What Happens to Your Letters After You Mail Them to Northern Neck Regional Jail
Mail to Northern Neck Regional Jail works differently than you might expect. Your letter gets scanned and converted to a digital copy—the paper original doesn't make it through.
Northern Neck Regional Jail switched to digital mail processing on March 6, 2023. Letters from family and friends no longer pass through as paper - they're converted to a digital format for inmates to view electronically.
When your letter arrives, staff scan it electronically. Your loved one reads the scanned version on Securus kiosks and tablets inside the jail - they won't hold the original paper in their hands.
Some housing units don't have kiosks or tablets. If your loved one is in one of these units, staff print the scanned mail and hand-deliver the printed copy.
Warning: Don’t send originals or anything of value. Once your correspondence is accepted and scanned, the physical paper is destroyed.
Digital copies don't stick around forever either. The jail destroys them 60 days after an inmate's release, so don't count on any permanent record of what you've sent.
Practical Tips
- ✓ Letters you’re comfortable having converted to a digital copy
- ✓ Copies (not originals) of photos or documents you want them to be able to read
- ✓ Everyday updates, supportive notes, and information they can reference later
- ✓ Anything you’d be okay with being destroyed as a physical item after scanning
- ✓ Original photos, original cards, or any one-of-a-kind keepsakes
- ✓ Anything of value you wouldn’t want lost (sentimental or otherwise)
- ✓ Irreplaceable personal items you hoped they could keep in paper form
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