What You Can and Can't Mail to an Inmate at Travis County (Including Books & Magazines)

To get your letter or card delivered, send it directly to the specific Travis County facility where the person is currently housed. If it’s mailed somewhere else (even within the same jail system), it can delay delivery or get kicked back.

• ✓ Inmate’s full name
• ✓ Inmate’s date of birth
• ✓ Inmate’s Jail ID number or booking number
• ✓ Your return address (required on all mailed items)

Travis County rejects mail that includes certain "helpful" extras people commonly try to send. The biggest one: stationery. Don't include postage stamps, metered or stamped envelopes, blank paper, or blank/addressed envelopes inside your mailing. Any of these items count as contraband, and the whole thing gets sent back.

Photos have strict format limits. Nothing larger than 8" x 10", and skip Polaroids entirely. Framed photos, photo albums, slides, and negatives are all prohibited - especially if laminated.

Want to send reading material? The source matters as much as the content. Travis County only accepts paperback books, magazines, and newspapers when they ship directly from the publisher or a distributing warehouse to the facility where the inmate is housed.

• ✓ Maximum allowed at a time: 2 books and 2 magazines
• ✓ If the inmate already has more than the limit, books or magazines sent to them will be returned to the publisher

Mail that breaks the rules gets returned - not fixed. Stationery items like stamps, extra envelopes, and blank paper are contraband, so including them means rejection. Books, magazines, and newspapers must ship from the publisher or warehouse and stay within the two-books/two-magazines possession limit. Miss either requirement, and the items go back to the publisher.