Hi,
I want to send my pen pal a book. I see it can only be paperback and from a publisher. Is any publisher ok or does it have to be B & N and Amazon. Also I see they also have second hand books listed. Would these be all right to send as I am not sure if they come from a seller or the publisher. It is certainly a lot cheaper second hand than brand new. I am sending to FL UCI. Also is it better to mention it to the prisoner first or are suprises ok?
thanks
Wendy

Hi,
I want to send my pen pal a book. I see it can only be paperback and from a publisher. Is any publisher ok or does it have to be B & N and Amazon. Also I see they also have second hand books listed. Would these be all right to send as I am not sure if they come from a seller or the publisher. It is certainly a lot cheaper second hand than brand new. I am sending to FL UCI. Also is it better to mention it to the prisoner first or are suprises ok?
thanks
Wendy
Hi, every prison is different. The best thing to do is to call the prison, ask for the mail room, and ask the staff there what their rules are on things. To find the phone number for the prison, just put the prison name in Google, and you can easily get their number.

With my pen pals in California, the books have to be from any dealer (I use Amazon) and they have to be paperbacks, not hardbacks. I like to tell the prisoner ahead of time so that they can expect it, and hopefully will tell me that they received the books. I guess they trade the books and share them once they have read them. Or maybe they donate them to the prison library, I don't know.

Amazon are excellent, but you cannot send anything with sexually explicit pictures, anything depicting weapons or maps inside. They will not allow it and the worst case scenario will be, that the recipient will go to DC.

Also, anything sent by UPS will be rejected, it has to be sent by USPS.

I always send the print out of the order to the recipient, so should the book not arrive, they can query it with the mailroom.

Each state and sometimes prison, is different. Some you can send books direct yourself, some you can send hardback books and some just softback.Best to contact the mailroom and they will give you all the specifics.

I have used Amazon, and Barnes and Noble, and they have arrived ok. I am not sure about FL, but Texas can get hard cover books.
There is certain books that they dont allow in, I used to go through the best seller thriller columns, and a few times, had books returned that had been banned from the prison. I am not sure about second hand books though, I think it does have to come direct from the publisher, perhaps you can check with the prison, and see if they allow second hand books from a publisher. Let us all know!! OH!! And suprises are fine :) You can check your order online and track it. :)

Hi!

I have sent books by Amazon to Polunsky TX - it was not one of the books they already knew - so they have to look it over first to approve it.
But it works really well so far - it's very easy and there' tons of choice at Amazon.

XXXXX, Anne-Kathrine