When sending email to an incarcerated individual, your email may be received in printed or electronic format.
Some facilities do not have the equipment for delivering your emails electronically. Instead your email is received by the facility and then it is printed and handed to the incarcerated individual the same way they would receive traditional hard copy mail.
If the facility has the ability to scan a reply from the incarcerated individual into a pdf then you can pre-pay for a reply. The incarcerated individual will be given paper to write the reply which will then be scanned into a pdf and sent to you as a reply email.
If the facility does not have the ability to scan a reply from the incarcerated individual they will have to send their reply through snail mail.
Electronic emails are received by the incarcerated individual via a kiosk for those facilities that have incarcerated individual kiosks. The incarcerated individual will reply to you using the kiosk without the need to print or scan any document. In most states with incarcerated individual kiosks, you can also include a pre-paid reply.