Mail and Photos at Albion Correctional Facility

How to Address It

Jane Smith, 12G3456
Albion Correctional Facility
3595 State School Road
Albion, NY 14411-9399

Name and DIN together on the first line. The DIN is the Department Identification Number from the state lookup, and mail without one cannot be sorted to a person.

No Box Number, and Why That Matters

Most New York state prisons publish a post box for incarcerated mail. Albion does not. The street address is the address.

That catches two kinds of mistake. People who expect a box go looking for one and sometimes find the wrong prison’s. People who know New York prisons well assume a box has been left off and add one, which is worse.

Write the street address exactly as it appears, with the ZIP+4 ending 9399.

Two Prisons, One Village

	Albion	Orleans
Holds	Women	Men
Street	3595 State School Road	3531 Gaines Basin Road
ZIP	14411-9399	14411-9199
Phone	585-589-5511	585-589-6820

Both are New York state prisons in the village of Albion, about two miles apart, sharing a postal town and the first five ZIP digits. Without a box number to separate them, the last four digits and the street name are what the envelope has to get right.

Four Things on the Envelope

• Full name and DIN on the first line
• 3595 State School Road, then Albion, NY 14411-9399
• Your full return address, in the top left corner
• Nothing else written on the outside

A letter with no return address is treated as contraband and is not delivered. That is the department’s own wording, statewide.

The Paper Gets Through

Mail at Albion is opened and inspected at the prison and then handed over. Your envelope, your handwriting, your paper.

Many New York county jails now send personal mail to a scanning centre and deliver it as an image on a tablet. State prisons do not, so if the last place you wrote to was a county jail, this will be a different experience at the receiving end.

What the Mailroom Refuses

Published by the department and applying statewide.

Refused	Note
Polaroid photographs	The format itself, whatever the picture shows
Nude photographs
Postage stamps	Do not enclose stamps for a reply
Letters from other people	Third-party mail, with an exception for children
Tape, glue or paste	Including on newspaper clippings
Cash, checks, money orders	Covered below

There is also a paper limit: five pages of printed or photocopied material per letter, newspaper clippings counting one page each. Legal papers for an active case can exceed it only with the Superintendent’s written permission, in advance, and no more than once every four months.

Photographs, and the Children Exception

Ordinary printed photographs are welcome, and at a women’s prison they are often pictures of children.

Worth knowing: the third-party mail rule, which normally blocks letters written by someone other than the sender, makes an exception for children. A child’s drawing or a few lines in a child’s hand can go in with your letter.

Polaroids are refused anywhere in New York, because of the format and not the image. Order prints or use ordinary photo paper, and keep writing on the back to a name and a date.

Money Goes to Miami

Nothing financial goes in the envelope. The inspection is looking for exactly that.

Deposits go to the JPay lockbox, PO Box 531190, Miami, Florida 33153, with a JPay deposit slip, capped at $999.99 per transaction and free by post. On a visit day the lockbox inside Albion takes up to $50 cash a day in total.

Packages Come From Vendors

Families cannot post or carry packages in. Everything arrives directly from an approved vendor by USPS, FedEx or UPS.

The allowance is two non-food packages a year and three food packages a month, food capped at a combined 40 pounds. The department publishes a disapproved vendor list and Directive #4911 carries the detail.

Legal Mail Has Its Own Rules

Mail from a lawyer or a court is privileged under Directive #4421 and is opened in front of the person it is addressed to, not in the mailroom.

A family member cannot send ordinary mail under a legal label. Trying it risks the letter instead of speeding it up.

Between the Weekends

Albion runs visits at weekends and on weekday holidays, and sits about seven hours from New York City. For most families the post carries the relationship between trips.

Pigeonly prints and sends letters and photos to Albion with 3595 State School Road, the ZIP+4 and the DIN already in place, so the address that has no box number to fall back on is right every time.