What Happens to Your Original Letters After You Mail Them to HRYCI

All non-legal mail for HRYCI goes to a central facility run by Pigeonly Corrections. Your envelope gets opened there - not at HRYCI itself.

At the central facility, your letter is scanned into a color digital copy. A printed version of that scan is what gets delivered to HRYCI and handed to your loved one.

Originals don't stick around forever. The central processor holds your original letter for 45 days, then destroys it.

During that 45-day window, originals sit in storage at the central facility. After that, they're securely destroyed per DOC policy. Once gone, there's nothing left to return - so don't expect your original letter back.

The short answer: no, original non-legal mail won't come back to you. Expect the paper you mailed to be stored temporarily and then destroyed after the retention period ends.

• ✓ Treat anything you mail as a “one-way” original - don’t send the only copy of a keepsake.
• ✓ If you want to share a photo, drawing, or handwritten note, keep the original at home and send a copy instead.
• ✓ Remember that a color digital scan is created during processing and a printed copy is what gets delivered to HRYCI.

1. Make your own backup first - scan or photograph anything sentimental before you mail it, because the original won’t come back.
2. Send a duplicate instead of the only original - mail a photocopy or a reprint when you can, especially for photos and artwork.
3. Rely on the processing copy for delivery - your loved one will receive a printed version created from a color digital scan, not the exact paper you sent.
4. Assume the original will be destroyed after 45 days - that’s the retention window the central processor uses before destroying originals.