How often do they update their profiles? (specifically "inmates not receiving mail")

Have you managed to create a profile and list an innate?

No, I've not tried to do that. I have two penpals that I found through WAP. One of them still shows up on the "not receiving mail" list (which is where I found him). That's what I'm asking about. I'm not sure what creating a profile has to do with updating that list. I apologize for lack of clarity. :)

The way "not receiving mail" works is based on the letters you type up and email to write a prisoner from this website. That is to say, "not receiving mail" comes from those people where they are not receiving emails back to write a prisoner from their profile. You can safely ignore "not receiving mail" because it doesn't account for the people that simply write down the address and send in a letter or email some other way.

I see. They should fix that (or maybe not because they get more mail that way lol). Not all places have email though - neither of my pen pals places do.

There is a lot not working with the website since the revamp - especially in regards to that "email" feature.  So I'm not surprise inmate's "not receiving mail" aren't being updated.  The whole site is cooked.

There's nothing to fix... Prisoners and their family don't report whether they're receiving mail or no. Its generated on whether someone is using the feature on write a prisoner where it lets you send one free letter. I use jmail and the price of postage is cheap so I don't use the "free first letter" service here. Therefore, as a result a prisoner may still be on the "needing mail" list even hough I wrote them a letter.

That "feaure" has always been wildly innacurate, and you'd be best to ignore it unleess it looks like one of those really desperate looking people who would not generally look like they are receiving mail at all.

A better way to do it is to ask whether the person you are writing to that you trust knows of someone without any friends, family, or penpals, and to ask whether you might be able to help them out instead. That is if you really want to do a good deed. Because at the end of the day, there are some people that don't have anyone here to pay the $50 listing fee to put them up on write a prisoner.

Also, like every other forum there are now a range of better Facebook communities (no names mentioned) to deal with the fact that this site is cooked. Just search for prison penpal groups and you will see groups with 10s of thousands of active members rather than the handful that still turn up here... And to be frank (if I may use my codename here for a second) Facebook is a better platform for this.

Before the update it used to be done the day after the letters went out, no idea how it's been done today. (And - having none- I certainly wouldn't get myself a Facebook account only to find prisoners to write to. That's not worth it). 

" Prisoners and their family don't report whether they're receiving mail or no. Its generated on whether someone is using the feature on write a prisoner where it lets you send one free letter"

That would explain why the "inmates not receiving mail" feature isn't working - those initial emails via the WAP site aren't working themselves. 

I wrote my pen pals over 2 weeks ago for the first time, how long does it take to hear from them? Should I write them again via WAP or move on to others. Just trying to make sure Imdoing it right.

They deliver mail to inmates twice a month. I would wait a little longer, and if no one writes back then choose someone else to write to that takes your interest.

I see a two week turn around with my Cali pal and a 12 day turn around with my Illinois one. I’m near dc for context.