Ohio: pen pal rules and how to send mail
We found no rule in this department's published policies that stops people here from being listed on a pen-pal site. Normal mail rules still apply, and no one may ask pen pals for money.
Personal letters to people in Ohio prisons go to a department-wide mail center, not to the prison. They are scanned or photocopied.
Checked against the department's own pages . How we check, and corrections
Pen pal listings
We found no rule in this department's published policies that stops people here from being listed on a pen-pal site. Normal mail rules still apply, and no one may ask pen pals for money.
Sending mail to someone in Ohio
Personal letters to people in Ohio prisons go to a department-wide mail center, not to the prison. They are scanned or photocopied.
The department gives this address format for personal mail (each prison's page below fills in its own name):
Incarcerated Persons name and number ODRC Mail Processing Center (OMPC) 884 Coitsville-Hubbard Road Youngstown, Ohio 44505“All first-class letters, front of envelopes, pictures, greeting cards, and brochures up to 8 ½ x 11 will be copied and/or scanned into an electronic format.” Department source
“All first-class letters, front of envelopes, pictures, greeting cards, and brochures up to 8 1/2 x 11 will be copied and/or scanned into an electronic format.”
Electronic messages: On ViaPath ConnectNetwork Messaging, 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: Ohio 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 Ohio (28)
How to write to someone at each one: the mailing format, mail rules and messaging, from the department's own pages.
Find someone in Ohio
We check every profile's name and ID number against this locator within a day of it going live.