Missouri: pen pal rules and how to send mail
Missouri DOC tells families not to sign a loved one up for websites that solicit pen pals and says this is prohibited by department rules. You can still list someone here: you confirm you understand before paying and again by email before the profile goes up.
Personal letters to people in Missouri prisons go to a department-wide mail center, not to the prison. They are scanned, and the person receives a printed copy or a copy on their tablet.
Checked against the department's own pages . How we check, and corrections
Pen pal listings
“Do not sign an offender up for websites that solicit pen-pals. This is prohibited by departmental rules”
Source: Missouri DOC Family and Friends Handbook (2017), Tips section, p. 37-38, read 2026-10-07.
You can still list someone here if they understand the risk and want to go ahead. We ask you to initial that you understand before you pay, and to confirm once more by email after. The profile goes up as soon as you confirm. If you change your mind before then, you get a full refund.
Sending mail to someone in Missouri
Personal letters to people in Missouri prisons go to a department-wide mail center, not to the prison. They are scanned, and the person receives a printed copy or a copy on their tablet.
The department gives this address format for personal mail (each prison's page below fills in its own name):
Offender Name and DOC ID# C/O Digital Mail Center-Missouri DOC PO Box 25678 Tampa, FL 33622-5678“All personal mail for correctional center residents is scanned and delivered electronically.” Department source
“Letters/correspondence, postcards, pictures and drawings will be accepted for scanning and made available on the offender's media player.”
Electronic messages: On JPay, you make an account, add the person by name and ID number, and pay per message. Step by step for each app. Department page.
Source: Missouri mail page, read 2026-10-07. Rules change; the department's page is the final word.
See also: prison mail rules and your first letter.
Prisons in Missouri (19)
How to write to someone at each one: the mailing format, mail rules and messaging, from the department's own pages.
Find someone in Missouri
Official Missouri inmate locator
We check every profile's name and ID number against this locator within a day of it going live.