Mail and Photos at Marcy Correctional Facility

How to Address It

John Smith, 12A3456
Marcy Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 3600
Marcy, NY 13403

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 Line NYSDOCCS Prints, and Why It Misleads

Here is how the state publishes the address for this prison.

9000 Old River Road P.O. Box 5000 (Incarcerated Individual Mail: P.O. Box 3600) Marcy, NY 13403-5000

Two boxes on one line, and the one families need is inside the bracket.

Read quickly it looks like an address with a footnote. It is not. P.O. Box 5000 is the prison’s own box, where its business post goes. P.O. Box 3600 is the one that reaches a person in custody.

The ZIP makes it worse. The published 13403-5000 is derived from the business box, so the whole address line points one way and the bracket points the other.

This is not unique to Marcy. New York publishes a business address and a separate incarcerated mail box for its state prisons, and documents copied from the address line inherit the wrong box.

Use 3600.

Two Prisons, Four Boxes, One Road

	Marcy	Mid-State
Street	9000 Old River Road	9005 Old River Road
Box on the address line	P.O. Box 5000	P.O. Box 216
Box families need	P.O. Box 3600	P.O. Box 2500

Five street numbers apart, four post boxes between them, and at both prisons the box that reads like the address is the wrong one. Check the facility name on the lookup, then check the bracket.

What the Envelope Needs

• Full name and DIN on the first line
• P.O. Box 3600, then Marcy, NY 13403
• 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 Marcy 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. If the last place you wrote to was a county jail, this is a different experience at the receiving end.

What the Mailroom Turns Away

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 Marcy 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.

On the Weekends That Are Not Yours

Marcy alternates its visiting weekends by DIN, so roughly half of them belong to the other group. The post is what covers the gap.

Pigeonly prints and sends letters and photos to Marcy with P.O. Box 3600 and the DIN already in place, so the bracket that catches families on Old River Road is handled before the envelope goes out.