Directive 4911: What NYS DOCCS Actually Allows in Inmate Packages
, by Jahmaxx Care Packages, 13 min reading time
Directive 4911 is the NYS DOCCS policy governing every package sent into a state correctional facility. It permits three food packages per month totaling no more than 40 pounds from an approved vendor — and, contrary to what most vendor websites say, it also allows up to two non-food packages per calendar year sent directly by family or friends.
Quick answer: Directive 4911 is the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision policy governing every package sent into a state correctional facility. It permits three food packages per month totaling no more than 40 pounds, requires that food packages come from a vendor not on the DOCCS disapproved vendor list — and, contrary to what most vendor websites say, it also allows up to two non-food packages per calendar year sent directly by family or friends.
The current version took effect December 21, 2023, superseding the May 8, 2023 version. If you are reading package rules published before that date, they are out of date.
The thing almost every website gets wrong
Search “can I send a package to an inmate in New York” and you will be told, repeatedly, that family and friends cannot send anything and that everything must come from an approved vendor.
That is not what the directive says.
Section I of Directive 4911 states that only packages received directly from a vendor are permitted except for up to two non-food packages per calendar year, which may be provided by the family or friends of an incarcerated individual. Section IV-G repeats it: an incarcerated individual may receive up to two non-food packages per calendar year from family and friends by mail.
Two conditions apply to those family-sent packages:
- The package must bear the incarcerated individual’s name and DIN (Department Identification Number) on the outside.
- The return address must include the sender’s first and last name.
Food is the exception. Food packages must come from a vendor — no exceptions, no annual allowance. The two-per-year family allowance covers non-food items only, and everything inside still has to appear on the Attachment A allowable list.
This distinction matters because families who believe they can send nothing sometimes give up entirely, and families who believe they can send anything end up with a returned package and a bill for return postage.
The three-package rule, and the trap inside it
An incarcerated individual may receive three food packages per month, with a combined weight not exceeding 40 pounds.
The detail that costs people money: the count is based on when packages arrive at the facility, not when they were ordered. Three orders placed in one month can easily arrive as a fourth, fifth, and sixth package in the following month if shipping runs long.
The directive also warns about this specifically. Vendors operating as third-party fulfillment services may split a single order across multiple shipments. Each shipment counts as a separate package on arrival. A family places one order, the vendor ships it in three boxes, and the incarcerated individual has just used their entire monthly allowance on a single purchase. Packages exceeding the limit are denied.
If you order from a vendor that dropships or splits orders, ask before you buy how many boxes the order will arrive in.
Who cannot receive packages at all
Directive 4911 does not apply uniformly. Several categories of incarcerated individuals are excluded or restricted:
- Special Housing Unit (SHU) — package privileges are restricted and governed by Directive #4933 instead.
- Reception status — no packages for 30 days from the date of reception at a reception/classification facility.
- In-transit — no packages while temporarily housed at another facility.
- Lakeview Shock Incarceration, Drug Treatment Centers, CASAT, Work Release, IASAT, and Edgecombe Residential Treatment Facility — no packages except as specifically authorized by the Deputy Commissioner for Correctional Facilities.
The 30-day reception hold catches a lot of families. Someone’s son has just been sentenced and moved into the system, the family wants to send something immediately, and the package is returned. It is worth confirming where the person is in intake before ordering.
What actually happens when a package reaches the package room
Understanding the physical process explains most rejections.
Every package is opened and searched. Articles are removed from the shipping container and inspected visually and by x-ray. The shipping box or bag itself is never given to the incarcerated individual.
Original product packaging usually stays sealed. Absent a security concern — an abnormality in the x-ray, in the packaging, in weight or texture or labeling — staff will not open individual sealed items. When they do open something, the processing officer must write a memorandum explaining why, filed in the package room record with a copy to the Deputy Superintendent for Security.
Product labels are preserved. Expiration dates, ingredients, quantity, warranty information — these stay with the product unless withheld for a documented security reason.
Packages are held no more than 72 hours, excluding weekends, holidays, and emergencies.
Spoiled or damaged food is destroyed, and DOCCS is not liable. The directive is explicit: the Department is not responsible for articles damaged in shipping or received spoiled. Spoiled food, contaminated items, and anything in a broken or leaking container is treated as a health risk and destroyed. The destruction is recorded on the food package record (Form #1755F).
That last point is the practical argument for choosing a vendor that packs perishables properly. If cheese or cooked meat arrives warm and compromised, nobody reimburses anyone. The package is simply gone.
The $30 receipt rule
Any single article valued over $30.00 must be accompanied by the vendor’s original receipt, bill, or invoice. It must be printed — handwritten receipts are not accepted. The incarcerated individual signs Form #1755V acknowledging receipt.
For the purposes of the directive, the value of an article is the actual purchase price, excluding tax, shipping, and handling.
Items that commonly trigger this rule include footwear, clothing, blankets, electronics, audio equipment, watches, jewelry, musical instruments, typewriters, calculators, and religious apparel.
If you are sending anything above $30, confirm the vendor includes a printed invoice in the shipment.
Return addresses and disapproved vendors
Two requirements determine whether a package even reaches the package room:
The vendor must not be on the DOCCS disapproved vendor list. DOCCS maintains and updates this list; a package from a listed vendor will not be delivered.
The return address must be printed or affixed by the vendor, not handwritten. A package with a handwritten, missing, or insufficient return address is x-rayed, then opened. If contraband is found, it is processed under Directive #4910A. If nothing is found, the incarcerated individual chooses between having it shipped back out at their own expense or destroyed.
What you can actually send: food rules in detail
Attachment A of the directive is the complete allowable list. The food restrictions that cause the most rejections:
Prohibited contents
- Alcohol in any form or as an ingredient
- Creatine
- Vitamin, nutrient, or protein-enriched foods and drink mixes
- Energy foods and drink mixes
- Poppy seeds
- Anything containing marshmallows
- Frozen foods, or anything requiring freezing or previously frozen
- USDA or government surplus food
- Home, bakery, restaurant, or deli-prepared food
- Peppers or hot sauce over 3,600 Scoville units
- Whole or pieced hot peppers
Packaging requirements
- No glass containers. No cans.
- Everything except fresh fruit and vegetables must be commercially packaged in airtight, hermetically sealed containers — heat-sealed plastic bags or vacuum-sealed pouches.
- Paper, plastic, or foil seals do not qualify. A tubular potato chip container, a drink mix container with a plastic seal, a creamer jar with a foil seal — all disallowed.
- A cardboard or paper outer box is fine as long as the item inside is heat-sealed in plastic.
- Resealable packaging is permitted.
- Every item must have a commercially printed ingredients list on the packaging.
Size and quantity limits by category
- Beverages and liquids, including concentrates: pouches or boxes only, 32 oz maximum each
- Dry beverage mixes: 32 oz maximum each
- Pouched food: 16 oz maximum, must not require cooking; microwavable is fine, cans are not
- Candy: no chewing gum, no hollow candy or hollow components
- Cheese: sliced or chunk
- Condiments: 16 oz max, except hot sauce at 7 oz max. Permitted: ketchup, mustard including Dijon and hot, honey, mayonnaise, sweet relish, soy sauce, barbecue sauce, Goya Sazón flavored packets, taco sauce, tomato sauce, tomato paste
- Dried coffee creamer: 16 oz max
- Fruit: fresh only, no dried fruit
- Meats: must be ready to eat — pre-cooked, cured, smoked, or cold cuts
- Nuts: shelled
- Oatmeal: no raisin combinations
- Raisins: 2 oz maximum per food package
- Seafood: cooked, cured, or smoked only, no shells
- Snacks: chips, pretzels, cheese twists, crackers, cookies and similar. No uncooked popcorn. No mixes containing raisins.
- Vegetables: fresh, not requiring cooking, except at facilities permitting cooking. Mushrooms must be commercially packaged.
When an item is rejected: your right to a review
This is the section most families never learn about, and it is the difference between losing an item and getting it issued.
If the item is not on the allowable list at all, it will not be issued and the decision is not reviewable.
If the item is on the allowable list but was withheld because processing staff judged it out of spec — wrong size, wrong color, over the price limit, wrong ingredients, exceeding property limits — the incarcerated individual can request a review.
The process:
- The incarcerated individual completes Form #2068, “Authorization for Disposal of Personal Property,” identifying the item and the desired disposal option, plus a disbursement form if shipping is chosen.
- The area supervisor reviews the item during scheduled rounds. The incarcerated individual does not need to be present.
- The supervisor signs and dates Form #2068 indicating whether the item is allowed and issued, or disallowed and disposed of.
- A copy of the completed form goes to the incarcerated individual.
Refusing to sign Form #2068 forfeits the review. No review is conducted and the item is disposed of as disallowed property under Directive #4913.
Disallowed items not disposed of within 14 days are destroyed or donated to charity by the facility. Items designated to go out with a visitor are held a maximum of 14 days, and the directive advises choosing a second disposal option in case no visitor arrives.
Transfers: the 14-day window
If the person is transferred, packages already in transit follow specific rules.
During transfer processing, the incarcerated individual indicates on Form #2064 whether they will pay postage to forward any package arriving within 14 days at the sending facility, and signs a disbursement form marked “Postage Due.”
- If they elected forwarding and signed the form, packages arriving within 14 days are forwarded — the sending facility absorbs the shipping cost from its postage appropriation.
- If they did not indicate a choice or did not sign, packages are returned to sender.
- Any package arriving more than 14 days after the transfer date is returned to sender regardless.
- Packages are never forwarded to Work Release facilities. They are returned.
If the person is temporarily absent — out to court, in a hospital, in transit — the package is x-rayed. Perishables are returned to sender. Non-perishables are stored unless the absence is expected to exceed 14 days, in which case the Deputy Superintendent for Security decides whether to hold or return.
Loss of package privileges
If the person is serving a disciplinary disposition that includes loss of package privileges:
- Packages from a publisher are still delivered, subject to Directive #4572 media review.
- A vendor package ordered by the incarcerated individual and approved by the business office before the disciplinary disposition is still issued. Otherwise it is returned to sender.
- Packages from family or other sources received during the first five days of the loss are delivered, unless the person is in SHU.
- Packages received after the first five days are returned unopened.
- If the incarcerated individual orders a package while under a loss disposition, it is returned and they are responsible for the return cost.
Local permits
Some items require a local permit rather than blanket approval, because facilities differ in layout and programming. Radios, headphones, tape players, typewriters, musical instruments, coffee pots, beard trimmers, hair dryers, and electric razors all fall into this category.
A permit is valid only at the current facility. If the person is transferred and cannot obtain a permit at the new facility, the item must be disposed of at their expense. The incarcerated individual must keep their copy of the permit to retain the item.
Facility Operating Procedures: why rules differ by facility
Directive 4911 applies statewide, but each facility also operates under its own Facility Operating Procedures. A few provisions in the directive itself point to this — fresh vegetables that require cooking are allowed only at facilities that permit cooking; metal cooking utensils only where the Superintendent has authorized them by local permit; local permits generally are issued facility by facility.
The Commissioner may also suspend all or any part of the directive at any or all facilities at their discretion.
The practical implication: confirm current rules with the specific facility before a large order. A package that clears at one facility is not guaranteed to clear at another.
Ordering a compliant package
Jahmaxx Care Packages ships directly to NYS DOCCS facilities, packs to the Directive 4911 sealing and packaging requirements, and does not split orders across multiple shipments. Browse meats, cheese, snacks, fruits, vegetables, bath and body, or the full catalog. See our store information for shipping details.
Related reading: Can You Send Food Packages to Inmates in New York? and How to Send a Care Package to Prison in New York.
Sources
- NYS DOCCS Directive #4911, “Packages & Articles Sent to Facilities,” effective December 21, 2023 — doccs.ny.gov
- NYS DOCCS, “Mail & Packages” — doccs.ny.gov/mail-packages
- NYS DOCCS, “Family Guide: Allowable Items” — doccs.ny.gov/family-guide-allowable-items
- NYS DOCCS Incarcerated Individual Disapproved Package Vendor List — doccs.ny.gov
Related directives referenced throughout: #4913 (Incarcerated Individual Property), #4933 (Special Housing Units), #4572 (Media Review), #4910A (Contraband Handling), #4425 (Tablet Program), #2733 (Personal Property Claim), #4202 (Religious Programs and Practices).
This page summarizes Directive #4911 as of its December 21, 2023 revision. DOCCS revises its directives periodically. Confirm current requirements with the facility before ordering.