Sending Money to Upstate Correctional Facility

The DIN Comes First

Every deposit is matched to a Department Identification Number. Not to a name, and not to a facility.

Two people can share a name. Nobody shares a DIN. Run the lookup, write the number down, then send the money.

The happy consequence at Upstate is that the address problem vanishes. P.O. Box 2000 and P.O. Box 10 decide where a letter lands and have nothing to do with a deposit, because the deposit never comes to Malone.

Six Ways to Send It

Route	Where	Cost	Limit
Money order or check by post	JPay, PO Box 531190, Miami, FL 33153	Free	$999.99 per money order or check
Visitor lockbox	Inside Upstate, on a visit day	Free	$50 cash a day in total, plus money orders and checks
Online	JPay website, with a credit or debit card	$1.75 to $4.75	$2 to $300
JPay mobile app	App Store or Google Play	$1.75 to $4.75	$2 to $300
Phone	JPay, 1-800-574-5729, with a credit card	$1.75 to $4.75	$2 to $300
MoneyGram	Any MoneyGram location, cash, Receive Code 1317	$4	Set by MoneyGram

Free is slower, paid is faster, and that is the whole trade. Commissary is bought on a schedule, so for most families the post is fine.

Get the Deposit Slip

DOCCS publishes a JPay deposit slip in English and Spanish, and it goes in the envelope with the money order.

Without it, a payment arrives with nothing attached to say who it belongs to. The slip carries the DIN and the DIN is what the deposit is matched against. It costs nothing to include and it is the difference between money that posts and money that sits.

The Lockbox, and the Coach

Upstate has a visitor deposit lockbox like every New York state prison, taking cash up to $50 a day in total along with money orders and checks, with no fee.

It is worth more here than at most northern prisons, because Upstate is one of 18 facilities served by a free visitor bus. A family that can reach Malone can use the lockbox, which is not true at Franklin up the road, where no coach runs.

That $50 is the total for the day, however many of you travel. Anything above that goes by post.

The lockbox is not processed at the prison, though. DOCCS forwards what goes in it to JPay, so it takes the same path and the same timing as a posted money order.

Not in the Letter

Money does not go in an envelope to P.O. Box 2000.

Incoming mail is opened and inspected specifically for cash, checks and money orders. Enclosing money does not get it there faster. It gets the money intercepted and it delays the letter.

The letter goes to Malone. The money goes to Miami.

What the Balance Buys

The account covers commissary: food, coffee, hygiene items, stationery, stamps and over-the-counter basics.

It also covers secure messaging stamps through JPay’s kiosk service at the terminals and tablets.

What it no longer covers is the telephone. New York made calls from state prisons free to families on 1 August 2025, so an empty account does not mean silence.

Packages Are Not Bought From the Account

Two separate budgets. Packages come directly from an approved vendor and ship by USPS, FedEx or UPS, and families cannot post or carry one in.

The allowance is two non-food packages a year and three food packages a month, capped at a combined 40 pounds. Funding commissary does not consume a package allowance, and ordering a package does not touch the balance.

Transfers Do Not Break It

New York moves people between prisons and the account follows, because JPay holds it against the DIN and not the building.

The letter address does change. If they move off Bare Hill Road the deposit still lands and the envelope no longer does, so check the lookup before you post.

Sending Money to Upstate: The Recipe

Everything you need, then every step, for the free way to send money. The faster paid routes follow.

Gather these first

• An envelope and a stamp
• A money order or check, made out to JPay, for no more than $999.99. A U.S. Postal money order is the kind JPay suggests.
• A printed copy of the JPay Money Order/Check Deposit Slip, which NYSDOCCS posts in English and Spanish
• Their DIN and their name as the state lookup shows it, last name first
• Your name and mailing address, because JPay will not process a payment without a valid mailing or email address

Steps

1. Fill in the slip’s lower section in blue or black ink. It asks for the amount, their DIN, their name, the state, which is NY, and the facility.
2. Write Upstate Correctional Facility in the facility box. Franklin Correctional Facility is on the same road in Malone, so the full name matters.
3. Add your own name and address on the slip.
4. Check the money order is payable to JPay. Their name and DIN can also go on the memo or “used for” line.
5. Seal the money order and the slip together in the envelope, with no letter or note. JPay discards anything else.
6. Post it to JPay, PO Box 531190, Miami, FL 33153.

What it costs and how long it takes: nothing. JPay processes it within 10 business days after it arrives, and a personal check waits 10 days before it is deposited.

If it has to arrive sooner

• By card, online or in the JPay app: $1.75 to $4.75 in fees, for deposits between $2 and $300.
• By credit card over the phone: 1-800-574-5729, with the same fees.
• In cash at MoneyGram: use Receive Code 1317 and pay a $4 fee.

If you are coming on the bus or by car

1. At visitor registration, complete a deposit envelope, form 2703P, with their name and DIN.
2. Put in cash, a money order or a check. Cash tops out at $50 for the day, and that is the total no matter how many of you visit. A money order or check still needs the JPay deposit slip.
3. Give the envelope to the registration officer, who checks it and seals it into the locked box while you watch. It is free.

Good to know: money coming in pays off any unpaid court surcharges or fees first. The prison will not read out a balance over the phone, so the person inside is the one to ask.

What a Balance Cannot Say

A funded account buys coffee. It does not tell anyone they are thought about.

Pigeonly sends letters and photos to Upstate from your phone with P.O. Box 2000 and the DIN already in place, which is the part of keeping in touch that a deposit was never going to cover.