How to Send a Care Package to Prison in New York
, by Jahmaxx Care Packages, 8 min reading time
To send a care package to someone in a New York State prison, order from a vendor not on the DOCCS disapproved list and ship directly to the facility with the person’s full name and DIN on the label. Families can also mail up to two non-food packages per calendar year themselves.
Quick answer: To send a care package to someone in a New York State prison, order it from a vendor that is not on the DOCCS disapproved vendor list and have it shipped directly to the facility with the person’s full name and DIN on the label. Families can also mail up to two non-food packages per calendar year themselves, but food must always come from a vendor.
This guide covers New York State facilities run by DOCCS. City jails, including Rikers Island, are operated by a different agency with different rules.
Before you order: confirm they can receive a package
This step gets skipped and it is the most expensive one to skip, because a package sent to someone ineligible is returned at your cost.
Under Directive #4911, these people cannot receive packages:
- Anyone within 30 days of arriving at a reception or classification facility. If the person was recently sentenced and moved into the system, wait out the hold.
- Anyone in transit — temporarily housed at a facility that is not their assigned one.
- Anyone in a Special Housing Unit, whose privileges are governed by Directive #4933 instead.
- Anyone at Lakeview Shock Incarceration, a Drug Treatment Center, CASAT, Work Release, IASAT, or Edgecombe Residential Treatment Facility, unless specifically authorized.
- Anyone serving a disciplinary disposition that includes loss of package privileges. Packages arriving after the first five days of that loss are returned unopened.
Step 1: Get their full name, DIN, and current facility
The DIN — Department Identification Number — is required on every package. Without it the package will not be delivered.
Confirm the facility too, and confirm it recently. Transfers happen with little notice, and a package sent to the wrong facility follows a strict set of rules covered further down.
Step 2: Decide whether you are sending food or non-food
This determines everything that follows, because the two categories work differently.
Food must come from a vendor. There is no family exception. You cannot mail food, bring it on a visit, or send anything home-prepared, bakery-prepared, restaurant-prepared, or deli-prepared. What is permitted is covered in detail in our guide to sending food packages.
Non-food can come from a vendor, or from you directly — twice a year. Directive 4911 permits up to two non-food packages per calendar year sent by family or friends. Most vendor websites do not mention this. It is in Section I and again in Section IV-G.
If you send one yourself, it must bear the person’s name and DIN, and the return address must include your first and last name. Everything inside still has to appear on the Attachment A allowable list. Common non-food categories include bath and body items, men’s clothing, and women’s clothing, each with its own color, size, and value restrictions.
Step 3: Choose a vendor
The only hard requirement is that the vendor is not on the DOCCS disapproved vendor list, which DOCCS maintains and updates.
Beyond that, three questions are worth asking before you buy:
Does the order ship as one box or several? Some vendors act as third-party fulfillment services and split orders across multiple shipments. Each box counts as a separate package against the monthly limit. One order arriving as three boxes can consume an entire month’s allowance.
How do they pack perishables? If food arrives spoiled, the facility destroys it and DOCCS accepts no liability. There is no refund mechanism on their side.
Do they include a printed invoice? Any single item valued over $30 must arrive with the vendor’s original printed receipt, bill, or invoice. Handwritten is not accepted.
Step 4: Know the limits before you fill the cart
Food: three packages per month, 40 pounds combined. The count is based on arrival at the facility, not on when you ordered. Coordinate with anyone else who might be sending.
Non-food from family: two per calendar year.
Items over $30: need the printed vendor receipt. This commonly applies to footwear, clothing, blankets, electronics, audio equipment, watches, jewelry, musical instruments, typewriters, calculators, and religious apparel.
Everything: must appear on the Attachment A allowable list, and must be new and unused — except non-electronic musical instruments, books, magazines, and periodicals, which may be used.
Step 5: Check the facility’s own rules
Directive 4911 applies statewide, but every facility also runs its own Facility Operating Procedures. The directive itself allows for this — fresh vegetables that require cooking are permitted only where cooking is allowed, several items require a local permit issued facility by facility, and the Commissioner can suspend any part of the directive at any facility.
A package that clears at one facility is not guaranteed to clear at another. Call the facility before a large order.
Step 6: Place the order and label it correctly
Two things must appear on the package:
- The incarcerated individual’s full name and DIN
- A return address printed or affixed by the vendor — not handwritten
Vendors ship via USPS, UPS, FedEx, or similar carriers. A package with a handwritten, missing, or insufficient return address is x-rayed and then opened; if nothing prohibited turns up, the person chooses between paying to ship it back or having it destroyed.
One more thing: if you include a letter, photos, cash, or a money order in a vendor package, package room staff forward those to the mailroom or business office rather than issuing them with the package. Promotional inserts — prize slips, informational discs, anything not part of the product — get removed and discarded before issue.
What happens after it arrives
Knowing the process explains most of what can go wrong.
The package is opened and searched. Contents come out of the shipping container and are inspected visually and by x-ray. The shipping box itself is never given to the person.
Individual sealed items usually stay sealed. Staff open them only when there is a security concern — an x-ray abnormality, something off about the packaging, weight, texture, or labeling. When that happens, the officer files a memorandum explaining why.
Product labels stay with the products. Expiration dates, ingredients, warranty information — preserved unless withheld for a documented reason.
Packages are held no longer than 72 hours, excluding weekends, holidays, and emergencies.
The person signs for the package, attesting that the contents are for personal use and that receiving them will not push them over their personal property limits. If they refuse to sign, the package is disposed of under Directive #4913.
If something is rejected
There is a review process, and most families never hear about it.
If the item is not on the allowable list at all, it will not be issued and there is no review.
If the item is on the list but was held back because staff judged it out of specification — wrong size, wrong color, over the price limit, wrong ingredients, over property limits — the person can request review.
They complete Form #2068, identifying the item and choosing a disposal option. The area supervisor reviews it during scheduled rounds; the person does not need to be present. The supervisor signs off on whether it is allowed and issued, or disallowed and disposed of, and a copy goes back to the person.
Refusing to sign Form #2068 forfeits the review entirely. The item is then treated as disallowed property.
Disallowed items not disposed of within 14 days are destroyed or donated to charity. Items set aside to go out with a visitor are held 14 days at most, which is why the directive advises naming a backup option in case no visitor comes.
If they transfer while a package is in the mail
During transfer processing, the person indicates on Form #2064 whether they will pay postage to forward packages arriving within 14 days, and signs a disbursement form marked “Postage Due.”
- Elected forwarding and signed — packages arriving within 14 days are forwarded, with the sending facility covering the postage from its own appropriation.
- Did not elect or did not sign — returned to sender.
- Arriving more than 14 days after the transfer date — returned to sender regardless.
- Work Release facilities — never forwarded, always returned.
If the person is temporarily absent instead — out to court, hospitalized, in transit — the package is x-rayed. Perishables go back to the sender. Non-perishables are stored, unless the absence looks likely to run past 14 days, in which case the Deputy Superintendent for Security decides whether to hold or return.
Sending through Jahmaxx
Jahmaxx Care Packages ships directly to NYS DOCCS facilities, packs to the Directive 4911 sealing and packaging requirements, and ships each order as a single shipment rather than splitting it across boxes. Browse meats, snacks, cheese, bath and body, vegan items, or the full catalog. See our store information for shipping details.
Related reading: Directive 4911: What NYS DOCCS Actually Allows in Inmate Packages and Can You Send Food Packages to Inmates 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
Reflects Directive #4911 as of its December 21, 2023 revision. DOCCS revises directives periodically; confirm current requirements with the facility before ordering.