Card deposits clear immediately; anything mailed carries a 14-day hold on top of the delivery wait.
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Mountain View Correctional Facility gives families two ways to fund a resident’s account: MDOC’s own online Money Deposit Service, which posts without a hold period, or a mailed money order or check, which is slower and carries a 14-day hold once it posts. Both options fund the same two accounts, trust and phone, each capped at $100 per day and $200 per week. Cash can never be mailed or dropped off in person. This works the same way for residents in either MVCF’s Medium or Minimum Custody Unit.
There’s no JPay account to open here, and no TouchPay or Access Corrections either. MDOC skips the private trust-deposit companies most states contract with and runs its own service, so families at Mountain View choose between paying online through that service or mailing a paper instrument to the resident. Online is faster. Mail works if you’d rather not pay by card, at the cost of a two-week wait on the far end.
Have three things in hand: the resident’s MDOC number, their date of birth, and a Visa or Mastercard. The service, run with InforME, then asks which of two balances you’re funding. The trust account is the resident’s spending money. The phone account pays for calls they place out to you, which is a different thing from the account you’d set up on your own end to receive those calls, covered in the phone calls guide.
Each balance takes $100 in a day and $200 in a week, counted separately, so a household can move $200 a day total across the two. Funding both on the same date has to happen inside one transaction rather than two visits to the site. Get the MDOC number and date of birth right before submitting, because online deposits are non-refundable.
Four instruments are accepted, each made out to the resident:
Legibility counts. The resident’s full name goes on it, their MDOC number too if you have it, and your own full name and address as sender. An instrument missing any of that doesn’t get processed.
This is the part that catches families out. Your payment posts to the resident’s account once the Business Office has it, and then nothing happens for 14 calendar days from the posting date. The resident can’t touch the money during that window. MDOC points families toward the online service for exactly this reason: card payments carry no hold. If your family member needs funds by a particular date, count backward from it and pick the method accordingly.
Cash is refused in every form, mailed or otherwise. Nobody can hand money to staff at the facility for a resident either, so a drive to Charleston accomplishes nothing a card or an envelope wouldn’t. The online service and mailed paper are the only two routes.
Money doesn’t split itself between spending and calling. At MVCF’s commissary the trust account buys snacks, hygiene items, stamps, and similar approved goods, and it covers vocational and educational programming costs where those apply. The phone account does one job, funding outgoing calls. Supporting both means funding both, either in that single online transaction or by mail with a note saying how to apply the funds.
MVCF houses its Medium Custody Unit and its Minimum Custody Unit in two separate buildings on one campus, but the deposit process doesn’t change between them. Same service, same caps, same Business Office. The facility also holds juvenile beds, a population outside what this guide covers, so call (207) 285-0880 with questions about anything on that side.
Deposited funds follow the resident to another MDOC facility. No account gets closed, and nothing needs reopening on your end. What’s worth doing is confirming where they’re actually housed through the resident search tool before you send anything new, since a mailed instrument and a moving resident can cross paths.
Questions about the Money Deposit Service itself go to MDOC’s Corrections Webdesk at [email protected]. When the problem is technical, InforME staffs a support line at (207) 621-2600 and an inbox at [email protected]. For a mailed money order, a check, or anything else involving the Business Office, call Mountain View Correctional Facility at (207) 285-0880.
6 of 13 questions
Two routes. Pay by card through MDOC's online Money Deposit Service, which is the quicker one, or mail the resident a U.S. Postal money order, a Maine bank check or money order, or a government check.
Send MoneyNone of them. Maine runs deposits itself, through a service MDOC operates with InforME, rather than handing the job to a private trust-deposit company the way most states do.
Send MoneyThe trust account takes $100 in a day and $200 in a week. The phone account has its own identical limits, counted separately, so the two together allow $200 a day.
Send MoneyYes, for 14 calendar days from the date it posts. The Business Office posts it after receiving it, then the resident waits out that window before spending any of it. Paying by card avoids the hold entirely.
Send MoneyFour kinds: U.S. Postal money orders, cashier's or official checks drawn on a Maine bank, money orders from a Maine bank, and government checks.
Send MoneyWrite it legibly with the resident's full name, add their MDOC number if you have it, and put your own full name and address on it as sender. Anything missing and it goes unprocessed.
Send MoneyNo. Staff won't take money at the facility for a resident, so a trip to Charleston won't accomplish what a card payment or an envelope does.
Send MoneyNever. Cash is refused in every form and by every route.
Send MoneyThey're separate balances doing separate jobs. Commissary purchases at MVCF draw down the trust account, which also covers vocational and educational programming costs where those apply. The phone account pays for calls the resident places to you, and it doesn't cover the account you set up on your end to receive them.
Send MoneyNo. The two units sit in separate buildings on one campus, but they share the same deposit service, the same caps, and the same Business Office. MVCF's juvenile beds are a different matter and fall outside this guide, so call (207) 285-0880 about those.
Send MoneyDo it in one transaction. MDOC won't accept two separate same-day deposits split across the two balances.
Send MoneyThe money travels with them, with no account to close and none to reopen. Check the resident search tool for their current facility before sending anything new, since mailed funds and a moving resident can cross paths.
Send MoneyMDOC's Corrections Webdesk, at [email protected], handles questions about the service. Technical failures go to InforME at (207) 621-2600 or [email protected]. Anything involving a mailed instrument or the Business Office goes to the facility at (207) 285-0880.
Send MoneySee how funding the phone account differs from funding calls received.
View ArticleCheck custody status before sending a deposit.
View ArticleApply as a visitor and schedule a visit.
View ArticleThe mailing address and what to put on every envelope.
View ArticleSearch for your loved one and start sending photos, letters, and messages today.
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All information on this page comes directly from official government and facility sources. How we verify information › Last verified July 21, 2026.