Mail and Photos at Mid-State Correctional Facility

How to Address It

John Smith, 12A3456
Mid-State Correctional Facility
P.O. Box 2500
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.

Two Boxes on One Line

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

9005 Old River Road, P. O. Box 216 Incarcerated Individual Mail: P. O. Box 2500 Marcy, NY 13403-0216

P.O. Box 216 is the prison’s own box. P.O. Box 2500 is the one that reaches a person in custody.

The ZIP compounds it. The published 13403-0216 is derived from the business box, so the address block points one way and the incarcerated mail line points the other.

New York publishes a business address and a separate incarcerated mail box for its state prisons, and anything copied from the address line inherits the wrong box.

Use 2500.

Four Boxes, Five Street Numbers

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

Two prisons, four post boxes, one road, and at both of them the box that reads like the address is the wrong one for a letter. 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 2500, 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 Mid-State 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 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 Mid-State 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.

Two Visits a Week, and the Rest by Post

Mid-State allows two visits a week, which is a lot on paper and hard to use if you live a few hours away. The post covers the difference.

Pigeonly prints and sends letters and photos to Mid-State with P.O. Box 2500 and the DIN already in place, so the box that catches families on Old River Road is handled before the envelope goes out.