Mail and Photos at Cayuga Correctional Facility

How to Address It

John Smith, 12A3456
Cayuga Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 1186
Moravia, NY 13118

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

The Two Addresses NYSDOCCS Prints

The facility’s address line reads 2202 State Route 38A, P.O. Box 1150, Moravia, NY 13118-1150. The address for incarcerated individual mail is listed with it: P.O. Box 1186, Moravia, NY 13118.

P.O. Box 1150 with ZIP 13118-1150 is the prison’s own post. P.O. Box 1186 is what reaches a person in custody, and the family address uses the plain five-digit ZIP 13118.

So two things change together: the box, and the four digits after the ZIP. Copying the address line onto an envelope gets both wrong.

Box 1186 Against Box 1150

	Family mail	Prison’s own post
Box	P.O. Box 1186	P.O. Box 1150
ZIP	13118	13118-1150
Who it reaches	The person in custody	The facility’s business office

Both are four-digit boxes starting 11, and they are printed side by side. That is how a careful family still writes the wrong one.

What the Envelope Needs

• Full name and DIN on the first line
• P.O. Box 1186, then Moravia, NY 13118
• 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 and it holds statewide.

Not Auburn, Not the County Jail

Cayuga County holds two state prisons and a county jail, and each takes different mail.

Auburn Correctional Facility is a maximum security state prison at 135 State Street in the city of Auburn. Cayuga County Jail is run by the county. Neither uses a Moravia address. Check the facility line on the lookup before you write.

The Paper Arrives

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

Many New York county jails now route personal mail to a scanning centre and deliver it as an image on a tablet. State prisons do not.

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, with newspaper clippings counting one page each. Legal papers for an active case can exceed it only with the Superintendent’s written permission, obtained in advance, and no more than once every four months.

Photographs

Ordinary printed photographs get through and they are the best thing you can put in an envelope.

Polaroids do not, anywhere in New York, because of the format and not the picture. An instant print has a thick backing that can conceal things, so the category is excluded.

Order prints from a photo service or print them at home on 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 money order and free by post. On a visit day the lockbox inside Cayuga takes $50 in cash a day in total.

The Package List

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. What a package may contain is set statewide by Directive #4911, and the department publishes a disapproved vendor list alongside it. There is no separate Cayuga package list.

Legal Mail Runs Separately

Mail from a lawyer or a court is privileged under Directive #4421, and it 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 puts the letter at risk instead of speeding it up.

Between the Weekend Days

Cayuga gives each family one weekend day, set by the DIN, and the rest of the week belongs to the post and the phone.

Pigeonly prints and sends letters and photos to Cayuga with P.O. Box 1186, the plain ZIP and the DIN already in place, so the box on the printed address line never ends up on your envelope.