What You Can and Cannot Mail to Someone at Erie County Holding Center

Address mail with the incarcerated person’s full name and their ICN number (the ICN is listed on their bracelet). Then use the correct facility address. For the Erie County Holding Center, address it to: Inmate Name + ICN # Erie County Holding Center 40 Delaware Avenue Buffalo, NY 14202 If the person is at the Erie County Correctional Facility instead, use: Inmate Name + ICN # Erie County Correctional Facility 11581 Walden Avenue Alden, NY 14004

Erie County’s Jail Management facilities reject a long list of items both at the facility and through the mail. If you send something that isn’t allowed, it can be refused and either returned to the sender or discarded, so it’s worth double-checking before you spend money on postage or supplies.

• ✓ Personal checks
• ✓ Nude personal photographs
• ✓ Musical greeting cards, oversized greeting cards, and plastic-type cards
• ✓ Telephone calling cards and personal identification cards
• ✓ More than ten (10) photographs
• ✓ Medicine
• ✓ Personal hygiene items (including deodorant, hair products, combs/brushes, toothpaste, toothbrush, shampoo, soap, washcloths, towels)
• ✓ Cosmetics
• ✓ Jewelry (including rings, watches, bracelets)
• ✓ Stamps
• ✓ Writing supplies (writing paper, envelopes, pens, pencils)
• ✓ Food items and candy
• ✓ Cologne or perfume
• ✓ Cassette tapes
• ✓ Electrical items such as radios or tape players

If you were planning to bring items in person, don’t - clothing and packages can’t be dropped off at any Jail Management Division facility. For packages, the rule is also strict: any incoming package has to be purchased from and mailed by a company whose ordinary business includes selling and shipping those items. In other words, personal drop-offs and homemade packages aren’t the way to get property in.

Religious and educational materials are only accepted as soft-cover editions, and they must be sent through the mail. If it’s hard-cover or you try to hand-deliver it, it won’t be accepted under the facility’s published rules.

1. Keep the in-cell limit in mind - A person can have no more than five (5) books or magazines and two (2) newspapers in their cell at one time.
2. Count library books toward the total - The limit includes books borrowed from the facility library, not just items mailed in.

If you mail something that isn’t accepted at the facility, it may be refused and either returned to the sender or discarded. That’s why it helps to treat the prohibited list above as a “don’t send it” checklist - especially for things like hygiene items, stamps, pens, food, perfume/cologne, and electronics, which people commonly try to mail.

If what you want to send counts as a package or property, plan on using a vendor shipment instead of a personal drop-off. The facility’s rule is that incoming packages must be purchased from - and mailed by - a company that normally sells and ships those items, and clothing/packages aren’t accepted as drop-offs at the facility.