How to Send Books and Magazines to Elkhart County Jail Inmates
Sending reading material to someone at Elkhart County Jail is possible, but the facility has strict rules about where items ship from. Here's how to make sure your books or subscriptions actually arrive.
Books must ship directly to the jail from an approved source - you can't pack them up at home and mail them yourself. There's also a 5-book limit per shipment. Go over that, and the whole package gets sent back.
Tip: The safest approach is to place your order directly through one of the jail’s approved book sources and keep it to 5 books or fewer.
- ✓ Use one of the jail’s approved book sources (the jail lists them).
- ✓ Make sure the seller will ship the books directly to the jail (not to you first).
- ✓ Keep the order to 5 books or fewer per shipment.
Magazines and newspapers must come directly from the publisher and arrive via U.S. Postal Service. When setting up a subscription, confirm at checkout that it ships publisher-direct through USPS - otherwise it won't clear mail processing.
Reminder: If it’s not coming straight from the publisher through USPS, it’s not going to meet the jail’s subscription rules.
The most common reason books get rejected? The shipping source. If books don't come directly from an approved publisher or vendor, they won't be accepted. Retail packages from Amazon, Target, and Walmart get flagged for return. The other pitfall is quantity - more than 5 books in a shipment means the whole thing comes back, even if everything else checks out.
Watch out: Retailer-packaged shipments (Amazon/Target/Walmart, etc.) are likely to be returned to you instead of delivered.
Whatever you’re sending, make sure the inmate’s name and ID number are clearly printed on the outside. When that information is missing or hard to read, mail can end up lost or misdirected instead of reaching the right person.
If your package gets rejected, the jail returns it to you. The fix is usually simple: reorder through an approved book source and keep it to 5 books or fewer. For magazines and newspapers, set up a publisher-direct subscription that ships via USPS. Once your order matches the jail's requirements, you shouldn't have any more issues.
- Confirm the shipping source - Books must ship directly from an approved source; magazines/newspapers must come directly from the publisher.
- Check the shipment size - Keep book shipments to 5 books or fewer.
- Make sure subscriptions ship correctly - Magazine and newspaper subscriptions must be delivered via the U.S. Postal Service.
- Fix the label details - Clearly print the inmate’s name and ID number on the outside.
- Resend using the corrected setup - Place a new order that follows the source and limit rules so it isn’t returned again.
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