Send a letter to Anstalten Tartu

What is the postal address of Anstalten Tartu?

Mail to Anstalten Tartu goes to Box 352, 593 24 Västervik. This is a PO box address, and it is not the same as the visiting address you find on a map. Letters sent to the visiting address are often delayed or returned to sender.

The Prison and Probation Service wants four lines in a fixed order: the recipient's full legal name, the authority name Kriminalvården, the facility name Anstalten Tartu, and finally the box address with postcode and town. Without the line "Anstalten Tartu" the letter ends up in the wrong internal pile even when the postcode is correct.

Swedish postcodes are five digits written as three, then a space, then two — 593 24 — followed by the town on the same line. Do not add "Sweden" if you post through us, because the letter is already inside the country.

Write the recipient's full legal name, not a nickname. Swedish staff match the name against their own register, and a nickname will not be found there.

What kind of facility is Anstalten Tartu?

Anstalten Tartu is in Västervik, and is a prison whose security class the Prison and Probation Service does not publish. It holds men serving sentences. In Swedish an "anstalt" is a prison where a sentence is served, which is different from a "häkte", a remand prison for people awaiting trial.

Kriminalvården, the Swedish Prison and Probation Service, runs every prison and remand prison in the country. It is a state authority, not a private operator, and the same national rules on mail apply at Tartu as everywhere else.

As a closed prison, mail is checked before it is handed over. How closely depends on the unit and the individual's situation — anywhere from a quick check of the contents to the letter being opened and read.

Will staff read my letter before it is handed over?

Swedish law — the Prisons Act (fängelselagen 2010:610) — allows the Prison and Probation Service to screen mail to inmates. At Anstalten Tartu that in practice means the letter is opened and checked, and on some units also read.

Letters to and from a lawyer, a Swedish public authority or an international body such as the European Court of Human Rights have special protection and may not be read. If that applies to you, state clearly on the envelope who the sender is.

Screening takes time. Count on one to a few extra days after the letter reaches the prison. You will not be notified when the letter is handed over.

You may write in English, or in any other language. Screening staff can request a translation, which adds a few days, but a letter is not rejected for being written in English.

What can you send to someone at Anstalten Tartu?

Assume that anything other than plain paper can be stopped. Cash, food, tobacco, medication, USB sticks, SIM cards, stickers, tape, laminated sheets, Polaroid photos and scented paper are all removed during screening.

If you want to send pictures, ordinary prints on paper are the safest option. With us the images are printed directly into the letter on A4 paper, which usually passes screening more easily than loose photographs in an envelope.

Do not put money in the letter. Contact the prison directly if you want to transfer money to the person's account — routines differ between facilities, and cash in an envelope is simply removed.

Stamps, envelopes and blank paper for a reply are also normally stopped. If you want a reply, add your own address as the sender in the order and the person can write back using the facility's own routines.

How do you send a letter to Sweden without a printer or Swedish stamps?

Write your letter in the editor at the top of this page, pick Anstalten Tartu from the list so the address fills in automatically, and pay by card. We print, fold, insert, frank and hand the letter to PostNord in Sweden — so it travels as domestic Swedish mail, not as international post.

A standard letter costs 49 SEK including postage and normally arrives in 3–4 working days. An express letter costs 89 SEK and arrives in 1–2 working days. Each extra page is 18 SEK and colour printing 14 SEK per page. Pay before 11:45 on a weekday and the letter is posted the same day.

This matters if you live outside Sweden: a letter posted from another country to Västervik adds international transit and can take one to three weeks, and foreign stamps sometimes cause returns. Posting from inside Sweden removes that leg entirely.

If you want a reply, add your own address as the sender in the order. It is then printed both on the letter and on the envelope, so the recipient can write back by ordinary post.