What to Know About Mail Scanning at Dixon: How Non-Privileged Mail Is Processed
If you send letters or photos to someone at Dixon, your mail goes through IDOC's scanning and photocopy process for non-privileged mail. Here's what gets scanned, how it's delivered, and what to do before you mail anything important.
IDOC scans and/or photocopies all incoming non-privileged mail, and Dixon is no exception. In practice, this means most everyday personal mail gets turned into a digital or photocopied version before it's delivered inside the facility.
Which Items
- ✓ Written correspondence (letters)
- ✓ Greeting cards
- ✓ Drawings
- ✓ Photos
- ✓ Publications
- ✓ Photos sent directly from photo printing service companies
- ✓ Official documents mailed from a government entity (including but not limited to birth certificates and Social Security cards)
- ✓ Correspondence from IDOC staff sent to an individual in custody
Note: Only written correspondence, greeting cards, drawings, and photos are accepted for scanning. IDOC's unauthorized mail rules still apply. Some items fall outside the scanning process entirely, including publications, certain official documents from government entities, photos from photo-print services, and correspondence from IDOC staff.
Once non-privileged mail arrives, mailroom staff scan it in color. They capture the front and back of the envelope, plus each item inside (letters, greeting cards, photographs). The scanned images are saved as PDFs and uploaded to the person's Bulletin Board or otherwise made available electronically. Your loved one can then access the mail in that digital format.
Note: If someone does not have access to their tablet for any reason, they will receive paper photocopies of their mail.
The electronic mail scanning process is free. You still cover normal postage, but IDOC does not charge a fee for scanning mail into electronic format.
Here's one big thing to keep in mind: IDOC cannot return original mail documents to the sender after scanning. If you're mailing something you'd want to keep, send a copy and hold onto the original at home.
- Put the IDOC number on the envelope. Write it near the person’s name so staff can match it quickly.
- Add the IDOC number on each page or photo. Mark each page/photo you include the same way to help with prompt processing.
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