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

 
Redbird

Started writing last week with JPay and although there are no replies yet, I'd give it another week or two before getting seriously concerned. 

But generally, if a prisoner never replies, is it because he 1) is out of stamps and has no money, 2) never got the mail, 3) isn't interested and doesn't want to write, 4) is in lockdown or administrative seg, or 5) prisoners in general just take a long time to write back?


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Ershens

okay i need help/advice, ive been writing to my pp for a while now and it first started off with friendship and then we both realised we had feelings for each other n what not, however he hasnt emailed me in a few days and im kind of worried because hes not the type to just stop emailing and without an explanation, hes brutally honest and i have no reason to believe he would just stop emailing out of nowhere unless he really had no way to contact me. is there a reason for this would anyone know? thanks in advance 

 
LotusBlossom

I agree with Opally on the Jpay message, I used it before when I had other pen pals.  I don’t use it now since my BF has a different type of e-messaging.  If Jpay is getting printed out and hand delivered to an inmate it can take up to a couple weeks if it’s a slow mailroom.  If the kiosk is broken, again, it can take a couple weeks.  But if everything is up and running, the inmate has a tablet, it usually only takes a few days, and the inmate can reply.

 
Opally

@Redbird I doubt it’s very common. I had messages from a certain pen-pal take days to get to me, so that could happen. You should be notified if they reject your message, but I don’t think they’d hold it if they didn’t feel like approving it for the inmate to read. But some people are petty or get in bad moods, so who knows.

 
Redbird

How common is it for a JPay 1st message to simply never get delivered?

 
Kirsten

First replies were ALWAYS the longest to take, at least mine. I think once they know you or the mailroom knows you, it tends tio get faster.

 
ShadeyBiz89

Lotus, that's true. Prison is hectic, if they have jobs and go to school, then all of a sudden even having a few to write in there, their time shrinks to basically nothing. In those cases, your letter/correspondence would have to stand out like a sore thumb to get a response. Not just that, even high profile inmates don't have the time, financial means, or headspace to write everybody. They're like the rest of us, we can only extend our time, energy and friendship to so many at once.

 
LotusBlossom

My bf got a ton of mail for a long time but he said a lot of people who do this get bored with it after a few months, writing, and quit.  Lucky him to get overly attached me, mwa ha ha 

So sometimes I think the person inmates get pretty selective, they look for the clingers.  Just kidding, I also think prison is hectic sometimes and people need to deal with a lot, plus they might have issues they’re struggling with and going to NA/AA, counseling, etc.

 
ShadeyBiz89

High profile inmates receive alot of mail, if their case has been played out through the media or if they've been featured on TV (Lockup, Beyond Scared Straight, BBC coverage, etc.). Some will make every attempt to respond to whoever writes, others are very selective.

There are so many reasons an inmate wouldn't write back, I wouldn't say it's the most common necessarily, because so many other things happen to prevent them from doing so. It's one of many, as others have outlined above me.

 

 

 

 
Opally

Oh, yeah, like Cleo said. The more attractive, the more mail. Also, wouldn't age be a factor to the amount of mail? I know one inmate that I wrote a few emails to got tons even though he was a jerk to people. He was cute and was in the news, so it didn't matter to teen girls. It also depends on if they have time, too, I think. Many have family and friends to talk to and I'm pretty sure (email-wise) they don't get a lot of time on the kiosks (15 minutes, I believe) if they don't have a tablet.

 
Cleopatraaaa

I think it depends on the inmates themselves. I feel like the more attractive the inmate, the more letters they’re likely to receive. Also if they’ve had some publicity in the past too might be another factor. Well written profiles also matter too. One of my pen pals had too many people write to him and he said it was just not feasible for him to write to more than two people - me and another person! 

 

 

 
Redbird

@Lotus: really now.  Interesting. I would never have  thought that an inmate would have the problem of too much mail to reply to.  Would have thought the opposite.

 
Cleopatraaaa

+1 to everything @Lotus said. Maybe give it some more time, send another message with a prepaid stamp and see if they respond then? If not, there’s plenty of people out there who’d love your company :) 

 
LotusBlossom

If I HAD to guess at the most common reason it would be they already have pen pals and not enough time or money to write to everyone.  They put out their address and info on the internet and get all kinds of stuff!

 
LotusBlossom

It definitely can be a lot of reasons.  I got a letter recently 7 months after I wrote someone and they had surgery and were in recovery and could finally write.  I felt bad, as I was not able to take on a pen pal at that time and explained why to him.  So people get sick, get put in seg, mail gets lost, they get depressed.  A lot of people with depression shut down and need that alone time.  It’s all luck of the draw I guess!