How to Send Money to Anamosa State Penitentiary

The One Address, and Why It Is Not Anamosa

Iowa centralized offender banking. All incoming money for spending and commissary accounts is received and handled at Fort Dodge Correctional Facility, and the department states plainly that incoming money will not be accepted at or by any other location.

IDOC Offender Fiduciary Account
1550 L Street, Suite B
Fort Dodge, IA 50501

That applies to your person at Anamosa exactly as it applies to everyone else in the system. Post a money order to 406 N High St. and it has gone to the wrong place.

The other half of the change matters too: money orders and cashier’s checks can no longer be dropped off at any institution. Turning up at Anamosa with one is not an option any more. Mail is the only route for paper money.

The Four Things a Money Order Must Carry

Iowa is specific here, and specific rules are the ones that get things returned.

The deposit must be a cashier’s check or money order. Nothing else is accepted by mail.

It must be made payable to: IDOC Offender Fiduciary Account.

And it must include all four of these:

1. the offender name
2. the offender number
3. the sender’s name
4. the sender’s complete address

Iowa adds one more instruction that sounds trivial and is not: all writing should be legible. The department states that a deposit which does not follow these guidelines will be returned to the sender by mail, which costs you the postage and your person the weeks.

Sending It Electronically

Three vendors, and Iowa publishes the fees for two of them.

Access Corrections is the cheapest published route. Online at accesscorrections.com, deposit rates start at $3.49, taking Visa and Mastercard credit or debit cards. By phone on 1-866-345-1884, rates start at $4.49. You can also deposit from inside a CorrLinks account at the same rates, which is convenient if you already have one for messages.

For cash, without a card at all: CashPayToday charges a flat $6.95, at Dollar General, Family Dollar and Kum & Go stores among others, and ACE Cash Express charges a flat $5.95. There is a $900 maximum per cash transaction. Access Corrections says funds are typically transferred in real time and available within 24 hours.

JPay runs dearer. Online at JPay.com, fees range $3.95 to $10.95 by deposit amount. By phone on 1-800-574-5729, $4.95 to $11.95. Cash at any MoneyGram agent, including Walmart, CVS, 7-Eleven and Albertsons, costs a flat $8.95, and up to $5,000 can be sent in one transaction. Iowa notes that money sent before 11:45 AM is generally available the next day.

Western Union is the third option, through send2corrections.com, the Send2Corrections app, or by phone on 1-800-634-3422, choosing option 2. You need the commissary or inmate number and the facility name. Iowa publishes no Western Union fee.

Restitution Is a Different Address Entirely

This catches families out because it looks like the same kind of payment and is not.

Iowa State Penitentiary handles all restitution, court filing fees and child support, not Fort Dodge. Questions and payments on those go to:

Iowa State Penitentiary
PO Box 316
Fort Madison, IA 52627-0316

Iowa’s reason for splitting it is practical: it means a payment plan does not have to be rebuilt every time somebody transfers between prisons.

Phone Money Is a Third Account Again

Money for calls does not come out of the commissary balance automatically, and it moves under its own rules.

Deposits to a phone account are lockboxed at Iowa State Penitentiary, not Fort Dodge. A family deposit has 7 percent sales tax deducted, and Iowa spells out the arithmetic: send $10 and a credit of $9.35 is applied. When the person inside moves their own money across instead, the 7 percent is added on top, so a $10 transfer costs them $10.70.

The minimum transfer is $1. Money moved to the phone account cannot be moved back. Unused phone money is credited back on release.

The Commissary Limit Is Posted Inside, Not Online

Iowa’s funds policy says weekly spending limits and possession limits are established and posted throughout the institution. That means they exist, they are real, and they are not published on any web page for Anamosa.

So if your deposit seems to sit unspent, a weekly cap is the likely reason, and the person inside can see the number even though you cannot.

What Iowa Does Not Publish for Anamosa

• The weekly commissary spending limit at this prison
• How long a mailed money order takes to post
• Any deposit maximum by mail, though cash through Access Corrections caps at $900 per transaction and JPay at $5,000
• A care package price list or item list. Iowa defers to its prison industries vendor and says institutions may limit how many gift packages a person receives.

Worth Asking on 319-462-3504

1. What is the weekly commissary spending limit here?
2. How long after Fort Dodge receives a money order does it show on the account?
3. Is there a limit on how much I can send at once by mail?
4. Does my person already have a phone balance, or do I need to fund that separately?
5. How many care packages a year can they receive?
6. What happens to the balance if they transfer to another Iowa prison?