Quick facts

System

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PA DOC)

Inmate ID

Inmate number

General mail goes to

Smart Communications / PA DOC — St. Petersburg, FL

Recipient receives

Printed scan from the facility mailroom (originals retained ~45 days, then destroyed)

Page limit

No published page-count cap for general correspondence; pages must be unbound 8½″ × 11″

Photos

Up to 25 photographs per mailing; no obscenity, explicit sexual material, or nudity

Typical timing

About 6–8 days end-to-end for general correspondence (excludes weekends/holidays/review)

Where to send mail

Personal mail from family and friends (including printed PDFs)

Include a full return address with your first and last name. Address the inmate as Name/Inmate Number (slash format) and include the State Correctional Institution name. Do not send general correspondence to the SCI street address.

Smart Communications/PA DOC
[Full Name]/[Inmate Number]
[State Correctional Institution — e.g. SCI Camp Hill]
PO Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733

Send elsewhere — not Smart Communications

• Books, magazines, calendars, photo books, correspondence courses → DOC Security Processing Center (SPC) — Bellefonte

  Must come from an original-source vendor (publisher, bookstore, online distributor). Photo books: soft cover, ≤25 pages excluding cover, ≤8″×11″. Address: [Inmate Name, Inmate Number], 268 Bricker Road, Bellefonte, PA 16823-1667. Track after SPC delivery via DOC’s SPC tracking tool.

• Official documents (IDs, birth certificates, diplomas, etc.) → Institution business office

  Mail directly to the facility business office (check the facility page — some SCIs use a separate mailing address). Format typically: Attn: Business Office – Inmate name/inmate number.

• Original transactional docs needing a signature back → Institution business office

  Vehicle titles and similar originals that must be signed and returned go to the business office — not Smart Communications. The incarcerated person generally cannot keep those originals.

• Legal / privileged mail → Institution legal-mail address with DOC control numbers

  Privileged correspondence requires a DOC-issued attorney or court control number (and for attorneys, a weekly secondary authentication number). Without that, use Smart Communications as regular mail. Third-party originals inside legal mail are prohibited.

Format & content rules

• General correspondence — letters, greeting cards, pictures, children’s drawings, photos, and printed PDF pages — must go to Smart Communications. The vendor scans; the facility prints and delivers. Originals are retained about 45 days and then destroyed; they cannot be returned to the sender.
• Pages must be printed on 8½″ × 11″ paper and must not be bound or constructed to open like a book (bound/booklet-style packets cannot be scanned).
• Photos are limited to 25 per mailing. If more than 25 are sent, they may all be returned. No obscenity, explicit sexual material, or nudity.
• Always include the full and correct inmate name and inmate number. Mail missing an inmate number cannot be processed.
• Do not enclose cash, personal checks, or money orders with Smart Communications mail.
• If a vendor’s address field is too short, PA DOC allows abbreviating to “Smart Comm” and/or omitting the institution name — but keep Name/Inmate Number and the St. Petersburg PO Box.
• Content can still be denied under DC-ADM 803 after it reaches the facility.

Document mailing checklist

1. Confirm the person is in PA DOC custody and look up their inmate number and SCI.
2. Print on unbound 8½″ × 11″ sheets (no booklet binding).
3. Address to Smart Communications/PA DOC with Name/Inmate Number, SCI name, and your full return name/address.
4. Mail as general correspondence — do not send publications or signature originals in the same envelope.

Look up an inmate number →

Send with PrisonPDF

• Upload a multi-page PDF or DOCX and we print and mail it for you.
• When you select Pennsylvania, we use the Smart Communications address and collect the SCI / facility name.
• We do not review PDFs — PA DOC may still reject or withhold mail that violates policy.

Official sources

• PA DOC — Inmate Mail Rules and Guidelines
• PA DOC — Send Mail (overview)
• DC-ADM 803 — Inmate Mail and Incoming Publications (PDF)
• PA DOC Inmate Locator