Pennsylvania: pen pal rules and how to send mail
Pennsylvania forbids people in its prisons from buying advertising services, and names pen-pal advertising specifically. The rule does not mention listings paid for by family, but the department could treat one as breaking it. 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 Pennsylvania prisons go to a department-wide mail center, not to the prison. They are scanned, and the person receives a printed copy.
Checked against the department's own pages . How we check, and corrections
Pen pal listings
“purchase commercial advertising services; for the purpose of this provision, inmates are specifically prohibited from purchasing advertising services for pen pals”
Source: PA DOC Inmate Handbook, 2023 Edition, Section I (Accounting), A.7.c, 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 Pennsylvania
Personal letters to people in Pennsylvania prisons go to a department-wide mail center, not to the prison. They are scanned, and the person receives a printed copy.
The department gives this address format for personal mail (each prison's page below fills in its own name):
Smart Communications/PA DOC Inmate Name/Inmate Number State Correctional Institution PO Box 33028 St. Petersburg, Florida 33733“Smart Communications will open and scan mail and photos into an electronic document that will be printed by the facility mailroom. The mailroom will then deliver mail to the inmate.” Department source
“Photos are limited to 25 per mailing.”
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: Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania (22)
How to write to someone at each one: the mailing format, mail rules and messaging, from the department's own pages.
Find someone in Pennsylvania
Official Pennsylvania inmate locator
We check every profile's name and ID number against this locator within a day of it going live.