Why Your Letter to Tabor Inmates Goes to Maryland: How TextBehind Scans and Delivers Mail

Non-legal mail for people in NCDAC prisons doesn't go straight to the prison mailroom as a paper letter. Instead, TextBehind screens and scans it, then delivers it electronically to the person's tablet. That's why your envelope is addressed to a Maryland P.O. Box even though your loved one is housed at Tabor in North Carolina. The Maryland address is just a processing step before the message reaches the facility.

Addressing

• ✓ Offender’s name and OPUS number
• ✓ Tabor Correctional Institution (do not abbreviate)
• ✓ P.O. Box 247
• ✓ Phoenix, MD 21131

Addressing matters. If your letter isn't formatted to the Maryland address the way the system expects, it gets returned to sender instead of being processed. Make sure your return address is complete, too. Include your full first name and full last name.

TextBehind promotes its mail process as a way to stop contraband from entering correctional institutions through envelopes, paper, and inserts. The company describes the system as providing "100% contraband elimination" for mail. That security promise is the reason mail gets routed out for scanning instead of delivered as original paper.

Day to day, TextBehind handles the screening and scanning step for non-legal mail, then delivers it electronically to offender tablets. That workflow is what makes the "contraband elimination" claim possible from the vendor's perspective. For families, the practical takeaway is simple: your letter gets converted into a digital version as part of the normal process. That's why the address and formatting rules are strict.

Some items are handled differently than regular personal letters. Religious correspondence courses, sacred texts, and Bible study materials need pre-approval before they'll be accepted.

1. Get the material approved first - religious correspondence courses, sacred texts, and Bible study materials must be pre-approved before they are accepted.
2. Have the source send it directly to the facility - once approved, the vendor, school, or religious institution must mail the materials directly to the correctional facility, not through TextBehind.