How to Send Money to Federal Inmates

By Elizabeth Franklin-Best, Esq., and Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA

There are five ways money reaches a federal prisoner’s account, and only one of them is free. You can mail a money order to the Bureau of Prisons national lockbox in Des Moines, Iowa; send a Western Union Quick Collect transfer; send a MoneyGram Express Payment; have an agency or another institution forward funds electronically; or, in a handful of narrow circumstances, hand funds in at the institution itself. You cannot mail money to the prison. Funds sent to a facility address are returned to the sender with a letter containing the lockbox address (PS 4500.13 at p. 77).

Every route money can take, side by side

This is the table nobody else builds. Every figure in it comes from the Bureau’s own Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual, Program Statement 4500.13, effective May 7, 2026, or from 28 C.F.R. part 506 — and where a price is set by a private transfer company rather than by the Bureau, the table says so instead of quoting a number we cannot source.

	National lockbox (mail)	Western Union Quick Collect	MoneyGram Express Payment	Other sources / electronic transfer	Deposit at the institution
What the sender must write	Recipient’s committed name — no nicknames — and eight-digit register number, on the negotiable instrument and on the outside of the envelope	Committed name, eight-digit register number, and the exact Quick Collect routing details the Bureau supplies — people inside are “given Western Union, Quick Collect… procedures to forward to family and friends” on arrival or during Admission & Orientation. Use the Bureau’s values; do not guess	Committed name, eight-digit register number, and the exact MoneyGram Express Payment routing details the Bureau supplies, given to the recipient the same way at A&O	Nothing for a family member to fill in — this is not a consumer wire. It is the route for tax refunds, stock dividends, state benefits, a contracted facility’s check, or a transfer from another Bureau institution, which requires both Wardens’ written approval	Committed name and eight-digit register number; staff issue a BP-197, Temporary Receipt
Where it goes	The centralized inmate commissary account at the U.S. Treasury lockbox — a processing center in Des Moines, Iowa. Never the facility address	Western Union agent, phone, or online; the Trust Fund Branch Deposit Fund Section posts it centrally	MoneyGram agent, phone, or online; posted centrally the same way	Forwarded for deposit to the centralized inmate commissary account; between-institution transfers move automatically in the Bureau’s accounting system	The institution cashier, then the Inmate Deposit Fund
Fee, and who charges it	The Bureau charges nothing. Your cost is the money order plus postage — a U.S. postal money order fee is set by USPS	Set by Western Union, not by the Bureau. Tiered by amount sent and by channel (agent counter, phone, online) and by whether you pay cash or card. Confirm the exact fee quoted before you authorize the transfer	Set by MoneyGram, not by the Bureau. Tiered the same way. Confirm the quoted fee before you authorize	Varies by the sending agency or bank; the Bureau charges nothing to receive	The manual sets no fee for this. The route exists only in narrow circumstances — a self-commitment, an escorted-trip or furlough return, cash from the U.S. Marshals, a settlement check, or a single-signature joint-payee check
How long the funds take to post	Lockbox receives mail seven days a week except federal holidays and processes instruments the same day received; funds distributed after the nightly process and available the following day	Within two hours if the transfer is initiated between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. EST; transfers after 9:00 p.m. EST post by 7:00 a.m. the following day	Same rule — within two hours for transfers initiated 7:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m. EST; otherwise by 7:00 a.m. next day	Posted through the nightly process once received	Institution must deposit BP-197 funds within one business day; funds forwarded to the lockbox are processed the day received and posted the next day
Hold period before the money is spendable	15 days on most negotiable instruments; 45 days on foreign instruments payable in U.S. dollars; no hold on U.S. postal money orders and U.S. government checks	No hold — these are electronic	No hold — these are electronic	Per instrument type — a U.S. government check carries none	Per instrument type
Blocked if the recipient has no power of attorney on file	Yes — returned to sender	Yes — not permitted at all	Yes — not permitted at all	Yes, for anything routed through the lockbox	Cash upon commitment only
Source	PS 4500.13 at pp. 71–72, 76–77; 28 C.F.R. § 506.2	PS 4500.13 at pp. 71–72, 79	PS 4500.13 at pp. 71–72, 79	28 C.F.R. § 506.2(b); PS 4500.13 at pp. 72–73, 86	PS 4500.13 at pp. 77–78

Timing and requirements verified against PS 4500.13, effective May 7, 2026. Transfer-company prices are not set by the Bureau of Prisons and are not published in any BOP policy document; we do not quote them because a number we cannot source is worse than no number.

The lockbox address — and why it is not printed here

The most-searched question on this topic is “what is the BOP lockbox address,” so here is the honest answer, with its source.

The binding regulation, 28 C.F.R. § 506.2(a), says: “Family and friends must mail deposits to the centralized inmate commissary account at the address we provide.” It does not print an address. Neither does the current manual: PS 4500.13 at p. 76 says only that “funds for deposit to inmate accounts (Inmate Deposit Fund) are sent to the LockBox. The address can be found on the Trust Fund Branch intranet page” — an internal Bureau page, not a public one.

What is publicly confirmed is the location and the routing rule. Every BOP facility record on bop.gov carries the same instruction: do not send money to the facility’s own address; all funds sent through the mail must be addressed to a processing center in Des Moines, Iowa, and this applies to every federal prisoner regardless of where they are held. You can read it on any facility page — for example, FCI Cumberland’s record on bop.gov — and you can find your relative’s facility through the federal prison directory or by using the BOP inmate locator.

Get the current post office box number from the Bureau itself, on the day you send it — from the facility’s own page on bop.gov, or from the Admission & Orientation packet, which new arrivals are instructed to pass to family. Because the address lives in an operational document rather than in the regulation, it can be changed without a rule change, and a stale address is exactly why deposits go missing.

If money you have already sent has not arrived: the public inquiry line for lockbox funds is 202-307-2712. The manual tells staff to instruct people inside to give their family that number “for assistance after enough time has passed for the mail to reach the LockBox,” and notes that family and friends “may need to place a tracer on these funds with the originator of the negotiable instrument” — that is, with the post office or bank that issued the money order (PS 4500.13 at p. 77). Institutions themselves are not permitted to contact the Treasury or the lockbox contractor directly.

What the lockbox will and will not accept

Get this wrong and the deposit comes back, or worse, vanishes into a Treasury suspense account.

Accepted (PS 4500.13 at p. 72):

• Money orders
• U.S. government checks — federal, state, county, municipal
• Foreign negotiable instruments payable in U.S. dollars only if the instrument carries a U.S. correspondent bank and routing number
• Business checks
• Cashier’s checks, certified checks, bank drafts

Rejected and returned to sender, or deposited into the U.S. Treasury Miscellaneous Receipts Account if there is no return address (PS 4500.13 at p. 72):

• Personal checks — the single most common mistake
• Any instrument missing a valid committed name and eight-digit register number
• Instruments with expired dates
• Instruments that appear suspicious or altered
• Foreign funds not payable in U.S. dollars, or lacking a U.S. correspondent bank and routing number
• Cash received through the mail
• Mailings with no sender information
• Envelopes lacking a valid committed name and eight-digit register number on the outside
• Counter checks

Two more rules that cost people money. Nothing else may go in the envelope: “any enclosures received with the negotiable instruments (letters, pictures, etc.) will be discarded” (PS 4500.13 at p. 72), and the regulation is blunter — “the deposit envelope must not contain any enclosures intended for delivery to the inmate. We may dispose of any enclosure” (28 C.F.R. § 506.2(a)(1)). Letters and photographs go through the ordinary mail process instead: see writing to a federal inmate and sending a photobook to prison.

And use the committed name, not a nickname. “The inmate’s committed name (no nicknames) and register number must be printed on all Bureau-approved negotiable instruments… and on the outside of the envelope” (PS 4500.13 at p. 76). The register number is eight digits. If you are unsure of either, confirm both through the inmate locator before you write anything — a walkthrough is at how DOC inmate number search works.

Worth knowing about the regulation itself: § 506.2(a)(2) says the deposit “must be in the form of a money order made out to the inmate’s full name and complete register number,” and that checks are returned to senders who provide an adequate return address. The current manual accepts more instrument types than the regulation describes. Where the two differ, the regulation binds the Bureau and the manual is the Bureau’s instruction for applying it — so a money order remains the safest thing to send, every time.

The hold: why the money is there but not spendable

This surprises nearly every family. A deposit can post to the account balance and still be unavailable to spend.

“A 15-day hold is placed automatically on negotiable instruments… Foreign negotiable instruments payable in U.S. dollars are held for 45 days. The hold period begins on the date the transaction is posted to the inmate account as an outstanding negotiable instrument. The amount of the outstanding negotiable instrument is reflected on the inmate’s account balance (but not the available balance) until the hold period expires.” — PS 4500.13 at pp. 72–73

Funds on hold release automatically when the period expires (PS 4500.13 at p. 73). The institution can adjust a system-calculated release date only if a processing error was made.

Some instruments are not held at all, and funds are immediately available (PS 4500.13 at p. 73):

• U.S. postal money orders
• U.S. government-issued checks — federal, state, county, municipal
• Privately contracted correctional facility checks
• Canadian postal money orders payable in U.S. dollars
• Postal money orders issued by Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Christopher, Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines

The manual adds one caution: “some negotiable instruments may require a hold if they are deemed a financial risk.”

The practical consequence. If your relative needs money for the next store day, a U.S. postal money order posts without a hold and a Western Union or MoneyGram transfer posts within two hours during business hours. A cashier’s check from your bank is perfectly acceptable — and will sit for fifteen days.

If a check you sent bounces, the amount “plus any service charges incurred is removed from the inmate’s account immediately,” and if that creates a negative balance the institution begins debt management (PS 4500.13 at p. 75).

How much to send, and what it actually buys

The ceiling on spending, not on depositing, is what governs. A person in federal prison may spend $460 a month in the commissary — raised from $360 by PS 4500.13 at p. 28, effective May 7, 2026 — plus $50 more during the November/December holiday period. A set of categories sits outside that limit entirely: postage stamps, approved over-the-counter medications and vitamins, copy cards and paper, footwear, mattresses, the secured media device, nicotine replacement patches and lozenges, and kosher/halal shelf-stable entrees for people in IFRP refusal status (PS 4500.13 at p. 28). The full breakdown, with the price ceilings on individual items, is at inmate canteen and commissary items.

Beyond the commissary, money in the account pays for:

What it pays for	Governing rule
Commissary purchases up to $460 a month	PS 4500.13 at p. 28
Special Purpose Orders — books, hobbycraft, legal materials — up to $600 a quarter, one per month	PS 4500.13 at p. 40
Telephone calls through the Bureau’s phone system	PS 4500.13 at p. 55; rates set administratively by the Chief, Trust Fund Branch
TRULINCS electronic messaging and printing	PS 4500.13 at pp. 118–119; program fees set the same way
Postage beyond the free allowance	28 C.F.R. § 540.21
The medical co-payment for certain visits	18 U.S.C. § 4048
Court-ordered restitution, fines and assessments through the IFRP	28 C.F.R. § 545.11
Photocopies, photo vouchers, and the institution’s copier and photo services	PS 4500.13 at pp. 52–53
A $5 fee to replace a compromised Personal Access Code	PS 4500.13 at p. 63
A $3.00 fee for each 30-day telephone account statement requested	PS 4500.13 at p. 56

Institution wages do not close the gap. Trust Fund and commissary jobs pay $0.55 an hour to start, rising to $1.20 after nine months (PS 4500.13 at p. 24); UNICOR pay is posted on the eighth calendar day of each month (PS 4500.13 at p. 79). For most people, whatever family sends is the account. If you are trying to work out a monthly figure, see how much money to send an incarcerated loved one and prison jobs and inmate work assignments.

One number worth knowing before you set a monthly amount. 28 C.F.R. § 545.11(b) directs the unit team to “exclude from its assessment $75.00 a month deposited into the inmate’s trust fund account… to allow the inmate the opportunity to better maintain telephone communication.” That $75 is protected from the IFRP payment calculation by regulation. Deposits above it can be assessed toward court-ordered obligations.

The account itself: what it is and who can reach into it

The formal name is the Inmate Deposit Fund, U.S. Treasury account 15X6085. Its purpose, per 28 C.F.R. § 506.1, “is to allow the Bureau to maintain inmates’ monies while they are incarcerated. Family, friends, or other sources may deposit funds into these accounts.”

Balances can be checked from inside on the TRULINCS terminals or through the telephone system; the Bureau does not routinely issue paper receipts where TRULINCS is available (PS 4500.13 at pp. 65, 79). Funds sent by Western Union or MoneyGram “may be viewed by the inmate on TRULINCS immediately after the posting” (PS 4500.13 at p. 79).

Money does not sit untouched. The manual lists the withdrawals that require no signature at all (PS 4500.13 at p. 81): administrative corrections; court-ordered Prison Litigation Reform Act filing fees; medical co-pays; release payments; “whereabouts unknown” processing; transfers between Bureau facilities; phone transfers; TRULINCS transfers; accounts of people who have died or been found incompetent; debit vouchers; IRS tax liens; and compliance with federal court orders. Everything else needs the account holder’s signature — including committed fines, attachments and liens.

Court-ordered obligations are collected through the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program. Ordinarily the minimum is $25.00 per quarter for non-UNICOR and UNICOR grade 5 workers; people in UNICOR grades 1 through 4 are ordinarily expected to allot not less than 50% of monthly pay (28 C.F.R. § 545.11(b)). Refusing has ten listed consequences, the commissary one being a spending cap of at least $25 a month (§ 545.11(d)(6)). This page covers the IFRP to orientation depth only — the full treatment, including how a payment plan gets set and how to push back on one, is at inmate restitution and the IFRP and in PS 5380.08, explained at inmate financial responsibility program.

A Cost of Incarceration Fee may also be assessed where the sentencing court neither imposed nor waived a fine — a one-time fee “not to exceed the yearly cost of housing an inmate,” under 28 C.F.R. part 505 and PS 5380.06 at p. 2, explained at cost of incarceration fee.

The Warden can also encumber — freeze — funds outright, “to ensure inmates do not seriously deplete their funds before release, disciplinary measures, inmate’s request, claims.” That authority “is not delegated below the Associate Warden,” must be documented by a signed memorandum (or a signed disciplinary hearing sanction, or a pending federal court order), and encumbered money “may only be released upon their approval or upon inmate release” (PS 4500.13 at p. 67).

Sending money out

The reverse direction has its own approval ladder (PS 4500.13 at pp. 81–82). Withdrawals to outside parties are approved by Unit Managers and Supervisors of Education up to $500, and by Associate Wardens and Camp Administrators above $500 — and staff are specifically told to watch for multiple forms used to get around the $500 threshold. IFRP withdrawals are exempt from the limit. The request goes on a BP-199, Request for Withdrawal of Inmate’s Personal Funds, or a BP-201, Withdrawal Record – Inmate, signed in the presence of unit staff and hand-carried to the approving official. BP-199s are processed and scheduled at least once a week (PS 4500.13 at p. 83). Check tracers, stop payments and check copies are not available until 90 days have passed since certification (PS 4500.13 at p. 82).

A cautionary note about inmate money

This section is the one that keeps people out of trouble, and it is the section most pages skip.

Never deposit into another person’s account as a favor. Transfers of funds between incarcerated people require both a close-relative relationship and the Warden’s written approval — and where the two are at different institutions, the written approval of both Wardens (PS 4500.13 at pp. 85–86). Outside that, moving value between people is a disciplinary offense on its face. Under 28 C.F.R. § 541.3 and PS 5270.09, explained at inmate discipline program:

Code	Prohibited act	Severity
217	Giving money to, or receiving money from, any person for the purpose of introducing contraband or any other illegal or prohibited purpose	High
216	Giving or offering an official or staff member a bribe, or anything of value	High
204	Extortion; blackmail; protection; demanding or receiving money or anything of value in return for protection	High
328	Giving money or anything of value to, or accepting money or anything of value from, another inmate or any other person without staff authorization	Moderate
304	Loaning of property or anything of value for profit or increased return	Moderate
303	Possession of money or currency, unless specifically authorized, or in excess of the amount authorized	Moderate
334	Conducting a business; conducting or directing an investment transaction without staff authorization	Moderate
324 / 325 / 326	Gambling; preparing or conducting a gambling pool; possession of gambling paraphernalia	Moderate

PS 5270.09 at pp. 47–53. A High severity finding exposes someone to disallowance of ordinarily 25–50% (14–27 days) of that year’s good conduct time and disciplinary segregation up to six months; a Moderate finding, up to 25% (1–14 days) and segregation up to three months — PS 5270.09 at pp. 50, 53–54.

The scenario we see most often: a family gets a phone call, or a letter, or a message through a third party, asking them to send money to a different register number — “for a friend,” “to pay someone back,” “he’ll get it to me.” The person inside then owes a debt they cannot document, and the transaction itself is a prohibited act for them. If someone is being pressured to have money sent, that is a safety problem before it is a money problem — see protective custody, the black market, and violence and sexual assault in prison.

Deposits from people who are not approved correspondents get flagged. If funds from an unauthorized correspondent are opened at the institution, they are returned to sender on a BP-A0328, Stamps, Negotiable Instrument & Other Returned to Sender, with copies to the individual and the unit team and a copy placed in the central file (PS 4500.13 at p. 67). Funds that came in through the lockbox from an unauthorized correspondent can be encumbered by institution staff and voided by the Deposit Fund Section (PS 4500.13 at p. 68). A copy of that form in the central file is not fatal, but it is a document that follows a person through classification and program review.

Check the power of attorney. The BP-A0407, Acknowledgment of Inmate contains a power-of-attorney assignment that lets the Bureau endorse instruments for deposit. If someone refuses to sign it, their account is flagged “no power of attorney,” lockbox funds are returned to sender rather than deposited, and — critically — “inmates with no power of attorney authorized are not allowed to receive Western Union or MoneyGram funds” (PS 4500.13 at p. 71). Only cash upon commitment may be deposited. If money keeps bouncing back for no apparent reason, this is the first thing to check.

Joint-payee checks do not work. A check made out to “John and Mary Doe” requires both signatures and cannot be retained or negotiated at the institution; it is logged and sent back out within two business days (PS 4500.13 at pp. 74–75). A check made out to “John or Mary Doe” needs only the one endorsement and is handled normally.

Settlement checks are a decision, not a deposit. Endorsing an insurance, trust or similar settlement check “is generally considered as acceptance of settlement,” so those are routed to the unit manager rather than deposited, and returned to sender if the individual declines to endorse (PS 4500.13 at pp. 75–76).

Applied Insight — Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA, Managing Director: The two calls we get most often about trust accounts are “the money never arrived” and “the money arrived and then disappeared.” They have completely different causes. The first is almost always an envelope problem — a nickname, a missing register number, a personal check, or an address that changed. The second is almost always a hold, an IFRP deduction, a co-pay, or an encumbrance the family never knew existed. Before anyone escalates, pull the transaction history from TRULINCS. It answers the question in about two minutes and it tells you which of those two conversations you are actually having.

What happens to the balance at release

The money comes back. All funds other than gratuities and transportation “are paid utilizing inmate release card” (PS 4500.13 at p. 86). Where a release card is not available, payments are made in cash up to $500, with the remaining balance disbursed by U.S. Treasury check sent to arrive at the release destination — always issued in the committed name (PS 4500.13 at p. 87). Funds still sitting under a hold as outstanding negotiable instruments are not included in the release payment, which is a good reason not to mail a cashier’s check in the last two weeks of a sentence.

Two other release payments come from the government rather than from the account. A discretionary release gratuity of up to $500 may be authorized under 18 U.S.C. § 3624(d) and 28 C.F.R. § 571.21, based on need and financial resources — unit staff may recommend up to $250 with the Case Management Coordinator’s approval, and anything above $250 requires the Warden (PS 5873.06 at p. 2, explained at release gratuities, transportation and clothing). Offenses committed before November 1, 1987 fall under the older 18 U.S.C. § 4281 ceiling of $100. And transportation is furnished to the release destination; where cash is given instead of a ticket, it may not exceed $100 including tax (PS 4500.13 at p. 88). Note that refusing the IFRP means no release gratuity without the Warden’s approval (28 C.F.R. § 545.11(d)(9)).

There is also a pre-release savings mechanism worth setting up early. The pre-release encumbrance lets a person set aside a designated percentage of income toward a target balance held until release, managed by them through TRULINCS. Once transferred, funds cannot ordinarily be moved back except at release or in rare circumstances the Warden approves in writing — and outside income and payroll are applied to outstanding debts first (PS 4500.13 at p. 70). It travels with a transfer to another Bureau facility. For someone heading to a halfway house or home confinement, that set-aside is often the difference between arriving with bus fare and arriving with nothing — see the release plan.

What changed on May 7, 2026

PS 4500.13 rescinded PS 4500.12 CN-1 (March 6, 2025). The changes that touch deposits and the trust account:

Change	What it means for a family sending money	Source
Monthly commissary spending limitation raised $360 → $460	The ceiling on what the money can be spent on each month is $100 higher	Summary of Changes at p. 2; [p. 28]
Mark-up now cost + 30% base, adjusted annually by national CPI	Commissary prices move with inflation on a defined national parameter, not ad hoc	[p. 38]
Special Purpose Order quarterly ceiling $300 → $600	Books, legal materials and hobbycraft orders can be twice as large per quarter	[p. 40]
Maximum selling price for athletic specialty shoes, work shoes and watches $100 → $150	Those purchases now need a larger balance	[pp. 2, 31, 33]
Spending-limit exclusion list expanded	Footwear, mattresses, the secured media device and nicotine lozenges no longer eat into the monthly limit	[p. 28]
“MP3 Player” renamed “Secured Media Device”	The device is now excluded from the spending limit	[pp. 2, 31–32]
Chapter 8 revised; Management of Inmate Savings Program removed	The pre-release encumbrance at p. 70 is now the operative set-aside mechanism	[p. 3]
Chapter 10 revised on withdrawal requests exceeding available funds	Requests over the available balance now generate a zero-dollar tracking transaction rather than a debt for most withdrawal types	[pp. 3, 83–86]
Union Representative removed as a person authorized to open the sealed postage-stamp-safe envelope	A small, dated, verifiable change — a useful test of whether a source you are reading is current	[pp. 2, 27]

If a page you are reading still says the monthly limit is $360, or still lists the Union Representative among the staff who may open the stamp envelope, it was written before May 7, 2026.

Where people get stuck sending money to an inmate

“I sent it two weeks ago and it isn’t there.” Confirm three things in order: that you used the committed name and the eight-digit register number on both the instrument and the envelope; that you sent an accepted instrument type — not a personal check; and that you used the current lockbox address rather than the facility address. Then call 202-307-2712 and place a tracer with whoever issued the money order (PS 4500.13 at p. 77).

“It shows on the balance but he can’t spend it.” That is the hold — 15 days on most instruments, 45 on foreign instruments payable in U.S. dollars, none on U.S. postal money orders or government checks (PS 4500.13 at pp. 72–73).

“The money went in and then it was gone.” Check the withdrawal categories that require no signature (PS 4500.13 at p. 81) — IFRP, medical co-pay, PLRA filing fees, phone and TRULINCS transfers — and check whether the Warden has encumbered funds (PS 4500.13 at p. 67).

“Western Union says the transfer went through but nothing posted.” Check the clock. Transfers initiated between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. EST ordinarily post within two hours; anything after 9:00 p.m. EST posts by 7:00 a.m. the next day (PS 4500.13 at p. 79). If it still has not posted, confirm the recipient is not flagged “no power of attorney,” because that flag blocks Western Union and MoneyGram deposits entirely (PS 4500.13 at p. 71).

“They returned my deposit and put a form in his file.” That is a BP-A0328, which means the sender was not an authorized correspondent (PS 4500.13 at p. 67). Correspondence approval is handled through the unit team — see correspondence and mail rules and PS 5265.14, explained at correspondence.

“He transferred to another prison and the money didn’t follow.” It should — accounts and pre-release encumbrances transfer with the person (PS 4500.13 at p. 70). Where someone is designated prolonged-in-transit for 120 days, the account status changes automatically to released and the balance moves to the Deposit Fund Section’s “Whereabouts Unknown” account pending disposition (PS 4500.13 at pp. 68–69). Claims for funds deposited six or more years ago into whereabouts-unknown are not processed. Locate the person first through the inmate locator.

Applied Insight — Elizabeth Franklin-Best, Esq., Principal Attorney: A trust account problem is worth taking seriously when it stops being administrative — when funds are encumbered on the strength of a disciplinary finding, or when an IFRP dispute begins to affect halfway house consideration and program eligibility. Those are questions about a record, and the record is either documented the way policy requires or it is not. The paperwork the Bureau requires itself to generate is usually where the answer is.

Talk to us about a federal prison problem

Most money questions have an administrative answer, and this page is meant to give you that answer without a phone call. Some do not. When funds are frozen behind a disciplinary finding, when an IFRP dispute starts affecting halfway house consideration, or when a trust account problem is really a safety problem, the issue stops being about the money.

Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. is a boutique federal criminal defense and appellate firm with a national practice, working federal prison matters from designation through early release and reentry. If your family is dealing with something the institution will not explain, contact our office — and see federal prison consulting services for how that work is structured, or preparing for prison if a report date is coming.

Western Union Quick Collect, in detail

Money sent to a federal prisoner through Western Union Quick Collect ordinarily posts to their account within two hours, if the transfer is started between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Transfers started after 9:00 p.m. Eastern post by 7:00 a.m. the next day, and the recipient can see the funds on the prison’s TRULINCS terminals immediately after posting. That rule is in the Bureau’s own Trust Fund/Deposit Fund Manual, Program Statement 4500.13, at p. 79, effective May 7, 2026.

That two-hour window is the entire reason to use Western Union instead of the mail. A money order sent to the Bureau’s national lockbox is cheaper — the Bureau charges nothing to receive it — but most instruments then sit under a 15-day hold before the money can be spent (PS 4500.13 at p. 72). Western Union costs a fee and buys speed.

Western Union Quick Collect at a glance

	What the Bureau’s manual establishes
Program name	Western Union Quick Collect — the Bureau pairs it with the MoneyGram Express Payment Program in the same policy section
Posting time	Within two hours for transfers initiated 7:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m. EST; by 7:00 a.m. the following day for transfers after 9:00 p.m. EST
Hold before it can be spent	None. The 15-day hold applies to mailed negotiable instruments, not to electronic transfers
Who processes it	Centrally, by the Trust Fund Branch Deposit Fund Section at BOP Central Office — not by the institution
Visible to the recipient	On TRULINCS immediately after posting
What the sender needs	The recipient’s committed name (no nicknames) and eight-digit register number, plus the exact Quick Collect routing details the Bureau supplies
Where the routing details come from	The Bureau gives Western Union and Quick Collect procedures to people on arrival at their designated institution or during Admission & Orientation, to forward to family and friends
Fee	Set by Western Union, not by the Bureau of Prisons. No BOP policy document sets, caps or publishes it
Blocked entirely if…	The recipient has no power of attorney on file — see below
Source	PS 4500.13 at pp. 71–72, 79

All rows verified against PS 4500.13, effective May 7, 2026, which rescinded PS 4500.12 CN-1. A Program Statement is agency policy, not law; the binding regulation is 28 C.F.R. part 506. Our plain-English summary of the manual is at trust fund and commissary policy.

How Western Union Quick Collect works for a federal inmate

Quick Collect is a Western Union product built for paying a business or an institution rather than a person — a bill-payment rail, not a person-to-person transfer. The Bureau plugs into it. Money you hand to a Western Union agent, or authorize by phone or online, goes to Western Union; Western Union settles it to the Bureau; and the Trust Fund Branch Deposit Fund Section at Central Office posts it to your relative’s Inmate Deposit Fund account, U.S. Treasury account 15X6085 (PS 4500.13 at pp. 71, 79).

Two consequences follow from that structure, and they explain most of the confusion families run into.

First, the prison never touches the money. The manual is explicit that lockbox, Western Union Quick Collect, MoneyGram Express Payment funds and centralized UNICOR payroll “are processed in the applicable Bureau financial management system and reported to the U.S. Treasury by the Trust Fund Branch Deposit Fund Section” (PS 4500.13 at p. 79). Calling the institution about a transfer that has not posted rarely produces an answer, because the institution is not in the chain.

Second, the fee is Western Union’s, not the Bureau’s. The Bureau of Prisons does not set, cap, publish or receive the Quick Collect fee. No BOP policy document contains a fee schedule for it. We do not print one here for a specific reason: prices set by a private company change without notice, and a stale fee table on a law firm’s page is exactly the kind of thing that gets copied around the internet for years after it stops being true.

What we can tell you is what the fee depends on, so you can compare before you pay:

Variable	Why it moves the price
Amount sent	Quick Collect is priced in tiers. The fee steps up as the amount crosses each bracket, so a small increase in the amount can produce a jump in the fee
Channel	An agent counter, a phone order, and the Western Union website or app are priced differently for the same amount
How you pay	Cash at a counter and a debit or credit card are usually priced differently; a card may also be treated by your card issuer as a cash advance
Where you are	Agent locations are independently operated and pricing can vary

Ask for the total before you authorize. Western Union quotes the fee at the point of sale, and that quoted number — not any figure on any website, including ours — is what you are agreeing to.

The transaction process, step by step

The Bureau does not publish a consumer walkthrough, so what follows is the sequence, anchored to the requirements the manual does set (PS 4500.13 at pp. 71–72, 76, 79).

1. Confirm the two identifiers. You need the committed name — the name the person was sentenced under, not a nickname or a preferred name — and the eight-digit register number. The manual repeats this requirement in four separate places. If you are unsure of either, verify both first through the BOP inmate locator; a walkthrough of that search is at how DOC inmate number search works, and you can confirm the facility through the federal prison directory.

2. Get the Bureau’s Quick Collect routing details from the Bureau. People arriving in federal custody “are given Western Union, Quick Collect, and MoneyGram Express Payment Program procedures to forward to family and friends upon arrival at the designated institution or during A&O” (PS 4500.13 at p. 72). Those procedures carry the exact values the transfer needs. Get them from your relative’s Admission & Orientation packet, from the Bureau’s own published sending-money instructions, or from a letter or TRULINCS message from them. Do not guess and do not copy them from a third-party website — a transfer sent with the wrong routing values does not arrive, and unwinding it is a Western Union problem, not a BOP one.

3. Choose your channel. Quick Collect can be initiated at a Western Union agent location, by phone, or online through Western Union’s own site or app. The Bureau’s posting rule is the same in every case; only the fee changes.

4. Fill in the transfer. The recipient’s committed name and eight-digit register number go in the fields Western Union’s Quick Collect form provides for identifying the person the payment is for. Take your time here — a transposed digit in a register number is the most common failure.

5. Pay and keep the receipt. Your receipt carries the tracking number Western Union will need if anything has to be traced. Photograph it. The Bureau cannot trace a Western Union transfer for you.

6. Watch the clock, not the phone. If you sent between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern, the funds ordinarily post within two hours. After 9:00 p.m. Eastern, expect it by 7:00 a.m. the next day (PS 4500.13 at p. 79). Your relative will see it on TRULINCS immediately after it posts.

What each field is actually for

Field on the Quick Collect form	What goes in it	Why it matters
Recipient / pay-to institution	The Bureau’s own Quick Collect identifier, supplied to the recipient at A&O	Routes the funds to the Bureau rather than to a person
City / state code	The Bureau’s supplied code, not the city where the prison is	Quick Collect codes are not geographic; the prison’s location is irrelevant
Account number	The eight-digit register number	This is what the Bureau matches against; it is the single most important field
Recipient name	The committed name, no nicknames	PS 4500.13 at p. 76 requires the committed name on every deposit route
Amount	Your choice; the Bureau publishes no deposit cap	Any per-transaction maximum is Western Union’s, not the Bureau’s
Sender information	Your real name and address	Deposits from a person who is not an approved correspondent can be returned and flagged — see below

What blocks a Western Union transfer

Three things stop a Quick Collect transfer from reaching the account, and only one of them is your fault.

No power of attorney on file. The BP-A0407, Acknowledgment of Inmate carries a power-of-attorney assignment that lets the Bureau endorse instruments for deposit. If a person refuses to sign it, staff flag the account “no power of attorney,” and the manual is categorical: “Inmates with no power of attorney authorized are not allowed to receive Western Union or MoneyGram funds” (PS 4500.13 at p. 71). Mailed lockbox funds are returned to sender; only cash upon commitment may be deposited. If transfers keep failing for no visible reason, this is the first thing to check, and it is fixed by the person inside signing the form.

Wrong identifiers. A nickname, a missing or transposed register number, or the wrong Quick Collect routing values. The Bureau matches on the committed name and eight-digit register number; there is no fuzzy matching (PS 4500.13 at pp. 72, 76).

An unauthorized correspondent. Institution staff may encumber funds posted through the system “from an unauthorized correspondent,” notify the Deposit Fund Section, and have the deposit voided and returned by U.S. Treasury check with a letter (PS 4500.13 at p. 68). Where funds are intercepted at the institution, they go back on a BP-A0328, Stamps, Negotiable Instrument & Other Returned to Sender, with copies to the individual, the unit team, and the central file (PS 4500.13 at p. 67). If you are not on the approved correspondence list, get on it before you send — see writing to a federal inmate and PS 5265.14, explained at correspondence.

When something goes wrong

The transfer shows completed but nothing posted. Check the time you sent it against the 7:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m. Eastern window (PS 4500.13 at p. 79). If you are outside the two-hour expectation and past 7:00 a.m. the next day, work the three blockers above in order: power of attorney, identifiers, correspondent status.

You need to trace it. Western Union transfers are traced through Western Union, using the tracking number on your receipt. The Bureau does not trace them and the institution is not in the settlement chain. The BOP public inquiry line at 202-307-2712 is for lockbox funds — money you mailed — not for electronic transfers (PS 4500.13 at p. 77).

You sent to the wrong register number. Contact Western Union immediately with your tracking number. Once funds post to another person’s Bureau account, they are that person’s funds, and moving them requires the same approvals as any transfer between incarcerated people: a close-relative relationship and the Warden’s written approval, or both Wardens’ if they are at different institutions (PS 4500.13 at pp. 85–86).

The money posted and then vanished. That is usually not an error. Several withdrawals require no signature at all (PS 4500.13 at p. 81): Inmate Financial Responsibility Program payments, the medical co-payment under 18 U.S.C. § 4048, court-ordered PLRA filing fees, telephone and TRULINCS transfers, IRS tax liens, and compliance with federal court orders. The Warden can also encumber funds outright, on authority “not delegated below the Associate Warden,” releasable only on their approval or at release (PS 4500.13 at p. 67). Pull the transaction history from TRULINCS before escalating anything. If something genuinely is wrong, the route inside is a BP-A0148 Inmate Request to Staff and then the administrative remedy process.

Applied Insight — Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA, Managing Director: Families reach for Western Union in a crisis — a report date, a transfer, a first week in a new institution when someone has nothing. That instinct is right, and the two-hour posting rule is why. But run one check first: if the person is newly designated and has not yet completed Admission & Orientation paperwork, the account may not be ready to receive an electronic transfer at all. A quick TRULINCS message asking “has your account been set up and did you sign the BP-A0407” costs nothing and saves a wasted fee. What A&O covers, and when, is at the federal prison intake process.

Western Union versus the alternatives

There are five routes into a federal prisoner’s account, and the right one depends on whether you are optimizing for speed or cost.

Route	Speed	Fee, and who charges it	Hold before spendable
Western Union Quick Collect	Within 2 hours (7 a.m.–9 p.m. EST); by 7 a.m. next day otherwise	Set by Western Union, tiered by amount and channel	None
MoneyGram Express Payment	Same rule — within 2 hours in the window; by 7 a.m. next day otherwise	Set by MoneyGram, tiered the same way	None
National lockbox (mailed money order)	Lockbox receives mail 7 days a week except federal holidays and processes same day; available the following day	The Bureau charges nothing — your cost is the money order plus postage	15 days on most instruments; 45 days on foreign instruments payable in U.S. dollars; none on U.S. postal money orders or U.S. government checks
Other sources / electronic transfer — tax refunds, dividends, state benefits, a contracted facility’s check, or a transfer from another Bureau institution with both Wardens’ written approval	Through the nightly process once received	Varies by the sending agency or bank; the Bureau charges nothing to receive	Per instrument type — a U.S. government check carries none
Deposit at the institution	Deposited within one business day	No fee, but available only in narrow circumstances	Per instrument type

PS 4500.13 at pp. 72–73, 76–79, 86; 28 C.F.R. § 506.2.

The practical rule: a U.S. postal money order is the cheapest way to send money that is immediately spendable, because it carries no Bureau hold at all (PS 4500.13 at p. 73) — it just takes mail time. Western Union and MoneyGram are for when mail time is the problem. A cashier’s check from your bank is the worst of both worlds: it costs money and sits fifteen days.

The other routes are covered earlier on this page; the MoneyGram route also has its own walkthrough at MoneyGram: how to send money to federal inmates. If you are working out how much to send in the first place, see how much money to send an incarcerated loved one.

What the money can actually be spent on

Sending is only half of it. A person in federal prison may spend $460 a month in the commissary — raised from $360 by PS 4500.13 at p. 28, effective May 7, 2026 — with $50 more during the November/December holiday period. Several categories sit outside that limit entirely: postage stamps, approved over-the-counter medications and vitamins, copy cards and paper, footwear, mattresses, the secured media device, nicotine replacement patches and lozenges, and kosher/halal shelf-stable entrees for people in IFRP refusal status (PS 4500.13 at p. 28). The complete picture, with per-item price ceilings, is at inmate canteen and commissary items.

Money also pays for telephone calls and TRULINCS messaging — the Bureau sets those rates administratively rather than in the manual, through the Chief, Trust Fund Branch (PS 4500.13 at pp. 55, 119) — plus postage beyond the free allowance under 28 C.F.R. § 540.21, Special Purpose Orders of up to $600 a quarter (PS 4500.13 at p. 40), photocopies, and photo vouchers.

And money in the account is not untouchable. Court-ordered obligations are collected through the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program, ordinarily at a minimum of $25.00 per quarter, or not less than 50% of monthly pay for UNICOR grades 1 through 4 (28 C.F.R. § 545.11(b)). One number is worth knowing before you set a monthly amount: the regulation directs the unit team to exclude $75.00 a month deposited into the trust account from the IFRP assessment, “to allow the inmate the opportunity to better maintain telephone communication” (§ 545.11(b)). Refusing the program carries ten listed consequences, including a commissary cap of at least $25 a month (§ 545.11(d)(6)). That subject has its own page: inmate restitution and the IFRP, and PS 5380.08, explained at inmate financial responsibility program.

The warning that matters most: do not send money for someone else

This is the single most common way a family on the outside creates a disciplinary problem for the person they are trying to help.

Transfers of funds between incarcerated people require a close-relative relationship and the Warden’s written approval — both Wardens’ written approval where the two are at different institutions (PS 4500.13 at pp. 85–86). Outside that, moving value between people is a prohibited act on its face, under 28 C.F.R. § 541.3 and PS 5270.09, explained at inmate discipline program:

Code	Prohibited act	Severity
217	Giving money to, or receiving money from, any person for the purpose of introducing contraband or any other illegal or prohibited purpose	High
216	Giving or offering an official or staff member a bribe, or anything of value	High
204	Extortion; blackmail; protection; demanding or receiving money or anything of value in return for protection	High
328	Giving money or anything of value to, or accepting money or anything of value from, another inmate or any other person without staff authorization	Moderate
304	Loaning of property or anything of value for profit or increased return	Moderate
303	Possession of money or currency, unless specifically authorized, or in excess of the amount authorized	Moderate
334	Conducting a business; conducting or directing an investment transaction without staff authorization	Moderate
324 / 325 / 326	Gambling; preparing or conducting a gambling pool; possession of gambling paraphernalia	Moderate

PS 5270.09 at pp. 47–53. A High severity finding exposes someone to disallowance of ordinarily 25–50% (14–27 days) of that year’s good conduct time and up to six months of disciplinary segregation; a Moderate finding, up to 25% (1–14 days) and up to three months — PS 5270.09 at pp. 50, 53–54.

The request usually arrives sounding harmless: send $50 to this other register number, he’ll square up with me inside. What actually happens is that your relative now owes an undocumented debt, and the transaction itself is a prohibited act for them. If someone is being pressured to have money sent, treat it as a safety issue first — see protective custody, the black market, and violence and sexual assault in prison.

Non-federal facilities

This page is about the federal Bureau of Prisons. State prisons, county jails, and privately operated detention facilities each set their own deposit rules, their own vendors, and their own posting times, and none of the figures on this page apply to them. Western Union Quick Collect serves many of those facilities too, but under a different code and different terms — get the routing details from that facility directly.

One federal-specific note: people held in Bureau custody at a contract facility are still Bureau prisoners, and Bureau trust-fund policy still governs their account. If your relative is at a Residential Reentry Center or on home confinement, the account rules change with the setting — ask the Residential Reentry Manager or the residence’s staff before sending anything electronically.

What changed on May 7, 2026

PS 4500.13 rescinded PS 4500.12 CN-1 (March 6, 2025). The changes that bear on sending money electronically:

Change	What it means for a sender	Source
Monthly commissary spending limitation $360 → $460	The ceiling on what your money buys each month is $100 higher	Summary of Changes at p. 2; [p. 28]
Spending-limit exclusion list expanded	Footwear, mattresses, the secured media device and nicotine lozenges no longer count against the monthly limit	[p. 28]
“MP3 Player” renamed “Secured Media Device”	The device is now excluded from the spending limit	[pp. 2, 31–32]
Special Purpose Order quarterly ceiling $300 → $600	Books, legal materials and hobbycraft orders can be twice as large per quarter	[p. 40]
Mark-up now cost + 30% base, adjusted annually by national CPI	Commissary prices track a defined national parameter	[p. 38]
Section 8.10, Management of Inmate Savings Program, removed	The pre-release encumbrance, managed by the person through TRULINCS, is now the operative way to set money aside for release	[pp. 3, 70]
Chapter 10 revised on withdrawals exceeding available funds	Outgoing requests over the available balance now generate a zero-dollar tracking transaction rather than a debt for most withdrawal types	[pp. 3, 83–86]
Union Representative removed as a person authorized to open the sealed postage-stamp-safe envelope	A small, dated change — a useful test of whether a page you are reading is current	[pp. 2, 27]

The Western Union and MoneyGram posting rule at p. 79 is unchanged in substance. What changed around it is everything the money buys once it lands.

Applied Insight — Elizabeth Franklin-Best, Esq., Principal Attorney: A trust account question becomes a legal question at a specific point — when funds are frozen on the strength of a disciplinary finding, or when a financial-responsibility dispute begins to affect halfway house consideration and program eligibility. At that point the question is about a record: whether the encumbrance memorandum exists, whether the disciplinary hearing findings identify the evidence relied on, whether the sanction was within the authorized range. Those are answerable questions, and the paperwork the Bureau requires itself to generate is usually where the answer is.

Talk to us about a federal prison problem

Sending money is administrative until it isn’t — until funds are frozen behind a disciplinary finding, or a financial-responsibility dispute starts shaping halfway house consideration, or the reason someone keeps asking for money turns out to be a safety problem.

Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. is a boutique federal criminal defense and appellate firm with a national practice, working federal prison matters from designation through early release and reentry. If your family is dealing with something the institution will not explain, contact our office. See federal prison consulting services for how that work is structured, or preparing for prison if a report date is coming.

Frequently Asked Questions About Sending Money to Inmates

Reviewed for legal accuracy by Elizabeth Franklin-Best, Esq., Principal Attorney·September 2026