Mail and Photos at Groveland Correctional Facility

How to Address It

John Smith, 12A3456
Groveland Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 50
Sonyea, NY 14556-0050

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.

One Box, No Bracket

Many New York prisons publish a business box on the address line and a separate family box in brackets beside it. Groveland does not. NYSDOCCS lists the address as 7000 Sonyea Road, P.O. Box 50, Sonyea, NY 14556-0050, and P.O. Box 50 is the box for family mail as well.

So there is no second number to choose between. Use P.O. Box 50 with the full ZIP 14556-0050, and letters go to the box, not the street.

Four Names for One Place

This is where Groveland mail goes wrong.

Name	What it is	On the envelope?
Sonyea	The postal place, ZIP 14556	Yes
Groveland	The town the prison is in, and its name	No
Livingston County	The county	No
Dansville	The nearest larger village	No

The prison is named after the Town of Groveland, but Groveland is the town, not the postal name. Its post comes through Sonyea.

Dansville is a different ZIP. Some map listings describe the prison as being in Dansville and give a street number other than 7000. A letter addressed to Dansville is addressed to the wrong post office.

What the Envelope Needs

• Full name and DIN on the first line
• P.O. Box 50, then Sonyea, NY 14556-0050
• 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.

The Paper Arrives

Mail at Groveland 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 Groveland takes $50 in 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 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 Two Visits

Groveland allows two visits a month, so the post carries more here than at almost any other New York prison.

Pigeonly prints and sends letters and photos to Groveland with P.O. Box 50, Sonyea and the DIN already in place, so the Dansville address that some maps show never ends up on your envelope.