Mail & Photos to Androscoggin County Jail. The 2024 Policy Change

What Changed in July 2024

Androscoggin County Jail’s own published mail information states that, effective July 15, 2024, personal mail is no longer accepted at the facility. This is a significant change from how most Maine county jails and MDOC prisons handle mail, where physical letters remain the primary way families stay in touch by writing. If you’re new to writing someone at this jail, don’t assume you can address an envelope and drop it in the mail the way you might for another facility.

What Replaced Personal Mail

The jail’s published information points toward an electronic messaging system for personal communication going forward. We could not confirm the exact platform, sign-up process, or per-message cost from an official source at the time of this guide’s last verification. Call (207) 753-2500, ext. 1992 to get the current link and instructions, since this detail is easy to get wrong from a secondhand source.

Packages and Care Packages

Regardless of the personal mail change, the jail does not accept packages or care packages of any kind. Don’t attempt to mail food, clothing, books, or other physical items directly to a detainee. If you want to get money to someone for jail-approved commissary items instead, use Access Corrections. See the send money guide.

Photos

Before the July 2024 policy change, the jail’s published rules capped photos at 4 inches by 6 inches, with no more than 5 sent at one time, and excluded Polaroid photos and any images depicting weapons, drugs, alcohol, or lewd content. Since personal mail is no longer accepted at all, it’s not clear whether these same size and content limits carry over to photo attachments on the new electronic messaging system. Call (207) 753-2500, ext. 1992 to confirm current photo rules before trying to send any.

Legal Mail

Legal mail, meaning correspondence from an attorney, is typically handled separately from personal mail at facilities that restrict general correspondence, often still delivered physically and opened only in the detainee’s presence to protect attorney-client privilege. We could not confirm Androscoggin County’s specific legal mail procedure from an official source. If you’re an attorney or sending something time-sensitive on a detainee’s behalf, call (207) 753-2500, ext. 1992 before mailing anything, to confirm the current process and avoid a rejected or delayed delivery.

What’s Still Prohibited

Even under the jail’s older, more detailed mail rules, certain items were explicitly barred: stamps and stickers, musical greeting cards, perfumed or lipstick-marked mail, paper with any staining, news clippings, and hand-drawn or crayon and felt-tip artwork. Treat these as still off-limits for anything you’re able to send, and call ahead if you’re unsure whether something qualifies.

Never Mail Cash

Never mail cash to a detainee at Androscoggin County Jail, under any circumstance. Use Access Corrections online, by phone, or the jail’s lobby kiosk instead. See the send money guide for full details.

Confirm Before You Send Anything

Since the mail process at this jail changed recently and some details weren’t confirmable from an official source, call (207) 753-2500, ext. 1992 before sending anything you’d be upset to have rejected or lost. It’s also worth confirming the detainee is still at Androscoggin County Jail using the inmate search guide, since the jail sometimes transfers detainees to other facilities when it’s over capacity.