Sending Money to FCI Ray Brook

Never to Ray Brook

The Bureau’s own wording on the FCI Ray Brook page is direct: do not send money to an inmate using this facility’s address. All money sent by post goes to one processing centre in Des Moines, Iowa, for every federal prisoner in the country.

Anything posted to P.O. Box 900 with money in it is not a deposit. It is a problem for the mailroom.

Wait Until They Arrive

Send nothing until the person shows at FCI Ray Brook in the locator. Someone still in U.S. Marshals custody has no Bureau account to credit.

By Post: the Des Moines Lockbox

Federal Bureau of Prisons
[Full Committed Name]
[Eight-Digit Register Number]
Post Office Box 474701
Des Moines, Iowa 50947-0001

Accepted: money orders, U.S. government checks, certified checks, cashier’s checks and bank drafts.

Not accepted: cash and personal checks.

The name and the eight-digit register number go on the money order itself and on the outside of the envelope. Your return address goes in the top left. Anything else in the envelope is thrown away, so no letters in with the money.

Instrument	Hold before use
U.S. postal money order or government check	Normal processing
Non-postal money order or non-government check	15 days
Foreign instrument payable in U.S. dollars	45 days

A money order from a supermarket therefore waits two weeks. One from the post office does not.

Electronically: MoneyGram and Western Union

MoneyGram ExpressPayment

Field	Value
Receive code	7932
Company name	Federal Bureau of Prisons
City and state	Washington, DC
Account number	Eight-digit register number, then surname, no spaces
Beneficiary	Full committed name

Western Union Quick Collect

Field	Value
Code city	FBOP
State	DC
Account number	Eight-digit register number, then surname, no spaces
Attention line	Full committed name

Both run seven days a week. Money sent between 7:00 AM and 9:00 PM Eastern posts within two to four hours. Anything later posts from 7:00 AM the next morning.

The Format That Loses Money

The locator shows 12345-678. Deposits want 12345678, and MoneyGram and Western Union want 12345678DOE, with the surname straight after the digits. A dash or a space is the commonest reason a transfer fails to land.

What the Account Covers at FCI Ray Brook

The account pays for commissary, TRUFONE minutes and TRULINCS email time.

Ray Brook’s handbook, dated 2013, set the spending limit at $320 a month, rising to $370 in December. Its commissary list, dated July 2020, has each housing unit shopping once a week on a set weekday. Both documents are old, so ask the person inside for today’s limit.

With visiting suspended, the visitor lockbox question does not arise. Everything goes through Des Moines, MoneyGram or Western Union.

Who to Call

Bureau deposit enquiries: 202-307-2712, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM Eastern. Not the prison, which does not handle the lockbox.

What Money Cannot Send

A deposit buys stamps and soap. It does not put a photograph on the wall. Pigeonly sends printed letters and photos to FCI Ray Brook from your phone, with P.O. Box 900 and the register number already in place.