Mail and Photos at Orleans Correctional Facility

How to Address It

John Smith, 12A3456
Orleans Correctional Facility
3531 Gaines Basin Road
Albion, NY 14411-9199

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.

No Box Number, and Do Not Add One

Most New York state prisons publish a P.O. Box for incarcerated mail. Orleans does not, and neither does Albion up the road. The street address is the address.

That produces two opposite mistakes. Some people hunt for a box and end up copying one from another facility. Others assume a box was left off and invent one. Both go wrong.

Write it exactly as NYSDOCCS publishes it, with the ZIP+4 ending 9199.

Two Prisons, Four Digits

	Orleans	Albion
Holds	Men	Women
Street	3531 Gaines Basin Road	3595 State School Road
ZIP	14411-9199	14411-9399
Post box	none	none

Same village, same postal town, same first five ZIP digits, about two miles apart, and neither has a box number to fall back on. The street name and the last four digits are the entire difference between the two addresses.

Orleans County’s own website describes the village plainly: it is home to two state prisons as well as the county jail. Check the facility name on the lookup before you write the address.

What the Envelope Needs

• Full name and DIN on the first line
• 3531 Gaines Basin Road, then Albion, NY 14411-9199
• 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 Orleans 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 Orleans 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 Dates That Belong to the Other Half

Orleans matches visiting dates to the last digit of the DIN, so roughly half the calendar is not available to any one family. The post covers the rest.

Pigeonly prints and sends letters and photos to Orleans with Gaines Basin Road, the ZIP+4 and the DIN already in place, so the address that has no box number to fall back on is right every time.