Mail, Photos, Packages, and Religious Items for Someone at Plainfield: What Will Reach Them
Sending support to someone at Plainfield is straightforward once you know the rules. Here's how IDOC handles general mail, photos, packages, and religious items — so you can avoid wasted time and returned items.
At Plainfield and other IDOC facilities, general correspondence doesn't arrive in its original form. The mailroom photocopies all non-legal mail in black and white - letters, educational materials, religious mail, all of it. Your loved one receives the copy, not the original pages you sent.
Tip: Don't mail anything you'd be upset to lose. Original photos, keepsakes, artwork - all of it gets copied to reduce contraband, and the originals won't be handed to your loved one.
Legal mail follows different rules. Correspondence from courts, attorneys, or legal organizations counts as legal mail. So do tort claims sent to the Commissioner. If your loved one is a foreign national, letters to and from their home country's embassy or consulate also qualify.
Note: Legal correspondence is treated as privileged mail - it's not photocopied like general mail.
Mail photos inside a letter, and they'll be treated like any other general correspondence: copied in black and white, originals not delivered. If you've been sending photos or emails through the current IDOC messaging system, heads up - those won't transfer to the new system. They should still be preserved, though. IDOC says photos and messages will be archived on the new tablets.
Tip: For mailed photos, assume your loved one will only see a black-and-white copy. For electronic messages, don't worry if older photos and emails don't appear on a new system right away - they're expected to be archived on the new tablets.
Packages trip people up more than anything else. IDOC doesn't allow packages from third-party fulfillment services. Ordering from Amazon? The item must be sold by Amazon and shipped by Amazon. If a different seller or shipper is involved, it won't be accepted - even if it's listed on Amazon.
Tip: Before ordering, check that the product clearly shows "sold by Amazon" and "shipped from Amazon." Third-party sellers or fulfillment setups usually mean rejection.
Religious items have their own rules. The key one: you can't just mail religious property to your loved one. IDOC requires personal religious items to be purchased through commissary when available, or shipped to the facility by an approved vendor. Family and friends aren't allowed to send them directly.
Since items must come through approved channels, the facility may keep a list of approved vendors. If commissary doesn't have what your loved one needs, the approved-vendor route is usually the next step.
- ✓ Adult males: up to three plain black yarmulkes or kufis
- ✓ One (1) red Fez may be stored in personal property and worn only in the chapel/religious services area
Tip: Want to help with religious items? Start by checking what's available through commissary and what needs to come from an approved vendor. Mailing it yourself won't work.
If your loved one wants to write to someone else who's also incarcerated, that's restricted correspondence. They'll need to submit State Form 11985 ("Request to Correspond with Another Confined Person") to the Warden or designee for approval before any letters can be exchanged.
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