How to Send Money to the Coffield Unit Inmate Trust Fund

Only Approved Senders Can Deposit

This is the rule that rejects most failed deposits, and it has nothing to do with the money or the paperwork.

Since September 1, 2020, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has accepted deposits only from people already on the incarcerated person’s Visitors List or phone list. Send money without being on one of those lists and it comes back, no matter that the name is right, the TDCJ number is right and the amount is fine.

That creates a sequence worth getting right. Being added to the Visitors List is something he starts, on Form RO-1, and the warden approves. At a unit like the H.H. Coffield Unit the list can only be changed once every six months, so a name that missed the last window waits for the next one.

Registering with the phone system is usually quicker, because it does not wait on a warden’s approval cycle. If you are set up to receive his calls, you are eligible to deposit.

Cash and Personal Checks Come Back

There are two routes in, and each has its own failure mode.

Online, through eCommDirect. TDCJ’s own deposit service, and the faster of the two. It charges a fee that varies with the amount and the payment method. TDCJ does not publish a fixed fee schedule, so the figure is shown to you before you confirm the payment.

By mail, with a money order. No fee, slower. It goes here:

Inmate Trust Fund
PO Box 60
Huntsville, TX 77342-0060

Write his full commitment name and eight-digit TDCJ number on the money order itself, not only on the envelope. That number is doing more work here than it looks. Deposits for every TDCJ unit arrive at the same Huntsville lockbox, so nothing about the envelope distinguishes a payment meant for Coffield from one meant for the Michael Unit three street numbers away. The number does.

What comes straight back:

• Cash. Never send it, in any form.
• Personal checks. Returned. Money orders only, by mail.
• Anything from a sender who is not on his Visitors List or phone list.

And one timing rule that catches people: a deposit of $500 or more is held for 14 days before it posts. If he needs funds by a particular date, either stay under that threshold or send it two weeks early.

What the Balance Buys

The trust fund balance covers commissary purchases, and it can fund his side of phone calls if calls are set up on inmate debit instead of on a prepaid account attached to your number.

TDCJ caps commissary spending at $105 per two-week period. That cap, and not the balance, is what limits what he can buy in a given cycle. A single large deposit does not translate into a single large shop; it sits in the account and draws down over time. For most families, smaller regular deposits are more useful, and they also stay clear of the 14-day hold.

If he moves to another unit, including one of the four sharing this property, the balance goes with him. The account is attached to his TDCJ number, not to Coffield.