Quick question about post cards and envelopes!

At https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/policy/index.html it's listed BP-03.91 (rev. 3) from August 23, 2013, named "Uniform Offender Correspondence Rules". It is the PDF with the rules for mailing inmates.

After reading, I have not found any prohibition of coloured envelopes, like the red and blue borders you mentioned.

Hi Hannah

You're best checking with your PP's

All my letters are in normal white envelopes but either I or the post office put an airmail sticker on it and they all get through fine. This is in Oregon too so although SW's PP in Oregon cannot receive the airmail stickers mine apparently can. It does vary so much prison to prison. I think in my case they just rip them off the envelope, like they do the stamps.

Hi guys!

So I'm going on holiday tomorrow and would like to send my PPs in Texas and Oregon a postcard. Does it need to go in an envelope or can it be sent as a regular postcard as long as I still pop the sender address on there?

Also, regarding envelopes, I have been using the European pre-printed airmail envelopes to avoid needing the airmail sticker, but the envelopes have a printed red and blue border (only small). I've heard some prisons don't allow coloured envelopes and I wonder if anyone can shed any light on this? Worried particularly that my PP in Oregon might not be getting his letters.

Thanks,
S x

[QUOTE=sunray's wench;1182310] You don't need to use the blue airmail envelopes. You don't even need to put the blue airmail stickers on mail these days. [U]My pal in OR's mailroom reject mail with the blue air mail stickers on, even when we both explained that sometimes the postoffice here puts them on without my knowledge.[/U] So now I just write 'air mail' across the bottom front right corner of the envelope and it seems to be OK.[/QUOTE]

That is worth knowing,. My local post office always adds an airmail sticker & I had not considered it being rejected.
Thank you for this post..
My Texas PP told me all I needed to do was write her name on it & it would pass.
One way around the post card thing is to use the cards of local images that you send in a envelope. It has more room for writing in it & if you look around they are not much more than a nice postcard.

Mmmmm?? I remember when I was in Holland and sent postcards to friends and family here at home. I did the postcard just like I would do an envelope but it was all on one side of the postcard. Hope that helps

DanPal - must be just from inside the US with the return address thing, hubby and penpals have all got the hundreds of cards I've sent over the years :) My return address on my letters is always on the back of the envelope and they all get there

Yes, that's what I'm thinking too; it's a USPS thing.

DanPal - must be just from inside the US with the return address thing, hubby and penpals have all got the hundreds of cards I've sent over the years :) My return address on my letters is always on the back of the envelope and they all get there too.

Hannah - I've never tried the blue airmail letters, but it's an international standard so it would be strange if they were denied unless the OR rules specifically state that envelopes sent to inmates by free world people must be a certain colour. My pal's envelopes to me are a deep orange, but the women's units often have stricter or different interpretation of the rules to the men's.

Cheers guys :) Sunray do you think there's a possibility my Oregon PP wouldn't have received the airmail envelopes? Maybe I will just send the plain ones in future but I'd be upset to think he may not have received the last ones I've sent :/

I don't know where you're going on vacation, Hannah.K, but when I was vacationing in California and sending postcards to Texas, I had them returned because I'd put the sender address at the bottom of the card not in the top left hand corner as usual. They (USPS) required the sender address to be on the card and in the top left hand corner or they would not process it :(
I don't know if it's different if you're sending the card from somewhere that's not the US. I imagine it would be, but I'm not sure.

So as a rule I do put the required sender address on the card, even if Texas may not require it. (I didn't know, that they didn't, by the way; but I do now ;) )

You don't need to put your return address on a postcard to a TDCJ inmate, but you do need to put your return address on any mail to an inmate in Oregon. Postcards to both are fine just sent as you usually would send one, with your message on the back. It's only blank postcards that TDCJ inmates are not permitted to receive, because they could re-use them themselves and TDCJ would rather they purchased writing paper instead.

You don't need to use the blue airmail envelopes. You don't even need to put the blue airmail stickers on mail these days. My pal in OR's mailroom reject mail with the blue air mail stickers on, even when we both explained that sometimes the postoffice here puts them on without my knowledge. So now I just write 'air mail' across the bottom front right corner of the envelope and it seems to be OK.