Mail & Packages in Delaware (DOC)

Where Mail Actually Goes

Since 2024, all four Delaware prisons run incoming personal mail through a central scanning contractor, Pigeonly Corrections. A letter mailed to the prison’s street address will not reach the person — non-legal mail must go to the contractor’s post office box in Las Vegas, where it is opened, screened, scanned in color, then printed and shipped back to the prison for delivery. The published processing window is about 48 hours at the scanning center plus shipping time.

Two consequences worth absorbing before mailing anything:

• The original never arrives. The person receives a printed copy. Originals are held 45 days at the scanning center and then destroyed — they are not returned to the sender. A child’s original drawing, a card with sentimental value, or anything you want back should not go in the mail.
• The address includes a facility code, not just a name. Using the wrong code can route mail to the wrong prison’s queue.

The published addresses — name and SBI number on the first line, then:

• Baylor Women’s Correctional Institution - 1200, PO Box 96777, Las Vegas, NV 89193
• Howard R. Young Correctional Institution - 1202, PO Box 96777, Las Vegas, NV 89193
• James T. Vaughn Correctional Center - 1101, PO Box 96777, Las Vegas, NV 89193
• Sussex Correctional Institution - 1201, PO Box 96777, Las Vegas, NV 89193

The SBI number is the person’s State Bureau of Identification number; DOC’s instructions accept a date of birth if you don’t have it. Mail must arrive in a white envelope no larger than 4 x 9.5 inches, with a return address — mail without one is not processed. People held at the Level IV community corrections centers are the exception: their mail goes directly to the center’s own address, listed on DOC’s Mail to Inmate page.

There is also a digital path that skips the postal trip entirely: the same contractor’s service at pigeonly.com accepts letters, photos, and cards electronically and delivers them through the scanning system, with a published no-cost plan limited to one contact per month.

What Can Go in a Letter

The scanning center accepts letters, greeting cards, photos, children’s drawings, and unbound newsletters. The published limits:

• Paper up to 8.5 x 11; commercially produced greeting cards up to 5 x 7 on standard card stock
• Up to 10 photos per mailing, each between 4 x 6 and 8.5 x 11 — nothing smaller, no Polaroids, and no photos from third-party publishers

What Gets Mail Rejected

The published rejection list is long, and some entries surprise people:

• Crayon, marker, or highlighter on the paper — a common way children’s letters get refused; pencil and pen scan cleanly
• Glitter, stickers, rhinestones, lipstick marks, perfume, or any substance on the paper
• Electronic, pop-up, oversized, or multi-fold cards
• Newspaper clippings, cut-outs, and loose small pieces of paper
• Blank envelopes, paper, or stamps (these are commissary items)
• Cash, personal checks, cashier’s checks, and money orders — money never goes through the mail system (see below)
• Stapled pages, mail requiring a signature, and anything legal-size or larger

Books, Magazines, and Newspapers

Publications skip the Las Vegas scanning address: newspaper and magazine subscriptions and books sent directly from the publisher are delivered to the prison itself. Books from donation programs and libraries, religious materials, and correspondence-course materials require the facility’s pre-approval first. Publications mailed by individuals are not accepted at the scanning center, so “I’ll just mail the book myself” does not work in Delaware.

Packages

Individuals cannot mail packages, and care packages cannot be brought to visits. The published alternative, new for 2025, is the Access Securepak program: family and friends order approved commissary items at accesssecurepak.com (or 1-800-456-6283) for delivery with the facility’s weekly commissary run. Orders use the person’s full eight-character SBI number, including leading zeros.

Legal Mail and Official Documents

Legal mail from an attorney of record bypasses scanning and goes directly to the facility, handled confidentially. Official documents — birth certificates, Social Security cards, IDs, diplomas — also go directly to the facility, where they are held on file in the business office rather than handed over.

Sending Money Is Separate

Delaware’s deposit system runs through the phone-and-tablet vendor, not the mail. DOC’s published instructions say not to mail money orders to Baylor, Howard R. Young, or Vaughn, or through the scanning service — and the scanning center’s own rejection list bars money orders for all four prisons. Mailed money orders go to the vendor’s processing center in Dallas with a deposit form. The channels and fees are covered in Sending Money.

Verify Before Acting

For the general, nationwide overview of this topic, see the national guide: Staying in Touch.