Commissary and Care Packages in New Jersey

If you have someone locked up in New Jersey, two questions come up fast: what can they buy, and what can you send. The answer depends on where they are held. A state prison run by the New Jersey Department of Corrections works one way, a county jail works another, and the federal system plays by its own rulebook. Here is how all three actually work, so you are not guessing or wasting money.

One thing worth saying up front. The most dependable way to stay in touch with anyone inside is the mail. A letter and a few printed photos get through when an account is short or when a facility takes no packages. Treat that as your baseline and the rest as extra.

New Jersey state prisons (NJDOC)

In an NJDOC facility there is no cash. Money goes onto the incarcerated person's trust account, and they spend it at the commissary on snacks, hygiene items, over-the-counter medicine, clothing, underwear, footwear, writing materials, religious items, and approved electronics.

Here is the most important recent change: as of March 24, 2025, New Jersey switched its trust account vendor from JPay to ViaPath Technologies. You now deposit through ConnectNetwork online, on the ViaPath app, or by phone, and the state says the switch cut the average cost of sending money by about 37 percent. To mail a deposit, use ViaPath's Trust Account Money Order Payments deposit slip and send a money order. Cash deposits can also be made at MoneyGram locations like CVS and Walmart using the receive code. If you still see older pages pointing you to JPay for New Jersey state prisons, those are out of date.

One number worth knowing: at New Jersey State Prison, a person is limited to spending $300 per month at the commissary. Caps and item lists can vary by facility, custody status, and gender, so the menu your person sees may differ.

Care packages for NJDOC residents

New Jersey state prisons do allow approved care packages, ordered through licensed vendors, usually Access Securepak and Union Supply Direct. You order from the approved catalog and the vendor ships the bundle straight to the facility for inspection. You cannot pack and mail your own box of food or hygiene items; it has to come from the contracted vendor.

That leads to the one warning worth repeating. Order only through the current approved vendor and within the posted limits and ordering window, because programs and item lists change, and a package that does not match the current rules gets refused.

New Jersey county jails

County jails are their own world. Each county runs its own deposit and commissary contracts, so what is true in one county is wrong in the next, and New Jersey has been consolidating some county facilities, so confirm where your person actually is.

A few real examples. Essex County in Newark, one of the largest jails, takes lobby kiosk payments and mailed money orders. Bergen County in Hackensack and Ocean County in Toms River both run trust deposits through ConnectNetwork. Atlantic County uses a ViaPath trust fund service. Burlington County takes deposits at a lobby kiosk, by mailed money order, or through Access Corrections by phone or card, and runs its packages through Access Securepak. City lockups often have no package program and allow commissary only.

The takeaway is simple: never assume a county jail uses the same vendor or rules as the state. Pull up that specific jail's page and confirm the deposit vendor, the spending cap, the cutoff, and the package policy before you send anything.

Federal custody and New Jersey

New Jersey has two federal Bureau of Prisons institutions, both in the southern part of the state. FCI Fort Dix, on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Burlington County, is a low-security prison with an adjacent minimum-security camp, and it is the largest federal prison in the entire country by the number of people held, with a separate East and West compound. FCI Fairton, in Cumberland County, is a medium-security prison with its own minimum-security camp, plus a separate unit for the federal Witness Security Program. Both are about 40 to 50 miles from Philadelphia. If your person has a federal sentence, confirm the facility on the inmate locator, since they could be at either one or anywhere else in the country.

Funding works through the federal Trust Fund. You can send money online or by app through JPay, mail a money order or cashier's check made payable to the Federal Bureau of Prisons with the inmate's full name and register number on it to the national lockbox, or use Western Union. No cash, no personal checks.

The commissary is the only store in the federal system, and the inmate shops it in person on an assigned day each week, usually tied to their register number. You fund the account; they pick from what is in stock. The shelves cover food and drink mixes, hygiene, a limited clothing selection, stationery and stamps, some over-the-counter medicine, and at some facilities approved electronics.

On the money, general population inmates can spend up to $360 per month, and that limit resets monthly. Stamps, phone credits, and over-the-counter medicine generally fall outside the cap. In November and December the limit typically rises to $410 for holiday shopping. An inmate who refuses the Inmate Financial Responsibility Program gets knocked down to roughly $25 per month.

Federal care packages are not allowed. The Bureau prohibits outside food, clothing, or hygiene packages from family or friends. The narrow exceptions are publications shipped directly from a publisher or approved retailer, religious items cleared through the chaplain, and legal materials from an attorney or court.

For messaging, the federal system uses an email tool families reach through the CorrLinks portal, reviewed by staff and not confidential. To find someone in federal custody, use the Bureau of Prisons inmate locator, which searches by name or register number.

Staying connected

Across all three systems the pattern is the same. Funding an account is how someone buys what they need day to day, packages come only from approved vendors, and the rules shift by facility and by contract. In New Jersey, the thing to remember is that the state changed its money vendor to ViaPath in 2025, so ignore older JPay instructions for state prisons. The one thing that does not change is the mail. A letter and photos reach almost anyone inside, which makes it the most reliable way to show up for your person while you sort out the rest.