To deposit money into an inmate’s account, you have three practical choices: send an electronic transfer through the facility’s contracted payment vendor, mail a money order to the corrections system’s processing lockbox, or use a kiosk in the visitor lobby. Fees run from roughly $3 for a mailed money order to around $7 for an online or phone transfer. The exact vendor and address depend on whether the person is held in a federal Bureau of Prisons facility, a state prison, or a county jail, so confirm the right channel before you send anything.
What You Need Before You Send Anything
Every deposit method asks for two pieces of information: the inmate’s full legal name as it appears in the corrections system and their unique ID number. Federal inmates have an eight-digit BOP register number. State inmates have a DOC number in whatever format that state uses. If you don’t have the number, the Bureau of Prisons runs an online inmate locator that covers federal inmates from 1982 forward, searchable by name or number.1Federal Bureau of Prisons. Find an Inmate Most state departments of corrections have a similar lookup on their website.
You also need to know which facility currently houses the inmate. For electronic transfers, the vendor routes the deposit once you enter the ID. For mailed money orders, you send the payment to a centralized processing address, not to the facility itself. Verify that address with the facility or vendor before mailing. Some institutions will only accept deposits from people on the inmate’s approved contact or visitor list, so check whether you’re eligible to send at all.
Electronic Transfers
Federal facilities accept electronic deposits through two services: Western Union’s Quick Collect and MoneyGram’s ExpressPayment, both available online and at retail agent locations.2Federal Bureau of Prisons. Community Ties With Western Union, enter the code city “FBOP DC” to route the payment.3Federal Bureau of Prisons. Sending Funds Using Western Union With MoneyGram, use receive code 7932, list “Federal Bureau of Prisons” as the company, and enter the inmate’s eight-digit register number followed immediately by their last name as the account number.4Federal Bureau of Prisons. Sending Funds Using MoneyGram MoneyGram caps online transfers at $300 per transaction.
State prisons and county jails usually contract with specialized correctional payment companies instead. JPay, GTL (often branded as ConnectNetwork), and Access Corrections are the three you’ll see most often. The facility’s website or front desk tells you which one handles their deposits. You create an account with that vendor, link a debit card or bank account, and transfer money through the website or mobile app. You don’t get to pick the vendor; the facility’s contract decides it for you.
Mailing a Money Order
A mailed money order is the cheapest way to put money on someone’s books. For federal inmates, you mail the money order to the BOP’s centralized lockbox by regular mail.5Federal Bureau of Prisons. Sending Funds Using the United States Postal Service State systems work the same way with a different address. Never send cash. Most facilities accept U.S. Postal Service money orders, and many also accept Western Union or MoneyGram money orders.
A USPS money order costs $2.55 for amounts up to $500 and $3.60 for amounts between $500.01 and $1,000.6United States Postal Service. Money Orders Add a $0.78 first-class stamp and your total cost sits around $3.35 for a standard deposit. Write the inmate’s full name and ID number directly on the money order, and include any deposit slip the facility requires. Incomplete information gets the payment returned, which can add weeks before anything reaches the account.
Kiosks and Phone Deposits
Many facilities keep a self-service kiosk in the visitor lobby that accepts cash or card payments. It’s convenient if you’re already there to visit, but lobby hours and kiosk availability vary, and not every institution has one.
Phone deposits run through the same third-party vendors, either by automated system or live operator. You call the deposit line, enter the inmate’s ID and facility details, and pay with a debit or credit card. Phone deposits tend to carry the highest fees of any method, often matching or exceeding what you’d pay online, because the vendor builds the cost of operators and phone systems into the fee.
What Each Method Costs
Fees shift with the vendor, the deposit amount, and the payment method, but a few patterns hold. Online and app-based deposits through correctional vendors are usually tiered. A deposit of $20 or less might carry a flat fee around $3 to $4. A deposit of $100 to $300 might cost $5 to $7. Walk-in deposits at a MoneyGram or Western Union agent typically run about $5. These fees come out of your pocket at the time of the transaction, not from the inmate’s balance.
Money orders stay the cheapest route. Most facilities and vendors charge nothing to process a money order once it arrives, so your only costs are the money order itself and postage, about $3.35 for a deposit under $500.6United States Postal Service. Money Orders Fee schedules change whenever vendor contracts are renegotiated, so check the current numbers on the vendor’s site or the facility’s deposit page before you send.
How Fast Deposits Post
Electronic federal deposits move quickly. MoneyGram transfers sent between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern post within two to four hours; transfers sent after 9:00 p.m. credit the next morning.4Federal Bureau of Prisons. Sending Funds Using MoneyGram State vendor platforms like JPay and GTL generally credit electronic deposits within 24 to 48 hours, sometimes faster.
Mailed money orders take longer. Between postal delivery and the processing center’s verification steps, plan on seven to ten business days before the funds show up. If nothing has posted after that window, call the vendor’s support line with your receipt or confirmation number. Keep every receipt and transaction ID until you’ve confirmed the credit.
Why the Inmate May Not Receive the Full Amount
This catches a lot of families off guard. If the inmate owes court-ordered restitution, fines, or special assessments, the facility automatically pulls a portion of incoming deposits before the money hits the spendable balance. In the federal system, this runs through the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program. The unit team builds a payment plan for each inmate, and the calculation excludes $75 per month to let the inmate maintain phone access.7eCFR. 28 CFR 545.11 – Inmate Financial Responsibility Program The minimum quarterly payment for most federal inmates is $25, and it can run higher depending on what’s owed and what resources the inmate has.
Obligations are paid in a set priority: special assessments first, then court-ordered restitution, then fines and court costs, then state or local obligations, and finally other federal debts.7eCFR. 28 CFR 545.11 – Inmate Financial Responsibility Program State prison systems set their own deduction schedules, and some are more aggressive than the federal rules. The practical result: if you send $100 and the inmate has outstanding restitution, only $60 or $70 may land in their commissary balance. Ask the inmate what obligations are on their account before deciding how much to send.
The Monthly Commissary Spending Cap
A large balance doesn’t mean large spending. Federal facilities cap commissary purchases at $360 per month, with an additional $50 allowed during a designated holiday period in November and December.8Federal Bureau of Prisons. Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual Postage stamps, over-the-counter medications, and a few other items don’t count toward the cap. A warden can set the facility’s limit below $360 but not above it. State facilities set their own limits, and they vary widely.
This affects how you plan your deposits. Send $500 in a single month and the inmate can only spend $360 of it on commissary that month. The rest stays in the account for later, but it also sits where the IFRP calculation can see it. Smaller, regular deposits often work better than one lump sum, both for spending purposes and for keeping less of the balance exposed to automatic deductions.
Large Deposits and the $10,000 Reporting Rule
Federal law requires any business that receives more than $10,000 in cash in a single transaction or in related transactions to file a report with the IRS.9Internal Revenue Service. Form 8300 and Reporting Cash Payments of Over $10,000 That rule reaches correctional deposit vendors and facilities handling cash. Most individual deposits sit well under the threshold, but it matters when several family members are coordinating large or frequent cash payments. Deliberately breaking deposits into smaller pieces to stay under $10,000, known as structuring, is itself a federal crime regardless of where the money came from. If you’re sending substantial amounts, use traceable methods like money orders or electronic transfers and keep clean records.