Money on the Books at the Prison (2024)

I want to put money on the books at the prison, how do I do that? At the local prisons in Philadelphia County, defendants want money on their books. By local I mean the CFCF, DC, HOC, PICC, Riverside, ASU, or the Cannery. The term “money on the books” is used because prisoners are not allowed to have actual cash on their person, so each inmate has an inmate account. In fact, cash is considered contraband and not allowed by the prison.

There are three ways that you can put money on the books:

1. Go to the prison with cash and have the cash put on the books of the inmates. You must have the defendant’s Police Photo Number (PP#).
2. Go to the prison with a money order from the United States Post Office. Again you must have the defendant’s PP#.
3. You can mail a money order from the Post Office, but it must contain the name and PP# of the defendant.

In addition to the above, sometimes we have clients who have money to pay their bail or to put on their books, but the bank account is only in the defendant’s name. There is a procedure for getting a power of attorney so that someone else can go to the bank and withdraw the funds to either pay bail or put money on the books. While the procedure can be somewhat complicated, we have done it successfully for several. Contact our Philadelphia bail reduction lawyer for help.