What Happens to Physical Mail Sent to Van Zandt County Jail (and what inmates actually receive)
Mail a letter or photos the old-fashioned way, and your loved one might not get the actual paper you sent. Van Zandt County routes most personal mail through a vendor that scans it and delivers it electronically instead.
Van Zandt County overhauled its inmate mail process on October 1, 2021. Personal mail - anything that isn't legal or commercial - no longer goes straight to inmates as physical letters. Instead, you send it electronically through JailATM.com or mail it to a vendor address for processing. The county made the switch for safety reasons: too much contraband was showing up in paper mail.
Here's what that means in practice: when you mail a personal letter, card, or photos to the vendor address, they scan everything and deliver it to the inmate electronically. The physical item you dropped in the mailbox? It never reaches their hands.
Note: The original physical mail item you send to the vendor is destroyed after it’s processed.
Inmates view their mail on the jail's kiosks or tablets - not as paper in hand. What you write (and any images you include through the approved process) shows up on a screen. If you're hoping to send something sentimental that they can physically keep, know that they'll only see a scanned copy.
Legal and commercial mail work differently. These should still go directly to the Van Zandt County facility - don't route them through the vendor or JailATM. If you're sending legal correspondence or clearly commercial mail, address it to the jail itself.
Practical Tips
- ✓ Clearly print the inmate’s full name and ID number on the outside of the envelope or postcard.
- ✓ Don’t skip the name/ID - leaving it off can result in mail being lost or misdirected.
- ✓ Only send items this way if you’re okay with the paper original being destroyed after processing.
For routine personal mail, use JailATM.com or send it to the vendor address per the October 1, 2021 policy. Keep in mind: your letter gets scanned and processed before delivery, so it won't feel as immediate as regular mail. And what your loved one receives is the electronic version on a kiosk or tablet - not the original paper.
Before sending anything time-sensitive or irreplaceable, call the jail to confirm a few things: the correct address for legal and commercial mail, what happens if mail gets rejected for content issues, whether electronic messages or attachments cost money, and how long processing typically takes. Policies change, and getting current instructions upfront saves frustration.
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