipstick, perfume, anything applied to the paper, water-stained paper, blank paper, blank envelopes, and loose postage stamps. ### Can I send photos? How many? Yes, up to a per-envelope limit set by their institution. It is usually a small number, and going over it gets the whole envelope rejected rather than the extra photos removed. No Polaroids, because of what can be concealed in the backing. Nothing sexually explicit. Nothing that could be read as a gang sign, which is interpreted broadly and unsympathetically. Send them regularly and send them small. Photographs are the thing men actually keep. ### Can I send my kid's drawing? Pencil or pen on plain paper. Crayon, marker, glued-on anything, and glitter all come back. This is the rejection that hurts the most and it is entirely preventable. Hand the kid a pencil. ### Can I send a book? Direct from a publisher or an approved retailer only. Not one you own, and not one you bought at a store and put in a box. Order it online and have it shipped to them at the facility. The publications rules are [PS 5266.11](/resources/program-statements/5266-11-incoming-publications). ### Can I send money in a card? No. Cash, personal checks, and gift cards are all rejected, and there is a proper route for money that [the money section](/for-families/faq/money) covers. The other direction ## Delays, privacy, and silence ### Why is their mail to me taking so long? Everything is inspected in both directions, and at facilities that route general correspondence through a central processing center it is also scanned before delivery. That adds days at best and weeks at worse. A week or two each way is unremarkable. Date your letters so you can both tell what is a delay and what is a gap. ### Is my mail being read? Assume yes. Incoming general correspondence may be opened and read, and at minimum it is inspected. Their outgoing mail is subject to inspection too. Write accordingly. Nothing about their case, anyone else's case, money arrangements, or anything you would not want read aloud to a room. That constraint is genuinely painful over years and it is still the rule. ### What's legal mail and does it work differently? Correspondence from their attorney, which is opened in their presence rather than in the mailroom. It has to be marked correctly to get that treatment, and that is the lawyer's job rather than yours. If their attorney is not marking it properly, say so once, plainly. ### What if mail just stops arriving? Check your envelope against the list first, because it is nearly always something on it, and rejected mail sometimes comes back with no notice explaining why. They may never know it existed. If your envelopes are clean and it has been weeks in both directions, the usual causes are a SHU (solitary) placement, a facility lockdown (everyone confined, movement stopped), or a transfer in progress. Call the unit team (the staff who run your daily life). [Lockdowns are tracked per facility here](/resources/facilities), and [the alert service](/lockdown-alerts/subscribe) emails you when their locks down. Next section — part 3 of 10 ### [Visiting](/for-families/faq/visiting) Getting approved, what to wear, what you can touch, whether to bring the children, and the drive home. **Need help with this? Just ask.** These pages cover the general rules. Your situation has details they don't. Email me a question. **Answers are free** , and "you don't need to pay anyone for this" is my most common answer. [josh@federalprisondude.com](mailto:josh@federalprisondude.com?subject=Family%20question) I answer in the order received, usually within a couple of days. I have a day job. If your situation genuinely needs more than an email, I take a limited number of consults, so say so and we'll work it out.