How Mail Works at Orange County Jail Since April 2024: Smart Communications, MailGuard, and money orders

Starting in April 2024, all regular inmate postal mail - postcards, letters, greeting cards, and similar items - is opened and scanned into the Smart Communications postal mail system. That means the jail isn’t handing the original paper letter straight to your loved one the way many people expect.

Once scanned, mail goes through a review before it reaches the inmate. If delivery seems slower than you'd expect from a traditional mailroom, this review step is usually why.

Your loved one won't get the physical envelope. Instead, they access the scanned mail on password-protected kiosks or tablets. Everything sent through the postal service gets processed off-site, then delivered electronically through that system.

For regular postal mail, use the Smart Communications addressing format. Here’s the example format the jail provides: Smart Communications/Orange County Corrections Department John Joseph Jones 00012345 P.O. Box 9101 Seminole, FL 33775-9174

• ✓ Include a full return address on the envelope.
• ✓ Write the inmate’s full name and booking number on the envelope.
• ✓ If you’re sending a money order, write the inmate’s full name and booking number on the money order too.

Want to know what happened to your letter after you mailed it? MailGuard is a free tracking tool tied to this process. Create an account at www.mailguardtracker.com to check delivery status, get notified if mail is rejected, and download copies of processed mail.

Never include cash, checks, or money orders with regular mail going through Smart Communications. The scanned-mail system doesn't process those items, and mixing them in causes delays.

1. Mail the money order separately - Send it to: Inmate Fiscal Department, P.O. Box 4970, Orlando, FL 32802-4970.
2. Label it for processing - The inmate’s full name and booking number must be written on both the envelope and the money order.

Books and periodicals have their own rules. Only paperback books are allowed, and they must ship directly from the publisher or a bookstore - not from you. Content restrictions apply: no nudity, sexually oriented material, or anything considered a security threat. Each shipment is limited to four publications total (any combination of books, magazines, and newspapers).