Mail & Photos to the Telford Unit. Why Letters Go to Dallas

Letters and Photos Go to Dallas, Not New Boston

A letter to Telford does not go to New Boston. TDCJ scans personal mail centrally, so letters, cards and photos are addressed to the processing center in Dallas:

Texas Department of Criminal Justice
[Full First and Last Name] [TDCJ Number]
PO Box 660400
Dallas, TX 75266-0400

Two things decide whether it arrives: his full commitment name, the one on his judgment rather than a nickname, and his eight-digit TDCJ number. Miss either and the envelope is refused and sent back.

What the New Boston Address Still Handles

A short, specific list skips Dallas and goes to the unit itself: legal and special mail, correspondence from a media outlet, business mail from an organization or agency, packages, publisher-direct books and magazines, and government benefit checks. Anything he has to sign goes to the same address, care of the Law Library.

Barry B. Telford Unit
3899 Highway 98
New Boston, TX 75570

The April 2026 Book Rule: Softback, New, Publisher-Direct

This is the change most likely to catch a Telford family out. Since April 1, 2026, a book has to be softback and in new condition. A hardback is refused. So is a used paperback, including one you have read and want to pass on. It has to ship straight from a publisher, a bookstore or an online bookseller, never posted by an individual, and it goes to the Highway 98 address rather than to Dallas. TDCJ has said a registration portal for book orders is in development.

Keep Cash Out of the Envelope

Cash, prepaid cards and personal checks are all returned to sender, and since personal mail is diverted to Dallas, none of it reaches the unit anyway. Money goes to the Inmate Trust Fund lockbox in Huntsville instead, which the send money guide walks through.

Scanned in Dallas, Original Gone in 90 Days

The Dallas center opens and scans each piece and delivers it to him on a tablet, usually within about three business days. The paper original is then held for 90 days and destroyed. There is no cap on how much you send and no charge to scan it; what gets mail rejected is the address or the contents, not the volume. If an original matters, a child’s drawing or a photo you cannot replace, enclose a stamped self-addressed envelope, the one way to get it back.

Photos, and Writing From Your Phone

Photographs travel the same route as letters, to the Dallas box and through the same scan.

There is also Pigeonly: upload a letter or photos from your phone and they are printed and mailed to the facility under that prison’s rules, with no printer, envelope or stamp at your end. It sits alongside the official Dallas address rather than replacing it, and mail sent that way still runs through the same center. For families in Houston or the Valley, where New Boston is the better part of a day’s drive, that is often the difference between writing every week and writing when there is time to reach a post office.