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Must read Terms of Service & Privacy Policy and be at least 18

 
chizlit

Hello, I'm new here so please be gentle with me if this question is stupid! I've written to someone in Texas using Jpay, don't really understand how it works or even if he's got the email as I never heard back from him as yet.
I'm wondering do I first have to write him a physical snail mail letter and give him by email details or what? I really do not want to start a normal letter writing process, I only want to do it via email.
Also is Corrlinks basically the same, as I wrote to someone today and have no real clue how it's meant to work!

Thanks for any help/advice.


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mjuran

Becca D7, you pay for the letters you send on JPay, and the inmate pays for his/her own letters they send.  If they don't have money (stamps) to write you back, you may choose to add a return stamp to your JPays for them to use for that purpose.  If you, you pay for their letter too.  People usually have very little money in prison, and often don't have money to write, so many people do pay for their pen pals to correspond with them.

 
Kirsten

Well, Becca, if you're going to write someone via Jpay first thing you'll need is an account.registering with Jpay to make that account is free, but if you want to write sth. you've got to have stamps (1 per page and 1 per possible attachment). You've got to pay for these stamps and you'll do it best with a credit card, that's the easiest way. Plus, depending on where the inmate is, he will or won't be able to reply back to you via Jpay. Some state do have two-way-messaging, others (like TX, for example), can get jpays, but only reply back to you via a written letter.

So, it really depends, but if you're going to write to someone, of course, you've got to pay sth. for it, too. 

 
BeccaD7

I was to write to someone using jpay how do I know if I have to pay for it or the inmate is?

 
Insegura

Hola! Yo también soy nueva aquí, y tengo la misma pregunta que tu. Escribí a una persona de Nebraska desde writeaprisioner.com, pero luego e leído sobre jpay pero que tenemos que pagar, y no se si es la misma página que writeprisioner. Com o cuánto cobran por escribir a través de Jpay.... Si alguien nos puede ayudar o tu mism@ ya tienes respuesta y me puedes explicar te lo agradecería mucho, un saludo desde España!

 
DreadPirateCar

Opally and Northernyank, thank you guys for replying! Yes, I did include a stamp. It's my first time doing this and I felt like I was being paranoid. I will take your suggestion and send a follow-up letter.

Thanks guys!

 
Northernyank

The only 2 things I can think of is 1. He doesn't have any stamps, or 2. His kiosk is broken.

 
Opally

To clarify, mine wasn't in the SOU. And I meant: did you add a pre-paid stamp at all?

 
Opally

Hey @DreadPirateCar! I had a pal in Washington and he was able to respond. I'm pretty sure every unit has a kiosk or two. He should be able to respond but you can always send another message just to make sure he got it. You can add an address he can send a response to in case he can't send anything via JPay. If you haven't gotten a rejection email, he most likely got the message. Inmates do get a notification, I believe. Did you had a pre-paid stamp at all? If not, he probably couldn't respond if he didn't have money to get stamps himself.

 
DreadPirateCar

I realize that this is an old thread, but I was wondering if anyone can help me with my JPay question. I've read in this thread that not every part of the prison population has access to kiosks; I was wondering if anyone has any experience with Washington inmates in the Special Offenders Unit(s)? Do they have access to the kiosks? Is it easier to snail mail them?

I sent my first JPay email over 2 weeks ago and haven't had any reply. My inmate showed up in the search on JPay, so I assumed that he was able to receive messages/reply... It shows the status as "sent," so I'm assuming it's been approved, but I haven't heard back. It seems that JPay emails take a maximum of a few days to send, so did he just not want to reply? Or does he not have access? Or has he not seen it yet? Are prisoners notified when they have messages? Or does he not get notified and just not check his JPay?

I'm so confused! Any help/clarification is appreciated :)

 
Arachne

That's right, i've got another [I]penpal[/I] friend here in Spain (for over a decade!) and its really great to comunicate instantly, by email, facebook or even phone. I bet im gonna learn a lot of new things from now on.

I'll let you know if I continue "stalking" this dude, haha!

See you around, I like this forum and I'm sure I'll have multiple questions :)

 
DanPal

And, thanks, Dan, for your tip. Patience (I'm sure I've misspelled this earlier) it's not one of my strongest abilities so I better take a deeeep breath and just wait.

Thank you so much for your replies :)

It's a learning experience for all of us here. We're so used to instant gratification at the click of the mouse or remote control that it takes a 'little' getting used to to operate at a slower pace.
But there's a beauty about those handwritten letters that makes you wanna wait for them :)
I hope you get lots :)

 
Arachne

Yeah, you both are right, so I'll probably do so in a few minutes, just a quick note, I really don't want to freak him out. You laugh about it but I'm starting not to, it's really embarrasing!

And, thanks, Dan, for your tip. Patience (I'm sure I've misspelled this earlier) it's not one of my strongest abilities so I better take a deeeep breath and just wait.

Thank you so much for your replies :)

 
josephina2

This confirms my thoughts, and its gonna be hilarious. I wrote to my possibly-future-pp through WAP, but I thought it would be funny and faster writing to him again through Jpay, and then... I didnt write down my address in the Jpay letter. So if im not wrong, i have two options, wait until he reads the WAP one on August 4th or write to him a third time...

Maybe StalkerGirl would have been a more appropiate nickname than Arachne, oh god, cant stop laughing. Hope he laughs of it as well.

Im new here, as you can see, and Im also overseas (hello from Spain!), so please be patient and forgive my poor english.

Lol stalkergirl that's so funny :) yeh I'd probably send a short jpay with my address so he can reply. Glad to see I'm not the only person who has silly moment's :)

 
DanPal

Hello Arachne, and welcome to the forum :)
I hope you hear back from your chosen prospective pp.
Don't write a third letter; you're already freaking him out probably ;) Just kidding; but I would take a deep breath now and start practicing that patience which you're gonna need a lot of when pen palling with inmates.
Then again receiving your JPay and not being able to respond (assuming he wants to) could be very frustrating. So, on second thoughts, maybe a quick note with your address might be good.
Good luck with the endeavour :)

PS The WAP letter is mailed to the prison on the 4th, so he may get it sometime in the week after that.

 
Arachne

I speak to someone in Telford I send him JPay and they are printed out and sent to him, and he snail mails, the reply. He said photos are printed in black and white (someone else may clarify this) If you want him to reply you will have to send another message with your address

This confirms my thoughts, and its gonna be hilarious. I wrote to my possibly-future-pp through WAP, but I thought it would be funny and faster writing to him again through Jpay, and then... I didnt write down my address in the Jpay letter. So if im not wrong, i have two options, wait until he reads the WAP one on August 4th or write to him a third time...

Maybe StalkerGirl would have been a more appropiate nickname than Arachne, oh god, cant stop laughing. Hope he laughs of it as well.

Im new here, as you can see, and Im also overseas (hello from Spain!), so please be patient and forgive my poor english.

 
Breezesgirl

Jpay does need emotions, things can be taken wrong, I'm sarcastic and sometimes it gets messed up.

 
Schavuit

No, I haven't. I was writing a Jpay message and I needed emoticons to cheer the email up, but there wasn;t any availlable. I spontanuously posted it.

 
njsquarebear

Don't you girls think that Jpay needs smilies and emoticons like this :hmph::yippie::awe: ?? It would makes joking around alot easier, and also make it easier to understand the tone of a comment. JPay needs emoticons!! :yup:

Have you written them about this? If so, did you get a reply?

 
Schavuit

Don't you girls think that Jpay needs smilies and emoticons like this :hmph::yippie::awe: ?? It would makes joking around alot easier, and also make it easier to understand the tone of a comment. JPay needs emoticons!! :yup:

 
Earthmother

I too have a penpal that has been nudging me towards jpay, but it seems the others don't have it, so I'm not sure if I want to bother with it. He said of course it is up to me but it is cheaper for him if I do it, and I really do enjoy our correspondence. Can you buy one "stamp" at a time? He said something about $12, but I'd prefer since I'm writing several not to buy a "book" of stamps just for one inmate at this time.

If he is the one paying for his share of the correspondence, then yes, Jpay will be cheaper for him than sending snail mail - especially since the cost of stamps in the USA recently increased.

As far as I know, you can't buy one Jpay stamp at a time, and the actual cost will vary depending on what state the inmate is located.

 
Mandycatt

I too have a penpal that has been nudging me towards jpay, but it seems the others don't have it, so I'm not sure if I want to bother with it. He said of course it is up to me but it is cheaper for him if I do it, and I really do enjoy our correspondence. Can you buy one "stamp" at a time? He said something about $12, but I'd prefer since I'm writing several not to buy a "book" of stamps just for one inmate at this time.

 
njsquarebear

Just tell him that you're only able to commit to snail mail for the time being. If he writes less as a result or hassles you about it further, then have a nice little browse through some of the other 9000 possible pen pal candidates waiting for someone to write.

Yeah, y'all have confirmed my instinct not to open this can of worms. It's interesting that of the 4 guys I write in prison, he's the only one I chose from another prison pp website, because he was closer to my age and so have more 'pop' culture things in common. Of course, he was also the guy who right of the bat wanted 'some lovin' and thought we'd make a great 'couple'. :) I quickly made sure he understood we would only be friends at most.

Thanks for the answers, everyone!

 
Anonymous

First I will say, I have never had any issues w/"jpay" directly. However my business and myself has involving their security of ip addresses which was obtained by one very intelligent person in prison with access using a cell phone. Some of their privacy statements and policies we were unable to retrieve recovery of our loss. And what are you really going to do to someone serving a life sentence, press charges, give him another 8 years?

I'm not saying NOT to use jPay only use caution as anyone should do when making transactions online regardless if its within a penal system or shopping on Amazon. Use a pre-paid card is what I would suggest rather than straight access to your bank and livelihood. But then it also has to do with who you're dealing with on the inside. For the record, I have only had one issue out of 20yrs being scammed by an inmate and not everyone is up to no good. So please dont take what I'm saying as a ALERT to think all inmates are thieves...lots of good people inside.

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If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.

 
Schavuit

Don't do it. If you want to know why I'm saying this I can PM you. I would go w/your instinct on this one.

I am very naive and I don't see the harm in this. Can you please explain to us as well what the problem is??

 
Earthmother

I have my OWN Jpay question and need your thoughts/advice:
One of the guys I have been writing snail mail, has been 'nudging me' to get a Jpay account and write him via that. He is a bad typer (2 fingers), but has started taking a typing class (he says), so he can become skilled in typing (which is, I agree, a necessary skill since he'll hopefully be paroled in the fall of next year). It'll be faster, he says, but I think he also expects me to pay for his correspondence back to me with the free stamp (since all his 'spare' pay is going toward saving up for jogging sneakers). LOL

The problem is that he is not getting his OWN Jp4 player... he says that his celly only uses his for music, and is willing to let my penpal use his for mail, and so he can (supposedly) set up his own password to use the keyboard. All well and good. EXCEPT that he would need ME to register on Jpay using his celly's name and prison number, and I question whether that is wise and/or legal for either of us? While I doubt I'd ever put any money into this guy's account - it's a bit annoying to feel like I should fund our correspondence! - I do see the possibility of fraud, being the pessimistic person I am!

I have my own thoughts about doing this / not doing this.... but wonder how others think? THANKS!!! (as always in advance)

I'd stick with leaving that possible can of worms firmly sealed shut. Besides, he doesn't need to use his cellie's Jp4 player - he can line up at the kiosks with everyone else.

Just tell him that you're only able to commit to snail mail for the time being. If he writes less as a result or hassles you about it further, then have a nice little browse through some of the other 9000 possible pen pal candidates waiting for someone to write.

 
gooddog

I wouldn't do it and just tell him you're sticking with snail mail and that's that. Sounds too complicated to me. If he wants to learn to type he doesn't need YOU to learn how to do that, he can learn that anyhow. I wouldn't get in to any cellie's name and account and nothing like that.

 
Anonymous

Don't do it. If you want to know why I'm saying this I can PM you. I would go w/your instinct on this one.

Or...if you do it I would strongly suggest you use a prepaid cc ie. Wal-mart reloadable

 
Anonymous

Don't do it. If you want to know why I'm saying this I can PM you. I would go w/your instinct on this one.

 
njsquarebear

I have my OWN Jpay question and need your thoughts/advice:
One of the guys I have been writing snail mail, has been 'nudging me' to get a Jpay account and write him via that. He is a bad typer (2 fingers), but has started taking a typing class (he says), so he can become skilled in typing (which is, I agree, a necessary skill since he'll hopefully be paroled in the fall of next year). It'll be faster, he says, but I think he also expects me to pay for his correspondence back to me with the free stamp (since all his 'spare' pay is going toward saving up for jogging sneakers). LOL

The problem is that he is not getting his OWN Jp4 player... he says that his celly only uses his for music, and is willing to let my penpal use his for mail, and so he can (supposedly) set up his own password to use the keyboard. All well and good. EXCEPT that he would need ME to register on Jpay using his celly's name and prison number, and I question whether that is wise and/or legal for either of us? While I doubt I'd ever put any money into this guy's account - it's a bit annoying to feel like I should fund our correspondence! - I do see the possibility of fraud, being the pessimistic person I am!

I have my own thoughts about doing this / not doing this.... but wonder how others think? THANKS!!! (as always in advance)

 
Taivas

I feel you. I have terrible anxiety over this. It's almost at OCD levels for me. A long time ago I sent the wrong person an email and it is one of the most horrible feelings you could ever have ESPECIALLY if you said not such nice things about THEM and then sent it to THEM. Nice one! Yes, I did that. It taught me a hard lesson. I have weird obsessive problems over making SURE I did things write or have my papers or that things are orgainzed right, just little things but yeah... clicking the wrong button I could not handle.

Yeah you all know it also happened to me just recently!!
My pp answered and it made him feel terribly bad that I made a mistake, because now he thinks I have a more awesome friendship with another pp and that he is just boring. It is really annoying! Sometimes when you refresh JPay or change of page it automatically changes the receiver, too! And THAT is incredibly awful...

 
Bluebottle87

do you mean the Daily M if so please describe in detail how to block it. I'm tired of being outraged every day.

Just install the Chrome extension linked below:

Daily Mail Blocker

I expect firefox will have something similar, but I stopped using that buggy rubbish ages ago, so I have no link for that.

:peace:

 
gooddog

Oke, thank you. The thing that makes me most omfortable is that my penpal asks for free stamps.

Jpay is bad for my heart by the way. They are VERY close to give me a heart attack every time after I send a message and I am not sure if I put the right receiver in the email.

I feel you. I have terrible anxiety over this. It's almost at OCD levels for me. A long time ago I sent the wrong person an email and it is one of the most horrible feelings you could ever have ESPECIALLY if you said not such nice things about THEM and then sent it to THEM. Nice one! Yes, I did that. It taught me a hard lesson. I have weird obsessive problems over making SURE I did things write or have my papers or that things are orgainzed right, just little things but yeah... clicking the wrong button I could not handle.

 
josephina2

I've just installed a chrome extension to block that absolute rag of a "news" site... now if I inadvertently click a link to it, it plays me random GIFs.
No more outrage and scaremongering, or seeing the daily "article(s)" on what Kim Kardashian's arse is up to.
I feel liberated.

do you mean the Daily M if so please describe in detail how to block it. I'm tired of being outraged every day.

 
Anonymous

Oke, thank you. The thing that makes me most omfortable is that my penpal asks for free stamps.

Jpay is bad for my heart by the way. They are VERY close to give me a heart attack every time after I send a message and I am not sure if I put the right receiver in the email.

I dont know how many pp you have but if maybe its only two and you have 2 different email addresses you can set up two accts to assure you're not going to ever have a hear attack : ) Is the uncomfortableness because you feel like's expecting you to?

 
Schavuit

Oke, thank you. The thing that makes me most omfortable is that my penpal asks for free stamps.

Jpay is bad for my heart by the way. They are VERY close to give me a heart attack every time after I send a message and I am not sure if I put the right receiver in the email.

 
Earthmother

Aalright, you helped the Original Poster of this threat so well that I ask my JPay question in this threat as well. I am wondering if the persons who send email every day or a few times a week always send a free stamp along with their email??

I do, but only because I choose to do so and can afford to do so (especially since I buy Washington stamps :) ) but there is no requirement to do so - it's a matter of personal choice and comfort level. As long as you feel you aren't being taken advantage of or doing something against your will, go with what you want to do :)

 
Schavuit

Aalright, you helped the Original Poster of this threat so well that I ask my JPay question in this threat as well. I am wondering if the persons who send email every day or a few times a week always send a free stamp along with their email??

 
UnsaidPromises

He's in WSP.

Close custody would make a bit more sense, but he's supposed to be released really soon in a few months. I thought close custody was for lifers though. I'm not very familiar with any of this :(

I haven't heard from him in more than a month now. I'm a little worried he's gotten himself into trouble again...

 
februarymoon

I'm thinking he is in close custody. Clallam Bay?

IMU is the hole and they have no kiosk access, I believe.

 
UnsaidPromises

My pp is in max custody in WA. He says they barely ever get to use the kiosk, and he prefers snail mail over JPay.

I was wondering if maximum custody in WA refers to the IMU (Intensive Management Unit)? Are the conditions really bad? :(

 
februarymoon

OOO! Oregon wins the email-off!
They have keyboards for their MP3 players and can type their emails and save them ahead of time and then they only go to the kiosk and plug in to send and receive their emails.
It's a much easier/quicker system. Things are still broken sometimes and the keyboard is an added expense (and it breaks sometimes too) but...all in all... at least no one is hovering over you watching what you type.

Washington has them too. But for those that can't afford them there is only the kiosk option.

 
Anonymous

OOO! Oregon wins the email-off!
They have keyboards for their MP3 players and can type their emails and save them ahead of time and then they only go to the kiosk and plug in to send and receive their emails.
It's a much easier/quicker system. Things are still broken sometimes and the keyboard is an added expense (and it breaks sometimes too) but...all in all... at least no one is hovering over you watching what you type.

 
februarymoon

Yep, my pp doesn't even like it when he gets sent pictures of his kids by JPay message. You'd think he'd be delighted but he is so concerned at who is looking over his shoulder when a photo of his (beautiful, I must say) children pops up on screen.

 
gooddog

So true! My pp in WA has 5 15-minute slots a day but is lucky if he gets the chance to use one of them. The line is always a mile long. The machines break constantly - a combination of users who have no knowledge of how computers work because they've been locked up longer than computers have been commonplace in homes and offices and the sheer numbers of people using them each day. They are open from 7 am to 11 pm every day and almost constantly in use except during count time. When they do break, fixing them is the last priority of the unit staff. Occasionally they will contact JPay on behalf of the inmates but they are based in Florida, thousands of miles from Washington, and won't send an engineer out all that way to repair a machine that has been kicked and punched by angry inmates with nothing better to do.

The idea is great. But in practice it's not.

This is what I want to get across to people new to writing to prisoners. Just because the technology is there does not meant it translates the same way as it does for us. We can't believe it when a single email or text goes awry in our worlds but in their world, the email is NOT a given.

My pp says he cannot stand the way guys are 5 inches from him with their eyes roving over his screen.

 
februarymoon

So true! My pp in WA has 5 15-minute slots a day but is lucky if he gets the chance to use one of them. The line is always a mile long. The machines break constantly - a combination of users who have no knowledge of how computers work because they've been locked up longer than computers have been commonplace in homes and offices and the sheer numbers of people using them each day. They are open from 7 am to 11 pm every day and almost constantly in use except during count time. When they do break, fixing them is the last priority of the unit staff. Occasionally they will contact JPay on behalf of the inmates but they are based in Florida, thousands of miles from Washington, and won't send an engineer out all that way to repair a machine that has been kicked and punched by angry inmates with nothing better to do.

The idea is great. But in practice it's not.

 
gooddog

chizlit: not sure if this is true for every Washington prison but the one I write to, this is the jpay reality: 15 minute slots for them to use. They have to sign up for them. Others are breathing down their necks the entire time. The machines are not working OFTEN. So even though my pp has access to jpay, it's a very secondary form of communication for us and we can go weeks and weeks without sending one. He is a very busy person and has no time to wait in line to read/send jpays nor to pivot his entire day around a sign up time.

So just because they have jpay to write you back with does not mean it's like emailing someone out here. It is neither intant nor a given. I highly reccomend you think of snail mail when writing to prisoners.

 
gsc984

I could be missing something here, but is there anything wrong in sending the photos by traditional mail, just to break up the routine of emails all the time?

I prefer to send in the normal mail, but if I wanted to share a photo I had taken on my mobile and not had printed out yet I would send via Jpay, I use flikshop at the moment.

 
februarymoon

Does anyone know if the photos show up in color if there are JPay kiosks in the facility where they can just view it electronically?

In Washington they do. They have to pay to print them though. And they are printed onto plain computer paper and then folded in half, right across the middle of the picture. That's why I prefer to send regular photos that he can put on the wall or in an album.

 
sunray's wench

I could be missing something here, but is there anything wrong in sending the photos by traditional mail, just to break up the routine of emails all the time?

 
UnsaidPromises

Does anyone know if the photos show up in color if there are JPay kiosks in the facility where they can just view it electronically?