Send Magazines to Inmates Effortlessly

iEditorial Note: These blog posts represent the opinion of DoNotPay’s Writers, but each person’s situation and circumstances vary greatly. As a result, you should make sure to do your own independent research. Because everyone is unique, our self-help tools are never guaranteed to help with any specific situation. DoNotPay is not a law firm and is not licensed to practice law. DoNotPay provides a platform for legal information and self-help.

How To Send Magazines to Inmates With No Hassle

In the difficult moments that prison life usually brings, nothing can lift prisoners’ spirits like colorful pages full of absorbing information. An article published by the New York Times about inmates who write up to 30 letters a month to the editorial offices of their favorite magazines is sufficient proof for this.

This preference for printed publications has developed because of the ban on the internet and digital communication. For many prisoners, reading magazines is the only way to keep up with the news from the outside world, which is why they are the perfect gift for anyone behind bars.

What Magazines Can/Can’t You Send to Inmates?

Just like books and newspapers, magazines need to be sent to inmates as packages from the publishers approved by the institution.

This means that you can’t bring a package to jail and give it to the prisoner during the visit or send it yourself via post. What you can do is order from the publishers and have it sent to the facility where the prisoner is held.

The best way to provide your imprisoned pen pal with a bunch of reading material is to purchase a monthly subscription to their favorite magazine. You can choose from a variety of categories such as cars, health, travel, or hobbies, but there are certain types of publications you have to avoid, such as the ones related to:

  • Gangs
  • Crimes
  • Weapons
  • Illegal substances
  • Pornography

The table below shows examples of permitted and prohibited magazines to help you make a good choice:

Examples of Permitted MagazinesExamples of Prohibited Magazines
  • Slam
  • Time
  • People
  • Forbes
  • Maxim
  • Newsweek
  • Diesel World
  • The Economist
  • National Geographic
  • Entertainment Weekly, etc.
  • Guns
  • Swank
  • Hustler
  • Playboy
  • Penthouse
  • Firearms News, etc.

To be on the safe side, you can write to a prisoner or contact the correctional facility to check whether the publications you want to buy are permitted.

How To Address Parcels to an Inmate?

Addressing a parcel to a prisoner is similar to addressing a letter. A single mistake might ruin it all and make the package or any other mail declined or discarded.

Regardless of the provider whose services you are using, you will need the inmate’s ID number and their exact address, including the unit. If you place an order without stating these details, it might easily get lost.

Here’s what the format of the delivery address should look like:

[Inmate’s First Name] [Inmate’s Last Name] [Inmate’s ID Number]

[Facility Name] [Facility Unit]

[Facility Address]

[County] [State] [Zip Code]

Make sure you pick the United States Postal Service (USPS) as your courier. Almost all correctional institutions in the USA accept only parcels sent by this company as the inmates can’t sign for deliveries.

How To Order Magazines for Inmates

The most popular way of purchasing monthly subscriptions to any magazine is from Amazon. This is a trusted service, and the ordering process is simple and straightforward. Here’s how you can do it:

  1. Log in to your Amazon account
  2. Put the magazines you want to purchase in the basket and proceed to checkout
  3. Enter inmate’s personal details, including their first and last name, ID number, and the physical address of the facility
  4. Check the Send as a Gift option
  5. Choose USPS as your courier
  6. Click on Place Your Order

Aside from Amazon, the following publishers can also ship magazines to prisoners:

Discuss Compelling Articles With an Inmate via DoNotPay

You don’t need to write letters by hand anymore. You can compose them online with DoNotPay. Thanks to our platform, you can maintain active communication with a prisoner by using your only.

To use this feature, follow these instructions:

  1. Open DoNotPay
  2. Choose Connect With an Inmate
  3. Click on Send a Personalized Letter
  4. Enter the necessary details related to the inmate
  5. Type your message in the required field
  6. Send the letter

Once we receive your message, we will convert it into a physical copy and send it in no time. You can also personalize the letter with cool templates we offer to make it look less “uniformed”.

The inmate can respond by sending their letter to us. We will digitize it and forward it to the Virtual Mailbox, which you can access from your DoNotPay account.

Need To Locate an Inmate? DoNotPay Will Do It for You

Not knowing the exact location of a prisoner complicates everything, as you won’t be able to write, call, or send packages. To find the precise address of the facility, use another DoNotPay’s handy feature—Locate Someone.

Locating an inmate through our app is an easy task consisting of only three steps:

  1. Open DoNotPay and find the Connect With an Inmate
  2. Pick the Locate Someone feature
  3. Track down the inmate by inputting their first name, last name, and the state of incarceration

This way, DoNotPay saves you from endless rummaging through numerous detention center websites and provides you with accurate results.

Having More To Give to Inmates? We Can Help!

Supporting a person you care about on a difficult journey, such as imprisonment, will be easier if you get familiar with inmate care packages, calling services, and text messaging. Not only will you be able to get them compelling reading material, but you can also surprise them with great gifts or pictures.

Interested in becoming a prison pen pal? We help you search for inmates all around the USA. If one of them catches your attention more than others and you fall in love with them, learn how to write the best love letters and keep your relationship alive.

Find all this and much more by exploring DoNotPay from your as we can also help you with the following issues:

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