What You Should Know About Sending Pictures to Inmates

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.

Find Out More About Sending Pictures to Inmates

If your loved one is incarcerated, you should know that keeping in touch can help them go through the sentence more easily. Getting a letter from you and photos of their loved ones makes a huge difference in their dull and harsh surroundings.

Rules for Sending Pictures to Inmates

If you want your loved one to receive and keep the photos you send them, make sure you follow the rules. You should know that the jail staff opens and checks mail before giving it to prisoners, mostly because of safety concerns. Don’t include anything inappropriate or incriminating because an extra pair of eyes will always be watching.

There are differences between the rules for sending pics to federal and state facilities, so take a look at the table below to check the specific regulation:

Federal Inmates Pic Sending RulesState Inmates Pic Sending Rules
  • Pictures are allowed
  • Nudity or any other sexual content is not permitted
  • Appropriate photos of friends and family are encouraged
  • No polaroids allowed
  • You can send pictures
  • Offenders can keep up to 50 photos
  • Pics shouldn’t be bigger than 8x10 or 5x7 inches
  • No polaroids allowed

Sending Drawings and Paintings to Inmates

You can send handmade drawings or paintings done in:

  • Ink
  • Crayon
  • Watercolor
  • Charcoal

These drawings shouldn’t be larger than 9x12 inches. You should also be careful what you draw since any explicit content—even drawn—is strictly forbidden. Jail staff is aware of all the possible ways to insert contraband, so keep that in mind.

Sending Photos to Inmates

In most prisons, you can send up to five photos with a letter, but they must be the right size. You cannot send polaroids to inmates whatever facility they are in.

Another important rule is that prisoners may not be sent photos of themselves, even as a part of a family picture. This is forbidden because another inmate might acquire that photo and use it for illegal purposes.

Who Can Send Photos to Inmates?

Any person who can send mail to inmates can send them photos as well. People sending pictures to prisoners are family members or friends because their photos can make incarcerated people feel better and help them cope with their situation.

Offenders in remotely-monitored home detention cannot send pictures to incarcerated persons. Witnesses or victims of a crime that the prisoner committed also can’t maintain communication with the inmate in custody.

How To Send Pictures to Inmates?

Since pictures delivered to inmates have to be a certain size, the easiest way to send them is by mail. There is usually a limit on how many photos you can send at once, and you should check that with the facility beforehand.

When you write your letter to the inmate, put the appropriate photos inside the envelope, and mail it to the prison.

It would be good to write the inmate’s name and ID number on the back of the photo to ensure it doesn’t get lost or go to the wrong offender.

Address the envelope properly and make sure to always state:

  • The inmate’s full name
  • The prisoner’s ID number
  • The unit
  • The address of the correctional facility

You should also include your full name and return address because the letter gets discarded if the sender’s details are not available.

DoNotPay’s Connect With an Inmate Feature

DoNotPay can help you keep in touch with a person you care about regardless of the correctional facility they are in. We have different features that enable you to update your loved one on what’s going on in the outside world and receive some words of comfort.

Open DoNotPay in your and find our Connect With an Inmate category to use the following options:

  1. Locate an inmate
  2. Send a personalized letter to an inmate
  3. Virtual mailbox

Locate an Inmate With DoNotPay’s Help

If you are not certain where exactly your incarcerated pen pal is located, DoNotPay can help you find them. The entire process is fast and simple:

  1. Open DoNotPay and find the Locate Someone category
  2. Write the full name of the inmate you are looking for
  3. Enter the name of the state they are located in
  4. Select Proceed

Don’t stress if you don’t know the inmate’s ID or unit number—we can help you find their exact location even without this info. Once you know where they are being held, you can send them mail and visit the inmate in prison.

Send a Personalized Letter to an Inmate With DoNotPay’s Help

If you know all the relevant info about the prisoner, such as their full name, ID number, and exact location, you can send them some comforting words in a letter. Our app has the simplest and most effective way of sending letters to inmates. You only need to:

  1. Find and select the Send a Personalized Letter option
  2. Enter the relevant information about the prisoner like their full name or ID number
  3. Write your message to the prisoner
  4. Attach photos

You have an option to pick a customized letter template. DoNotPay will send the letter to your incarcerated loved one immediately.

Get Letters From Inmates With DoNotPay

Reading carefully selected words from their loved ones brings comfort to prisoners, but so does writing about their experiences and feelings. DoNotPay has made sure the communication with inmates is a two-way street:

  1. The inmate writes and sends a letter to our address
  2. When we receive it, we digitize it
  3. We send the digitized version to you

You can find the letter from your loved one in your Virtual Mailbox.

Say Goodbye to Administrative Issues With DoNotPay

If you would like to know more about inmate calling, we can help you out. In case you are interested in how phone calls with inmates work in different states, such as Texas or Arizona, we have the answers. Federal inmate phone calls have rules of their own, but DoNotPay knows exactly how to contact inmates in such facilities.

Perhaps you’d like to know if there is such a thing as a free local number for inmates? We can tell you more about that topic.

In case you want to send gifts to prisoners, DoNotPay can help you select the right ones.

Apart from being a useful tool in connecting with incarcerated people, DoNotPay has a way of dealing with other administrative issues.

Open DoNotPay in any to find out more about how we can make your life easier. The world's first AI Consumer Champion can assist you with :

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