Sending Money in Delaware (DOC)

How Deposits Work

Delaware publishes exactly three ways to put money on a prison account, all through its phone-and-tablet vendor:

• Kiosks in the gatehouse of every facility
• Online or by phone through ConnectNetwork (connectnetwork.com, the mobile app, or the automated phone line) using a credit or debit card; Delaware is Site ID 156 in the vendor’s system
• Money order by mail — to the vendor’s processing center, not the prison

You need the person’s name and SBI number. Cash by mail and personal checks are not accepted anywhere in the system. Online and kiosk fees are not published by DOC or the vendor — the fee appears during the transaction, before you confirm. Money orders are the published no-fee channel.

Mailing a Money Order

Mailed money orders go to the vendor in Texas — never to the facility. DOC’s instructions are explicit that money orders must not be mailed to Baylor, Howard R. Young, or Vaughn, or sent through the mail-scanning service, and those facilities do not take money orders in person at visits either. The published procedure:

• Make the money order payable to GTL Financial Services, $300 maximum
• Fill out the DOC deposit form (linked from the Send Money page) — the person’s name and SBI number, plus your name, address, phone, and email
• Mail both to: GTL Financial Services, 10005 Technology Blvd West, Suite 130, Dallas, TX 75220
• No staples, paper clips, letters, or photos in the envelope

There is no processing fee on money orders. For a deposit that hasn’t posted, the published contacts are moneyorders@gtl.net (no sooner than a week after mailing) and GTL customer service at 877-650-4249 — DOC publishes no deposit-confirmation channel of its own, though the incarcerated person receives a receipt and can request one free account statement each month.

Account Rules Worth Knowing

Delaware’s published trust-account policy sets caps most states don’t: an account holds no more than $600 (the warden can request an exception for things like settlements, with bureau approval), and spending is capped at $500. Transfers between incarcerated people — or from another incarcerated person’s family or visitors — are prohibited without administrator approval, which can cause a deposit to bounce if the sender’s name connects to another case. Money left unclaimed for 395 days after release transfers to the state’s General Fund.

What Gets Deducted

Delaware’s deduction order comes from statute: dependent support and court-ordered restitution come out first, then court costs and fines, then a “proportionate share of the costs of incarceration” under a department fee schedule. No percentages are published anywhere — the statute names the categories but not the amounts, so how much of a deposit survives depends on the person’s individual obligations.

On top of the statutory order, the trust-fund policy lists the debts collected from accounts: prior-incarceration debts, indigent supply packs, postage, medical co-pays owed, legal copies, and replacement IDs. A person carrying built-up debt may see deposits partly absorbed before anything reaches the commissary balance.

Commissary

Delaware’s commissary — the “Canteen” — operates under DOC’s own policy, with a published surcharge cap of 20 percent and profits directed to inmate health and welfare. Spending limits and ordering frequency are set by each warden and are not published. A person averaging less than $10 a day over a rolling 30-day period counts as indigent and receives supply packs, charged to the account as a debt collected if money later arrives.

Separate from weekly commissary, family and friends can order packages directly through the Access Securepak vendor program — covered in Mail & Packages.

Verify Before Acting

For the general, nationwide overview of this topic, see the national guide: Sending Money.