Facility Ordering
How Ordering for a Facility Recipient Works
Ordering for someone at a TDCJ facility uses the same cart and checkout, with one additional step: adding the recipient's details. Here's exactly what's needed and what happens after you check out.
What you'll need before you start
Facility orders require a Heritage account — recipient details are saved to the account and verified rather than entered fresh each time. Before starting an order, have ready: the recipient's full legal name, their current inmate/ID number, the facility name, and their current housing unit if known.
Adding a recipient
At checkout, choose "Ship to a TDCJ facility" as the destination and either select a previously saved recipient or add a new one. Heritage's checkout currently supports Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) facilities specifically — the facility field is a list of real TDCJ facilities to choose from, not a free-text field. Once saved, a recipient can be reused on future orders without re-entering their details.
What happens after checkout
Orders ship within 2 business days of payment. If anything in the order can't ship to the selected facility, that's flagged before the order is charged, not discovered after the fact — Heritage's checkout checks known restrictions against the selected facility automatically. That said, restrictions can change on the facility's side independent of what Heritage has on file — see the companion Facility Restrictions Checklist guide before finalizing an order.
Common mistakes
- Misspelling the recipient's legal name or entering the inmate number incorrectly.
Why it matters: Facilities match incoming packages against their own records — a mismatched name or number is a common cause of delay or rejection that has nothing to do with the order's contents.
Fix: Double-check the name and inmate number against a recent, official source (mail from the facility, the facility's own inmate locator) before saving the recipient.
- Using an outdated housing unit.
Why it matters: Housing assignments change; an old housing unit can misdirect a package within the facility even when everything else is correct.
Fix: Confirm the recipient's current housing unit close to order time rather than relying on a unit noted months earlier.
- Assuming any item in the catalog can ship to any facility.
Why it matters: Restrictions vary by facility and change over time — see the Facility Restrictions Checklist guide.
Fix: Read the restrictions checklist before adding items to cart, especially for a first order to a given facility.
Heritage recommendation
Create an account and save the recipient's details once — name, inmate number, facility, and housing unit — so future orders don't require re-entry. Read the Facility Restrictions Checklist guide before finalizing your first order to a given facility.