Where to Send Mail for Someone at Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility (MSDF)

For non-privileged personal mail - regular letters, cards, photos, and other non-legal correspondence - send it to TextBehind at: P.O. Box 189, Phoenix, MD 21131. On the envelope, include your full return name and address, plus the person's full name (first and last) and their DOC number. Miss any of that information, and the envelope gets returned to you as undeliverable.

TextBehind is the mail-scanning service that handles non-privileged mail. Your non-legal mail goes through that P.O. Box rather than directly to MSDF. Privileged mail works differently: TextBehind won't open or process identifiable medical or legal mail. If you send legal mail and it's clearly marked as such, TextBehind forwards it to the institution intact instead of photocopying it.

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• ✓ Musical greeting cards
• ✓ Pop-up cards
• ✓ Cards with glitter
• ✓ Multi-thickness cards
• ✓ Cards with items glued onto them

Sending cards or photos? Keep them simple. Cards with prohibited features won't be copied by TextBehind, which means they won't make it through. Double-check that your envelope is addressed to P.O. Box 189, Phoenix, MD 21131 and includes your return name and address, plus the person's full name and DOC number.

Once TextBehind scans your mail, the originals don't stick around. The contents, envelopes, and any pre-paid self-addressed envelopes are shredded by an NSA-certified third party 30 days after scanning.

Don't mail gift cards, cash, or personal checks to someone at MSDF. These items will be returned to you. If you want to help someone with funds, use AccessCorrections to deposit money instead.

There's also a rule for outgoing mail. All non-privileged (non-legal) mail sent by people in DOC care must use this as the FROM/Return address: P.O. Box 189, Phoenix, MD 21131. They should not use the facility's address as their return address for outgoing non-privileged mail.

Some mail should skip TextBehind entirely. Absentee ballots count as privileged mail - for eligible voters, send ballots directly to the institution. The same goes for identifiable legal and medical mail: TextBehind won't open or process it. If legal mail is clearly marked, TextBehind forwards it to the institution intact. For any privileged items, address them to MSDF rather than the TextBehind P.O. Box.