To expand on my last post,
The best thing to do BEFORE you mail things to a jail is contact the jail and find out if your package, letter will be rejected. No sense in wasting postage and possibly delaying Tony's mail. There are lots of ways I've seen "jail mail" rejected. It's a hassle that I offer help to avoid. You may be surprised at what gets listed as rejected contraband.
Call the institution about limitations on what is acceptable. Do not mail magazines that contain any nudity. I also get lots of tattooing magazines rejected.
If you mail paper, make sure it hasn't got any metal spiral rings or tabs. No metal of any kind is allowed, even in a lot of low security settings. Spiral-ringed paper gets rejected every time.
Most every Federal institution requires that books, magazines, etc. be mailed from a third party business. Buy your books and we ship it. Just make sure to specify USPS only since it is a PO box.
I hope this helps.
As I said, mailrooms can be fickle. What may pass at one place, may not pass at another. I've had James Patterson novels rejected because of plot themes, yet the same jail allowed a biography of John Gotti and a book of famous serial killers. Go figure.
A fair amount of time (two weeks tops) should be accepted for packages that contain books. They have to go through everything thouroughly, including reading book text. Media mail isn't prioritized like first-class postage. Keep that in mind if your carrier isn't shipping first-class postage.
