Dutchess caps each TouchPay deposit at 200 dollars and takes cash through the post with no fee, while returning any money order sent the same way. Send photos and letters too.
Send photos and letters too
There are two ways to get money to somebody at the Justice and Transition Center, and one of them behaves backwards compared with the rest of New York. Get the difference straight before you go to the post office, because the wrong instrument does not get held or returned quietly. It comes back, and the week is gone.
Deposits into a commissary account are handled by TouchPay Holdings.
The number to plan around is the 200 dollar cap on each single deposit. That is per transaction rather than per week or per month, so a larger amount has to be split. Anyone budgeting for a long pretrial stay should work out the rhythm early rather than discovering the ceiling at the till.
Dutchess takes money through the post, and it takes it in the form nearly every other jail refuses.
Cash is accepted. The county states that cash sent via mail, although not recommended, will be accepted and deposited into an incarcerated individual’s account without a service fee.
Cheques and money orders are not. Those are returned to the sender, which the county attributes to the facility’s Rules and Regulations Handbook.
We want to be plain about this because the habit runs the other way. Broome asks for a money order. Oneida takes United States Postal money orders and nothing else. Onondaga takes a money order of 100 dollars or less. At Dutchess the money order is the one that bounces.
The county says it does not recommend posting cash, and it is right not to. Cash in an envelope has no trail and no way to be traced if it goes missing. TouchPay leaves a receipt. But if somebody has already posted cash, it will not be sent back.
Care packages go through iCare, which is its own system with its own account and its own catalogue. Money put into iCare buys goods. It does not land in the commissary balance and cannot be withdrawn as funds.
Anything the commissary already sells cannot be mailed in separately, which is what pushes families towards iCare in the first place.
Bail has nothing to do with TouchPay, iCare or the commissary account, and putting money in any of them does not move a release date.
Bail is set by the court and paid to the court. The amount, and where it is taken, is a question for the court that set it rather than for the jail.
TouchPay states its own fees at the point of payment. Fees on these services normally scale with the amount, so the cost of two 100 dollar deposits is not always the cost of one 200 dollar deposit.
Two minutes of checking saves a fortnight. Confirm your person is still at this jail rather than boarded out to another county, which Dutchess still does. Then use a route that leaves you a receipt.
If you are sending photos or a letter at the same time, Pigeonly handles those to the county’s published box while the money goes its own way.
6 of 6 questions
Through TouchPay Holdings, which is the deposit service the county names. Each single deposit is capped at 200 dollars, so a bigger amount has to be split across more than one transaction.
Send MoneyNo. Cheques and money orders sent by post are returned to the sender, and the county says that comes from the facility's Rules and Regulations Handbook. This is the opposite of most New York jails, so it catches out anyone working from experience somewhere else.
Send MoneyYes. The county states that cash sent by mail is accepted and deposited with no service fee, while adding that it does not recommend it. That caution is fair, because cash in an envelope leaves no trail. TouchPay gives you a receipt and cash does not.
Send MoneyTwo hundred dollars per deposit. TouchPay shows its own fee before you confirm.
Send MoneyIt is the care package system, separate from the commissary account. Money spent through iCare buys goods from a catalogue and does not become spendable balance. Families use it because anything commissary already sells cannot be mailed in by hand.
Send MoneyNo. Bail is set by the court and paid to the court, and no deposit into a commissary or package account affects it. Ask the court that set the bail where and how it is taken.
Send MoneyDutchess still boards people out, so confirm the location first.
View ArticleWhere the letters go, and why cash is the exception.
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All information on this page comes directly from official government and facility sources. How we verify information › Last verified September 21, 2026. Official source: dutchessny.gov/Departments/Jail/Inmate-Funds-and-Commissary.htm ›