Mailing Stamps

My boyfriend is in Oregon, he has to purchase prepaid envelopes from the prison to send letters out. Never seen a postage stamp on the letters he sends.  I always thought this is the only way they can send mail.
 

Well, I can’t say for sure in Oregon as I don’t write anyone there, but for folks who I write in several other jurisdictions – postage stamps inside an envelope are considered contraband and could result in the whole thing being rejected.

In prisons, where physical cash is forbidden, inmates use postage stamps as a form of currency. This enables all manner of black-market transactions, many of which aren’t even newsworthy, but at the same time, outside of the commissary/inmate accounting systems. This secondary market in stamps means less control by the authorities, who relish control over everything. Sending in postage stamps would be like sending in cash.

That would interest me too. And I am writing from Germany. Have you found out something yet?