New Mail Rules at Harris County Jail (Baker): How to Address and Send Personal Mail After 6/16/2025

Starting 6/16/2025, personal mail is only accepted if it's addressed exactly according to Harris County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) guidelines. Your letter no longer goes straight to the jail as physical mail. Instead, it's received at the Securus Digital Mail Center. If your letter meets HCSO requirements, it gets scanned and made available for your loved one to view on eMessaging tablets and kiosks.

Here's how the new process works: mail arrives at the Securus Digital Mail Center and gets reviewed against HCSO's requirements. If everything checks out, it's scanned and uploaded so your loved one can view it on the jail's eMessaging tablets and kiosks. The Digital Mail Center can reject items before or after opening them. When that happens, the mail gets sent back to you.

• ✓ If the Digital Mail Center determines an item cannot be scanned, it will be returned to the sender.
• ✓ If you want something returned after it is scanned, include a self-addressed envelope with sufficient postage.
• ✓ If you do not include a self-addressed stamped envelope, the item will not be returned.

Returned mail is for items the Digital Mail Center can't scan. That's different from contraband. If you include unauthorized items, the facility treats the entire package as contraband, confiscates it, and throws it away. It won't be stored in the property room for pickup later.

Addressing Instructions

• ✓ Your full name (sender)
• ✓ Your complete return address (sender)
• ✓ The incarcerated person’s full booked name
• ✓ The incarcerated person’s SPN
• ✓ The incarcerated person’s housing facility
• ✓ The incarcerated person’s cell block location

For Baker Street housing locations, HCSO specifies which mailing address to use. If the person is housed at 1307 Baker Street, address mail to: Harris County Sheriff's Office, 1307 Baker St., Houston, TX 77002. If they're housed at 1200 Baker Street, use: Harris County Sheriff's Office, 1200 Baker St., Houston, TX 77002. Whichever address applies, your envelope must also include all required identifying details: full booked name, SPN, housing facility, and cell block. Include your full name and complete return address too. Mail missing any required information gets returned.

Photos are allowed, but only if they meet the jail's limits. Maximum size is 5" x 7", and you can include up to 10 photos per package. Content restrictions apply: no offensive or sexual images, no gang references, and no pictures showing guns, drugs, or drug paraphernalia.

Anything the facility considers unauthorized becomes contraband. If contraband comes through the mail, the entire package is confiscated and thrown away. It won't be held in the property room for the incarcerated person, and you won't be able to pick it up later.

• ✓ Greeting cards
• ✓ Envelopes
• ✓ Pens, pencils, markers
• ✓ Perfumed letters
• ✓ Stickers
• ✓ Packages
• ✓ Cash or money orders
• ✓ Food or food items
• ✓ Stamps
• ✓ Computer-generated materials downloaded from the Internet
• ✓ Photocopied images or facsimiles
• ✓ Medicine
• ✓ Obscene pictures (including pictures depicting full or partial nudity)
• ✓ Photos that are offensive or sexual, include gang references, or display guns, drugs, or drug paraphernalia

Attorney communications and legal mail don't go through the general digital-mail address. If you're an attorney or sending legal mail to an incarcerated client, follow the facility's specific legal-mail process instead.