A friend of mine told me the other day that it takes like 10 days to 3 weeks for mail to get to someone in Tracy Reception. Does anyone know if this is true?? If not, how long does it look like its taking? Im sure it can vary, but just say an average...

Guess I got spoiled with County! Here I sent my man letters on Monday of this week when he got to reception with some supplies and moola and here im thinking he should be getting by today at the latest! he mailed me on friday and i got them on monday...so i figured it would go pretty much the same back to him....

Also, and again, Im sure its gonna vary depending on where hes placed, but any idea how long hell be in reception for? Just a ballpark...3 weeks, 2 months whatever...Also, he sent me a visitor form and i sent it back yesterday...any idea how long they are taking to process those? Will we be allowed to have a contact visit or will it be through glass? Is it a brutal place to visit or is it not too too bad?? Considering the circumstances....Another thing, when he gets put out of mainline, will i have to fill out a new visitor pass and wait again or does it follow him?

Thanks for all your help! Im very new to this (Thank God) and this is his first time in prison as well...so Im taking all this in as much as possible! I dont want to go thru this sitution blinded and uninformed! :)

Thanks Everyone for your answers or any tips for Tracy....

Shauna

Hi Neilsgirl

I don't know about Duell(tracy) but here's my experience with my man down at Donovan in San Diego.

Mail in and out is about 3-4 days
You can send letters, plain or yellow paper (removed from binder) pre-stamped envelopes (no peel and stick) and pictures only.

Be sure to always include your mans CDC # and facility location info (Building/block/cell/bunk), this minimizes delay.

Donovan is 6 to 8 weeks for visitation approval, I'm at 8 weeks and no word yet.

Non contact visits only in reception and depending on classification after his move to GP

My man reports Donovan reception is not that bad, it was worse at county as he felt intimidated and had saftey concerns. Two months into it he likes his cellmate, gets good yard time and shower privies and got 3 bags of goodies from the canteen and 3 boxes of top ramen soup (75 in all) So he's the pimp daddy of F block with all those goodies it seems :-)

I read that once approved and if your man gets moved you remain approved but the new facility can review and modify that.

I've heard of people being in reception up to 120 days so he could go in 60 days or months later.

Good luck with your situation which is very much like mine and you found a great place to gather information. Hopefully someone will share some Tracy info with you.

Also call the facility and talk to reception processing, the mail room or the prison info officer. they answered all my questions down here.

Here's also an informative link

http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15736

RDinSD

Hmmm...let's see...my son was in reception at Tracy...I'll try to answer some of your questions.

~Most guys mainlined from Tracy in about 60 days (they're supposed to) but my son was there for 4.5 months if memory serves me right..the counselor that was assigned his case apparently went out on extended sick leave and his file just sat on her desk for 3 months. They did find his file after I called and they eventually reassigned it...twice. They told me that officially, the counselor has 30 days to do all their stuff once asssigned the case, and then they have another 30 days for disposition (thus the 60 days) but if the file is reassigned for any reason (like an unexpected sick leave or someone new who does not know how to process that kind of case) then the whole process starts over again. They ended up assigning his file 3 times total. The first gal was sick...the second was new....you get the idea...they don't like it when you rock the boat.
So I guess I would say 60 days to 4 1/2 months in reception.
The bottom line is they own him now and they won't hesitate to tell you so in those very words, and they will will do as they darn well please.

~ Mail is fast getting out, slow going in at first, but as time goes on it does improve and he may get things within 5-7 days eventually. For us, it was over 3 weeks before he got a single piece of mail and we started mailing things the day he arrived there. After that, it did sometimes pick up speed to the average of about 5-7 days at best, but was always unpredictable. If there is one thing you learn with the CDC, it is that everything moves at a snails pace, so just figure you are gonna get lessons in patience through this experience, girl. The mailroom is great about answering questions..polite and helpful on the phone. Those folks are actually human. Found that true in mainline too.

~Visits are through glass for one hour while in reception, reservation needed. And getting a reservation is a pain. The reservation line is usually busy and the times you can call are restricted to a 2 hour window two days before you plan to visit. Be on the phone at 8 am and plan to hit redial for a while if you are not lucky.
The first visit was a little scary for us as we had never visited a prison, but actually it wasn't so bad once it happened. By that time, you don't care about the environment..you just want to see the whites of his eyes. The first visit is kind of a visual shock, but actually it was not at all what I had pictured in my mind (probably from TV). It's smaller, older, less imposing than I expected...but prison, nonetheless. Tracy is old and it is very dirty, but other than that, it's not too bad. The guards in the visiting room were kind of rude and on a power trip but the guards where you check in were pretty nice. You do a lot of waiting...again, lessons in patience.

~Visiting approval took 7 weeks for us, I think. And approval is supposed to transfer to the new facility when he mainlines, but the new facility has the right to make you jump through all the hoops again if they want. Fortunately we didn't have any problems...just showed our approval form at the first mainline visit and after that we were okay.

Did I cover it all? :)

You are right to not want to go into this blinded and uninformed. CDC does it's best to keep loved ones in the dark anyway, so it is good to get as much information as you can. Just keep asking questions. This site is wonderful in supporting and providing information!

Take care!

My boyfriend was at Tracey from January until April. He didn't even get to talk to his counselor until he got transferred to another prison. I asked him to send me a visitors from but he was unable to get a hold of one while he was there. Due to a riot he was on lockdown for 4 months straight. The whole prison was locked down while he was there. It took him about 2 weeks to get my letters in the beginning and then about a week after he had been there for about 2 months. If you send him writing supplies those get to them faster. I think visiting is behind glass. YOu are not allowed to spray perfume on his letters or they will send them back, and no stickers or glitter either. Nothing fancy can be be down to the letter at all. You can send them 8x10 cards though. Due to hom being on lockdown the whole time I didn't really learn much about the place. Oh, and no phone calls. At least that was how it was on lockdown.

Yep, no phone calls while they are in reception...lockdown or not.

Sorry your experience was so awful Flecky, it is bad enough under the best of circumstances.

In reception they are locked down 23 hours a day anyway, but to have the whole prison on lockdown the entire time is a rough start for anyone.

ive been initiated! woo hoo! so i sent a package to my bf on monday 6/14...just a manilla envelope with stationary supplies in it. i labeled the front as such. inside i put like 50 sheets of paper pulled off the spiral, 15 prepostaged envelopes, and a smaller envelope inside with 3 pens, nicely labeled on the front as to what was inside...

DENIED!!:angry: however, i must say that i got it back to me on 6/17 so it left Sacramento monday afternoon on 6/14, got to tracy, opened, rejected and sent back to Sac by 6/17...pretty impressive~!:rolleyes:

The denied reason....they are only allowed TWO pens...not three. they must be BIC type CLEAR pens....blue or black only. i sent three...one blue, one red and a regular blue pen that was a gel type pen rather than ball point. so EVERYTHING got sent back cuz of the RED PEN and the GEL PEN...heres a thought CDC....toss whats no good and give my man the rest! so now i have to resend the package with the right pens and i guess we can send 20 envelopes so ill send more of those as well....

They sent me a slip inside my package (they do have a heart!) listing all the allowables and not allowables with the regards to mail....sure woulda been nice had i been able to get that off their website BEFORE i paid 2.50 for postage and then taxpayers ANOTHER 2.50 to send it back to me! if anyone wants me to post that list, let me know!!

and thanks for all your help everyone! this site has been a God send....im basically taken the stand that when i see him...i see him. trying to calculate or hope when that may be is killing me slowly. he is on the ball at least given that he just got there on the 9th and ive already gotten 4 letters from him plus a visitors form which i completed and sent back yesterday....now i just need to get him his supplies since hes probably in debt up to his eyeballs!

Shauna

I am still waiting for my response from DVI Tracy as well. I have heard alot about appointments being nessessary before visiting, does anyone have the appointment #. My 1st visiting form got denied because he did not sign it 1st, then after a week he sent another one signed and I have been waiting for abbout 2 weeks now. I have not seen him or heard his voice in over a month this is so hard and depressing.

Kepup,
I don't have the visiting appointment number for Tracy anymore but if you call the visitor hotline (1-800-374-8474), and follow the prompts to DEUEL, that recording for Deuel gives you the visitor reservation number as I recall. I'm not sure, but I think you need the area code for Deuel though cuz that is how you navigate their visiting hotline phone tree...so you will need to go to the CDC website and then to the Deuel website first for that area code if you don't have it.

Here's Duells #209-835-4141

And a link to the CDC Facility Information Page

http://www.corr.ca.gov/InstitutionsDiv/INSTDIV/facilities/fac_prison_DVI.asp

RPinSD

Thanks for the DVI appointment # I am just trying to be prepared for when I finally get appoved for my visit.