CDCR - Avenal State Prison (ASP)

Avenal State Prison (ASP) in Kings County, California, is a large CDCR institution in the San Joaquin Valley that holds thousands of men across six facility yards (A through F). What sets Avenal apart from a mail perspective is that each facility yard uses its own P.O. Box, so using the correct address for your loved one's yard is essential. Beyond that yard-specific detail, Avenal follows California's statewide CDCR rules for visitation, deposits, and communication. This guide brings the essentials together.

About Avenal and its yard structure

Avenal State Prison opened in 1987 and is one of California's larger male institutions, housing thousands of men across six facility yards. That yard-based organization matters most for mail: each yard uses its own P.O. Box (Facility A uses PO Box 901, B uses 902, C uses 903, D uses 904, E uses 905, and F uses 906, all in Avenal, CA 93204), and Inmate Legal Mail goes to PO Box 159. Using the wrong yard address delays or prevents delivery, so confirming which yard your loved one is on is the first practical step. Every incarcerated person at Avenal is identified by a CDCR number that follows them across the whole state system.

Because California moves people between institutions as classifications change, and because Avenal moves people between yards internally, confirming both the institution and the yard before every mailing or trip is essential. Our guide on how to find someone in jail or prison explains how to trace an incarcerated person through California's CIRIS system, and you can search their name directly on AllRecentArrests.us to see their current institution and status. Treat the CDCR number rather than the current address as the constant you build around, and update your yard-specific mail address whenever your loved one is moved between yards.

Visitation: Saturdays and Sundays with the VSA

Avenal splits its visits into two formats. In-person visits may be conducted on Saturdays, and video visits are conducted on Sundays. Both formats require advance scheduling through the CDCR Visitation Scheduling Application (VSA) at cdcr.gtlvisitme.com/app — you cannot simply show up or connect. Before you can schedule, you must be an approved visitor on your loved one's list, which starts with CDCR Form 106 (Visitor Questionnaire) that the inmate mails to you and signs before you complete and return it for a background check.

The combination of in-person Saturdays and video Sundays gives many families a workable weekly rhythm. If the drive to Avenal is manageable, an in-person Saturday visit followed by a video Sunday check-in doubles your weekly contact. Bring only your government-issued photo ID and the small amount of money California allows for vending machines — California's visiting-room rules are enforced strictly. Our complete prison visitation guide covers approval, dress codes, and what to expect at the checkpoint, and our walkthrough on setting up a video visit with an inmate covers the video side.

How to send money at Avenal

CDCR offers three deposit routes at Avenal, all fee-free from a CDCR perspective. Electronic Fund Transfer through Connect Network or JPay is the fastest, posting funds to the inmate's account quickly. By mail, checks and money orders should be made payable to JPay and sent along with the deposit form to JPay, 2202 South Figueroa St, Box #3001, Los Angeles, CA 90007. There is no fee for money orders, personal checks, or cashier's checks sent this way, though checks may carry longer processing holds.

The California-wide rule to plan around is that CDCR is required to garnish 50 percent of any non-exempt deposit toward restitution the person owes, so if your loved one has a restitution obligation, only half of what you send may reach their spendable account. Money follows a person across CDCR transfers, so deposits made at Avenal are not lost if your loved one is moved. Our overview of how to send money to an inmate compares options, and our dedicated JPay guide walks through the electronic and mail options.

Mail, packages, and phone calls

All mail must arrive via USPS and is examined for contraband. Include the inmate's full name and CDCR number and a full return address, and use the correct yard-specific P.O. Box. Keep letters to plain white paper with dark ink and avoid California's long prohibited-items list (cash, personal checks, stamps, stickers, glitter, glue, tape, staples, paperclips, Polaroids, hardcover books, musical or embellished cards, anything with electronics). Books and publications generally come directly from the publisher only. Our breakdown of how to send mail to an inmate covers the general address format and common rejection triggers. Legal mail goes to PO Box 159, Avenal, CA 93204, separately from personal mail.

Phone service at Avenal, like all CDCR facilities, has been free of charge since January 1, 2023, which dramatically reduces the cost of regular calling. You still need to register your number with the facility's provider, but the per-minute charges are gone. California allows packages only through approved vendors, so ordering through an approved vendor or funding the canteen is how families support goods purchases. Our guide to calling an inmate, care package guide, and commissary explainer cover the details.

Legal mail, emergencies, health concerns, and avoiding scams

Legal or privileged mail from an attorney or a court is opened only in the incarcerated person's presence when properly marked, so keep legal documents out of personal letters. For emergencies such as a death, serious illness, or birth, call the facility to arrange getting an urgent message through, and keep the CDCR number handy for that call. If you are worried about a loved one's medical care, mental health, or safety inside, contact staff directly, explain the situation clearly, and keep a written record of who you spoke with and when. A calm, specific account gets a faster response than an angry one, and documented calls make follow-up easier if the initial response does not resolve the concern.

Be cautious about paying third-party sites — the CDCR inmate search and the department's named providers are the authoritative channels, so paying an unfamiliar site to "locate" a person or forward a deposit is a common way families lose money for something the system provides free. When guidance you read online conflicts with what the facility tells you, trust the facility, and confirm anything important by calling (559) 386-0587 first. Above all, remember that steady, informed support from outside is one of the most valuable things a family can offer during incarceration, and building that support with organized records, consistent contact, and reliable use of the official channels is what carries most families through with the least added stress.

Staying consistent and preparing for release

Whatever mix of visits, calls, and letters you settle into, consistency matters more than any single grand gesture. A predictable rhythm gives the person something reliable to count on through a hard stretch, and it keeps you informed about how they are doing as a sentence progresses. As a release or resolution date approaches, preparation pays off — our reentry guide for life after prison covers those first steps, our guide to finding work after prison addresses fair-chance hiring, and many returning citizens qualify for help through SNAP, Medicaid, and TANF soon after release. If you are supporting a household through an incarceration, our overview of financial help for families of incarcerated people lists resources that can ease the strain.

Above all, remember that keeping the identifying number, current facility, deposit receipts, and any court dates organized carries families through the least added friction. If old records may create barriers to housing or work after resolution, our guide on how to expunge or seal a criminal record explains when that is possible, and consistent, informed support from family is one of the most valuable things you can offer through the whole journey.

Working with Avenal's yard-based system

The single most distinctive practical detail at Avenal is the yard-based P.O. Box system. Because each of the six yards uses a different P.O. Box (Facility A: 901; B: 902; C: 903; D: 904; E: 905; F: 906, all in Avenal, CA 93204), coordinating with your loved one to confirm his current yard before every mailing is essential. If he is transferred between yards during his sentence — which does happen — you need to update your mailing address accordingly. Keeping a note of the current yard on your calendar or in a shared file with anyone else who writes to him prevents delayed mail.

The Saturday-in-person, Sunday-video pattern also gives Central Valley and Southern California families a workable weekend rhythm: drive out to Avenal for a Saturday visit, drive back that evening, and connect by video from home on Sunday. Coordinating both sessions through the VSA at cdcr.gtlvisitme.com/app ensures your slots are locked in ahead of time, and the combination gives you significantly more contact than a facility with only one-day-per-week visitation.

Records and staying steady

Keeping the CDCR number, current yard, VSA login, JPay or Connect Network receipts, and any court or parole dates organized carries families through Avenal with the least added friction. Above all, steady contact through free calls (since 2023), correctly-yard-addressed letters, and the Saturday-Sunday visit combination is one of the most valuable things you can offer someone at Avenal State Prison.

Inside Avenal State Prison: how the facility is laid out

Avenal State Prison has been in operation since 1987.

Layout matters more than families expect. Which yard or unit someone is assigned to drives their custody level, their program eligibility, and often their visiting schedule — so when you call, having the housing assignment to hand will get you a useful answer faster than the name alone.

How crowded Avenal State Prison is right now

Avenal State Prison was designed to hold 2,424 people. As of July 22, 2026 the agency reported a population of 3,798, which is 156.7% of that design capacity.

A prison operating at this level is not simply full — it is well past the number it was built for, and that shows up in the things families actually feel. Expect converted dayrooms and gymnasiums used as housing, long waits for medical and dental appointments, program and education waitlists, and visiting slots that fill early. It also drives transfers: when one institution is over capacity, people get moved to wherever there is a bed, sometimes hundreds of miles away.

For scale, the same report puts the state's institutions as a whole at 86,006 people against a design capacity of 71,074, or 121.0% — so this facility sits above the system-wide figure rather than being an outlier.

This figure moves week to week. Treat it as the scale of the place rather than a live count, and confirm anything that affects a visit with the institution directly.

Who runs Avenal State Prison

The senior official on site is Martin Gamboa, appointed warden in March 2023. Naming the warden is not just trivia: correspondence about a serious unresolved problem should be addressed to that post rather than to the institution generally, because a letter to a named office creates a record that a call to a switchboard does not.

The institution's main line is (559) 386-0587. Use it for anything urgent — a medical emergency, a safety concern, confirming whether visiting is running — and ask for the watch commander or the shift supervisor rather than leaving a message with whoever answers.

Education, training, and work at Avenal State Prison

Academic programming at Avenal State Prison includes Adult Basic Education I through III, high school diploma, college coursework and Transitions and eLearning life skills. Enrolment is rarely immediate — most institutions run waitlists, and assignment depends on custody level, sentence length, and prior testing. If your family member wants a place, the request has to come from them through their assigned counsellor; a call from outside will not add someone to a list.

Vocational and career technical training on site includes Auto Body, Carpentry, Welding and Plumbing — fourteen career technical education offerings carrying nationally recognized certifications. These carry more weight than general programming, because completion is documented and can matter at a parole or release review as evidence of work done inside.

Visiting Avenal State Prison: the current schedule

Avenal State Prison receives visitors on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with in-person visits offered for a minimum of two hours, though the exact session length varies by institution and availability.

Two things about that schedule are worth knowing before you drive. Published hours are when the visiting room is open, not when you can arrive — processing closes well before the room does, and arriving inside the last hour often means being turned away. And a published schedule is suspended more often than it is changed: lockdowns, staffing shortages, and medical isolation all cancel visiting at short notice, usually without the website being updated.

Visiting is booked through the department's Visitation Scheduling Application. The booking window opens eight days before the visit and closes five days before it, and the daily request period opens at 6:00 a.m. for northern institutions, 6:30 a.m. for central, and 7:00 a.m. for southern, running to 11:59 p.m. Only people already approved as visitors can book an appointment, so the approval application has to be completed and granted before any date can be reserved. Visits can be cancelled at any time for health and safety reasons, and can be ended early if staff see a visitor or a resident showing symptoms of a contagious illness.

Call the institution the morning you travel and ask specifically whether visiting is running on your family member's yard or unit — not whether the prison is open. Those are different questions, and the second one gets a misleadingly reassuring answer.

Your first steps

If someone you love has just arrived at Avenal State Prison, focus first on the essentials: write down their CDCR number and confirm which facility yard (A-F) they are on, complete Form 106 for visitor approval and register with the VSA at cdcr.gtlvisitme.com/app, set up JPay or Connect Network for deposits knowing California withholds 50 percent for restitution, and use the correct yard-specific P.O. Box for personal mail (with legal mail going to PO Box 159 separately). Take advantage of free calls since 2023 and rely on CDCR's own tools.