FL DOC - Union Correctional Institution

Union Correctional Institution (UCI) is one of Florida's oldest and largest prisons, a maximum-custody state facility in Raiford that is best known as the institution housing the state's male death row. For families with a loved one held here, the combination of high security and the facility's death-row population means the rules can be stricter than at a typical Florida prison, so knowing how visitation, mail, money, and phone contact work here is especially important. This guide brings those essentials together, alongside the statewide Florida Department of Corrections rules that also apply.

About Union Correctional Institution

Union CI sits in rural Union County near Raiford, part of a historic cluster of prisons that has anchored Florida's corrections system for more than a century. Today it is a large, high-security institution that holds close- and maximum-custody men, including the state's male death-row population in the housing unit long known as X-Row. Because of that mission, movement inside is tightly controlled, and the facility runs on a stricter footing than a minimum-custody camp would. The Florida Department of Corrections operates UCI as one of its principal maximum-security prisons.

Every incarcerated person at Union CI is identified by a DC number, and that number is required for everything a family does — visits, mail, and deposits alike. Because Florida moves people between institutions as their status changes, and because a facility this size manages many custody levels, it is worth confirming that your person is actually held here before you make plans. If you are unsure, our guide on how to find someone in jail or prison explains how to trace an incarcerated person through official records, and you can search their name directly on AllRecentArrests.us to see their facility and status.

Visitation process and timings

Visiting at Union Correctional Institution begins, as everywhere in Florida, with the visitor application: everyone 12 and older must be approved and on the inmate's visitors list before they can come, and the application must be completed in full because blanks cause denials. Once you are approved, the general-population visiting schedule commonly runs Monday through Friday from about 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., though administratively segregated inmates and death-row inmates follow separate, more restricted schedules. Death row in particular has its own daily visiting arrangement under close supervision.

Because this is a maximum-custody facility, expect thorough security screening and a strictly enforced dress code, and plan to bring only what is allowed — a valid photo ID and a limited amount of money for the visiting-room vending machines. First-time visitors are often surprised by how firm these rules are, so it pays to prepare, and our complete prison visitation guide covers approval, dress codes, and what happens at the checkpoint. You can also find the state's paperwork through our directory of inmate visitor application forms by state. Always confirm the current schedule with the institution at (386) 431-2000 before you travel, since visiting can be modified on short notice at a facility like this.

How to send money to an inmate here

Money for a Florida inmate is deposited through JPay onto their account, which the person uses for canteen, phone time, and other approved purchases. One rule surprises many Florida families: since 2022 you generally must be on the inmate's approved visitors list before you can send them funds, with a narrow exception that a newly received inmate may receive money from anyone for up to about 60 days after reception. Electronic deposits through JPay are quickest, while a mailed money order must include Form DC2-363, the inmate's name and DC number, and a copy of the sender's valid photo ID — without the ID copy, the money is returned to you.

Timing is worth planning around, because money orders processed through JPay generally take about 10 business days after receipt, and any money order, cashier's check, or bank draft of $400 or more carries a 10-day hold before the funds become available. Our overview of how to send money to an inmate compares the deposit options and posting times, and our dedicated JPay guide walks through deposits and messaging on the platform Florida uses.

Sending mail and care packages

Florida routes routine personal mail through a central processing vendor rather than straight to the housing unit, so ordinary letters are generally addressed to the department's designated mail-processing address for scanning, while legal and privileged mail from an attorney or a court goes directly to the institution and is handled more protectively. Whatever the channel, keep letters plain, avoid stickers, glitter, cash, stamps, or anything that could be treated as contraband, and always include the inmate's full committed name and DC number. Our breakdown of how to send mail to an inmate covers the address format and the details that most often get a letter rejected.

You cannot mail a physical gift or food package straight to a Florida inmate; the accepted substitute is to fund the account so they can buy from the canteen, or to order through an approved-vendor program when one is offered. Our guide to sending a care package to an inmate explains how approved-vendor ordering works, and our explainer on how prison commissary works shows what a funded account actually buys inside.

Phone calls, staying connected, and reentry

Phone service in Florida prisons runs through Securus, and as with every prison phone system the incarcerated person places the call to you rather than the other way around, so the practical first step is to set up and fund a prepaid account tied to the number they will call. Under the FCC rate caps that took effect in 2026, per-minute rates have dropped sharply, making regular contact far more affordable than in past years. Our guide to calling an inmate explains account setup and cost control, and our Securus provider guide covers the calling, video, and messaging features Florida families use.

Whatever mix of calls, mail, and visits you settle into, consistency matters more than any single grand gesture, and steady contact is one of the most valuable things a family can offer someone inside. As a release date approaches, preparation pays off — lining up identification, housing, and income before the day arrives makes the first weeks home far less chaotic. Our reentry guide for life after prison walks through those first steps, and if you are supporting a household through an incarceration, our overview of financial help for families lists benefits and nonprofits that can ease the strain.

Health, safety, and raising concerns

If you are worried about a loved one's medical care, mental health, or safety inside, the right channel is to contact the institution's staff or classification team directly rather than assuming word will reach the right person informally. Ask who handles medical or safety concerns, explain the situation clearly, and write down who you spoke with and when, because a simple record of your calls makes follow-up far easier if the problem is not resolved the first time. Keep the inmate's DC number and current facility handy whenever you call, since staff will ask for it to locate your person quickly.

Be cautious, too, about where you get information and send money. The FDC offender search and the JPay call center are the authoritative sources, and paying an unfamiliar third-party site to "locate" an inmate or forward a deposit is a common way families lose money for something the state provides directly. When a rule you read online conflicts with what the institution tells you, trust the institution, and confirm anything important by calling the facility before you act on it.

The system Union Correctional Institution belongs to

Union Correctional Institution is one institution inside a much larger system. As of June 30, 2022 the department held 82,124 people across all of its facilities, making it the third largest state corrections system in the United States.

The direction of travel is worth knowing. On that date 369.1 of every 100,000 Floridians were incarcerated, down from 461.5 in 2018 — a substantial fall in the rate. The absolute count still rose that year, by 1,629 people or 2.0%, because the state's own population grew alongside it.

Of those 82,124 people, 76,899 were men and 5,225 were women — 6.4% female. And 23,557 were aged 50 or over, 28.7% of the whole prison population, which is why elderly housing and medical capacity come up so often in the department's own reporting.

System size is not trivia when you are trying to plan. A department this large moves people to wherever a suitable bed exists, which is why a transfer can be announced with little notice and can put hundreds of miles between a family and a visiting room. It is also why program and education waitlists are measured in months: the queue is set by system-wide demand, not by how helpful the staff at one institution are willing to be.

What makes Union Correctional Institution different

Union Correctional Institution does not operate as an ordinary general-population prison. Its designated role is dedicated housing for older prisoners, and that changes what you should expect from it.

Union Correctional Institution includes 156 beds for people aged 50 and over. Florida holds an unusually old prison population — 23,557 people aged 50 or over, 28.7% of the total — and the department houses many of them separately to reduce the risk of predatory behaviour by younger prisoners and to concentrate medical resources. A move here on age or health grounds is a clinical placement decision, not a disciplinary one.

If your family member is here for a medical or mental-health reason rather than a custody one, ask specifically which unit they are on. That single answer determines their visiting schedule, their phone access, and who you need to speak to about their care.

If medical care at Union Correctional Institution is the problem

Florida runs a health care appeal route that bypasses the institution. Under the Florida Administrative Code, the department has an inmate grievance appeal process allowing people in custody to submit health care appeals directly to Central Office staff rather than only through the prison holding them.

What makes this route worth using is who reads it: a registered nurse, who screens the appeal, the department's Health Services Director, who reviews it personally and the relevant discipline directors for medical, mental health, dental, pharmaceutical or nursing services. That is a very different audience from the officer on the wing, and it is why a written health care appeal often moves a case that weeks of phone calls have not.

Two practical points. The appeal is the incarcerated person's to file — a family member cannot submit it for them — so the useful thing you can do is make sure they know the route exists and keep a note of dates and names on the outside. And file early: these processes run on deadlines, and a complaint that skips a stage is usually returned unread rather than considered.

The review includes an examination of the person's own health care record to establish whether appropriate care was actually provided — so the complaint is checked against the file, not just against what the institution reports.

Education, training, and work at Union Correctional Institution

Academic programming at Union Correctional Institution includes an academic education programme for the open population, a programme staffed to provide special education and close management education for people in restricted housing. 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.

Your first steps

If someone you love is held at Union Correctional Institution, focus first on the essentials: confirm they are here and write down their DC number, complete the visitor application in full so you get on the approved list — which in Florida is also what unlocks the ability to send money — and set up a JPay deposit and a Securus phone account so contact is possible. Given the facility's high-security setting, always verify visiting details directly before traveling to Raiford, and rely on the state's own free tools rather than paid third-party sites for anything that matters.

Visiting a maximum-security prison: what to expect

Union CI is not a place you can approach casually. As a maximum-custody institution that houses death row, it runs on tight control, and everything from where you park to how long processing takes reflects that. Plan to arrive early, bring only a valid photo ID and a small amount of vending money in a clear container, and dress conservatively, because staff turn visitors away over clothing that would pass elsewhere. Patience helps: searches and counts can delay the start of a visit, and the schedule can shift with the institution's security needs on any given day.

Families of people on death row face particular challenges, since those visits are the most restricted of all and are conducted under heavy supervision on a separate daily schedule. If your loved one is in the appeals process, legal mail and attorney visits are especially important and are handled differently from ordinary correspondence — our guide on working with a criminal defense lawyer explains how privileged communication normally works. Keeping careful records of case dates and legal contacts matters more here than at almost any other facility.

Because Raiford is rural and the drive is long for many families, it is worth building the trip around confirmed appointment times and a backup plan. A predictable rhythm of calls and letters between visits keeps the relationship steady, which for someone in a high-security setting can be a genuine lifeline through a difficult sentence.