IMCC is the one Iowa prison with a book rule of its own: nobody in reception status qualifies to receive them. Send letters and photos in minutes.
Send letters and photos in minutes
Nothing addressed to Coralville reaches anybody. Iowa routes all non-legal mail for its nine prisons to a single PO Box in Las Vegas, where Pigeonly Corrections opens and scans it, and the routing line carries a four-digit code that says which prison the scan belongs to. IMCC’s code is 1108. There is one rule here that exists nowhere else in the state: Iowa’s book policy carves out this facility by name, and anybody in reception status does not qualify to receive books at all.
[Full Legal Name, Offender ID Number]
Iowa Medical and Classification Center - 1108
PO Box 96777
Las Vegas, NV 89193
1108 is this facility’s code. It tells the processing centre which of Iowa’s nine prisons a scanned letter belongs to.
The codes sit next to each other, which means a single wrong digit does not fail loudly. It routes your letter to a different working prison. Anamosa is 1106, Clarinda is 1107, and Iowa State Penitentiary is 1110. Check the number before you seal the envelope.
The name and offender ID number come from Iowa’s offender search, and the policy requires the legal name, not a preferred one, on incoming mail.
Iowa’s wording leaves no room: any non-legal mail sent directly to an Iowa Department of Corrections facility will be returned to sender.
So 2700 Coral Ridge Avenue is where you go to visit, not where you post anything.
At a reception centre this costs more than elsewhere. A letter sent to the wrong address takes a week to bounce and another few days to be redirected, and by the time it lands your person may already have been classified and moved to a different prison with a different code.
Iowa’s correspondence policy, OP-MTV-01, names its mail vendor in its own text rather than describing an anonymous processor. The department contracts with Pigeonly Corrections as its approved mail vendor.
The sequence: your letter reaches the Nevada PO Box, Pigeonly Corrections opens all non-legal mail and scans it into a digital colour copy, and that copy is printed and delivered to the right Iowa prison. The paper original is held for 45 days rather than destroyed right away, and the sender can request it back in that window.
Iowa’s timing rule is that letters are held no more than 24 hours and packages no more than 48 hours before distribution, with up to five days where security review or translation is needed. That clock starts when the mail reaches the prison, not when it leaves your hands.
Iowa treats mail from financial institutions, religious groups, educational institutions, periodicals, private businesses, health care facilities and third parties as non-legal, so all of it goes through the same Nevada box.
Mail from government agencies is different again. Iowa counts it as non-legal but issues it through the confidential correspondence process instead.
Iowa’s book rules are the same everywhere in the state except here, and IMCC is named in the policy.
Statewide, a third party may buy books so long as they are sent directly from Books N Things or Edward R. Hamilton Books, and the sender is somebody the incarcerated person is allowed to write to. Money can also be placed on the account to buy publications from an approved vendor list. Books received directly from the Human Rights Defense Center are approved and cannot come from a third party.
The carve-out, in Iowa’s own words: incarcerated individuals in reception status do not qualify at IMCC.
That is the only facility-specific book restriction in the state. If your person is still in reception, a book ordered from an approved vendor will not reach him, and the sensible move is to wait until he is classified and then send it to wherever he lands.
Where a publication is refused on content, the incarcerated person has 10 days to say whether it should be destroyed, shipped out at his own cost, or appealed, and a Publications Review Committee decides within 30 working days.
Iowa’s policy caps attachments and enclosures at ten pages or pictures.
The content rules are specific. Female breasts, and the genitalia and buttocks of both sexes, must be substantially obscured or covered by clothing, including swimwear or undergarments, or by another object that is not itself obscene. Lewd display of genitalia, clothed or unclothed, is not allowed.
Duplicates are banned, in the policy’s phrasing multiple copies of the same or like same photograph.
So are gang signs, and Iowa closes the obvious loophole: this includes photos that attempt to cover up the hand gestures with emojis or similar.
By post, 4x6 and ten at a time, scanned like every other enclosure, so a colour copy arrives rather than your print.
Pigeonly gets real colour photographs to Coralville, chosen on your phone and printed as photographs for code 1108, with no posted envelope waiting to be scanned.
Speed matters more here than at any other Iowa prison. Most men leave within 60 days, so a photo posted the slow way can miss the facility it was addressed to.
The original is not destroyed right away. Pigeonly holds it for 45 days, and the sender can request it back for free any time before the last 7 days of that window, so the request needs to go in within the first 38 days.
The parcel goes back only to the address written on the envelope, and the request needs the recipient’s name, offender ID number and facility exactly as they appear on it. It is a one-time request, so a child’s drawing has to be requested on its own, and requested again for the next one.
If the 45 days pass without a request, the original is destroyed and what stays on file is the colour scan already delivered to the facility.
If something is rejected, there is a route that Iowa’s public pages omit and its policy spells out: the sender is notified of the rejection and the reason, and may protest the decision in writing to the warden within 10 days. Rejected mail is returned to sender with the postage charged to the incarcerated person.
Iowa’s own policy names Pigeonly as the processor, which means a letter you post is travelling to us before it goes anywhere near Coralville.
That transit is where the time goes. A posted letter spends 3 to 5 business days reaching a Nevada PO Box before any processing begins, and the scanning, screening, printing and shipping back to Iowa all follow after that.
A free account at Pigeonly cuts the posted leg out of a letter for Coralville. You write it or pick photos on your phone, and it goes straight into processing on our side, with no printer and no stamps involved.
At a reception centre that saved week is worth more than it is anywhere else in Iowa, because the whole stay is often only eight or nine weeks long, and a letter that takes ten days to arrive can miss the prison it was addressed to.
The PO Box above is still correct and still works. This is the same destination without the days spent reaching it.
Offender email runs through CorrLinks at $0.25 a message. Register at corrlinks.com.
Iowa’s family-facing page caps a message at 13,000 characters or 100 lines, about two pages, while two departmental policies say 14,000 instead. The contradiction is Iowa’s.
The department is blunt about privacy: by its nature O-mail is not confidential, and all incoming and outgoing messages may be inspected and read.
6 of 8 questions
Write the person's full legal name and offender ID number, then the line Iowa Medical and Classification Center - 1108, then PO Box 96777, Las Vegas, NV 89193. The 1108 code routes the scan to this facility. Iowa returns to sender any non-legal mail posted to the prison itself in Coralville.
MailNot while he is in reception status. Iowa's book policy carries exactly one facility-specific carve-out and it is this one: incarcerated individuals in reception status do not qualify at IMCC. Once he is classified and transferred, the statewide rules apply again, and books must come directly from Books N Things or Edward R. Hamilton Books.
MailIt goes to the Nevada PO Box, where Pigeonly Corrections opens all non-legal mail and scans it into a digital colour copy. That copy is printed and delivered to IMCC, and the paper original is held for 45 days rather than destroyed right away. Iowa's policy names Pigeonly Corrections as its approved mail vendor, and you can request the original back for free at pigeonly.com/parcel-request within the first 38 days.
MailTen, at 4x6. Iowa's correspondence policy also caps attachments and enclosures at ten pages or pictures overall. Duplicates are banned, in the policy's own phrasing multiple copies of the same or like same photograph, and gang signs are prohibited including ones covered with emojis.
MailYes, as soon as you know where he went, because a wrong digit routes to a different working prison rather than bouncing. Anamosa is 1106, Clarinda 1107, IMCC 1108 and Iowa State Penitentiary 1110. Check his location in Iowa's offender search before each letter while he is still moving through classification.
MailYes, and Iowa's public pages leave this out. Its correspondence policy says the sender is notified by mail or email of the rejection and the reason, and may protest the decision in writing to the warden within 10 days. Rejected mail goes back to the sender with the postage charged to the incarcerated person.
MailYes, because Iowa's named processor is Pigeonly. A posted letter spends 3 to 5 business days travelling to the Nevada PO Box before any processing starts. A free Pigeonly account skips that leg: you upload the letter or photos from your phone and they are printed and prepared from the processing side. The PO Box still works, this is the same destination without the transit.
MailIf you send it through Pigeonly, yes. Photos uploaded from your phone are printed as real colour photographs and delivered as photographs, and they arrive sooner because they skip the postal leg. That speed matters here, where most men transfer out within 60 days. A photo dropped in the post is scanned, so a colour copy arrives instead.
MailCheck the location before the letter goes out.
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All information on this page comes directly from official government and facility sources. How we verify information › Last verified September 9, 2026.