What Happens to Your Physical Mail After It's Scanned at Pasco County Jail

At Pasco County Jail, your letter, card, or other personal mail gets scanned into a digital system - and the physical original doesn't stick around. The jail destroys physical mail 60 days after upload. So anything sentimental you send (handwritten notes, drawings, photos, keepsakes tucked into a letter) has a short window before the original is gone. The person inside can still view the scanned version, but the physical item won't exist anymore.

Want the original back after it's scanned? Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) inside your mail. You're basically providing the return packaging and postage upfront so the facility can send the physical pages back to you. Skip the SASE, and you won't get the original back.

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• ✓ If you need to keep an original longer than 60 days, don’t send the only copy into the jail’s mail stream.
• ✓ Keep the original at home and send a copy instead whenever you can.
• ✓ If you do send an original and want it returned after scanning, include a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) inside the original mailed document.
• ✓ Plan around the 60-day timeline: physical mail is destroyed 60 days after upload, so treat anything you send as time-sensitive.

Once the jail destroys the physical mail, there's no way to recover it - the scanned version is all that remains. Think ahead about what's replaceable (everyday letters) versus what isn't (one-of-a-kind photos, kids' artwork, certificates). Sending something you'd hate to lose? Either keep the original yourself or include a SASE so it comes back after scanning.

For special items like photos, certificates, or keepsakes, digital might be the safer route. JailATM accepts image uploads in BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, and TIFF formats with a maximum file size of 5120 KB. But if you'd rather mail the original - say, a handwritten note or one-of-a-kind picture - include a SASE inside so you can get that physical item back after it's scanned.