Why Your Photos Won't Reach Your Loved One at St. Brides (And What the Inmate Actually Receives)
Mailed printed photos to St. Brides and your loved one says they never arrived? It's probably not a lost letter. At VADOC facilities like St. Brides, general mail gets photocopied during processing — and inmates receive only those photocopies, not the originals.
At St. Brides Correctional Center, incoming general correspondence goes through VADOC's mail system before reaching your loved one. Staff may open, search, and read incoming mail. But here's the key part: instead of handing over the original letter and photos, the facility photocopies everything and delivers only the copies.
Key takeaway: Your loved one won’t receive the original photos or original letter pages - only photocopies are delivered.
Here's what surprises most families: after the mail is photocopied, everything - the envelope, the letter, the photos - gets shredded. Even irreplaceable prints. The originals are not saved or stored for the inmate.
There's also a hard limit on what your loved one can receive from each mailing: a maximum of three 8.5" x 11" black-and-white photocopied pages, counting both front and back. The envelope photocopy counts as one of those pages. That means the space for your actual letter and photos shrinks fast.
Heads up: If you send lots of photos, only a small number may make it through as photocopies - and the original prints will still be shredded.
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- ✓ Inmate’s full first and last name
- ✓ Inmate’s 7-digit state ID number
- ✓ Facility name
- ✓ Full address with ZIP code
If your loved one has been released or transferred, mail sent to St. Brides may come back to you. VADOC's policy is to return mail to the sender when possible - so at least you'll know they never had a chance to see it.
Legal mail works differently. Correspondence from attorneys and courts must go directly to the VADOC Central Mail Distribution Center for screening - not to the facility mailroom like regular letters.
Note: If legal mail gets routed like regular mail, it may be processed as general correspondence instead of going through the proper legal-mail channel.
- Plan for three photocopied pages total - The inmate can receive up to three 8.5" x 11" black-and-white photocopied pages per mailing, counting front and back.
- Remember the envelope uses up space - A photocopy of the envelope counts as one of those pages, so your letter and photos have less room than you’d expect.
- Choose photos like you’re making a “best of” sheet - Since only photocopies are delivered, pick a small number of images you’re okay having reproduced and keep your message tight.
- Don’t send originals you can’t replace - The original envelope and everything inside (including personal photos) will be shredded after photocopying.
- Address it cleanly and completely - Use the inmate’s full name, 7-digit state ID, facility name, and the full address with ZIP so it can be matched and delivered correctly.
Why this matters: Since VADOC photocopies general mail and shreds the originals, the best way to get photos to your loved one is to plan around the photocopy limit from the start.
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