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

 
@nderson

I live overseas, so the snail mail takes ~1 month to arrive at USA, and another ~1 month for the reply to arrive at my home. That's slow, but I prefer it over email services, because I believe that email  (JPay, AccessCorrections, etc) would turn things superficial and I would loose contact with my Pen-Pals quickier. As there are so many people on the internet, exchanging email is less valuable than exchanging letters... Also, all my previous tries of making new friends through email failed.

What do you think about it? (Only if you live overseas!)
Am I looking at this preference in a very unusual way?
All prisoners who replied me mentioned some kind of email service. I don't know if they would see my preference as exccentric...


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FrankieBones

Because the person I write to is in federal I send photos by mail. Corrlinks doesn't accept photos... Its not a big deal really, it takes a couple days for a photo to be sent to her and she gets a nice 6x4 photo to put in her album.  Most of my contact is by email though, its good, because we can talk about random things and th emails come through three and sometimes four times a day. We go through a lot of conversations, but its a bedrock and I can be there for her every day. This might be too much for some people though.

 
Kirsten

I do the same, Nenn, (jpaying him getting snailmail back) and yes, TX is very fast most of the time. 

 
Nenn

To the origianl question: I'm using both snail and email with my PP. I write him through Jpay (and occasional letters) and he writes me by snail mail. I asked him whether he'd want me to use snail or Jpay and he preferred Jpay so that the wait wouldn't be so long. He's in Texas so he can only use snail and I think I'd anyway prefer the actual letters. It feels more personal and I really like to take my letters and read them while laying on the couch or sitting outside instead of staring the screen. It gives a very different feel to it.
I think the letters have been moving pretty quick for now. I live overseas and it seems to take 6-10 working days from the day he writes them. Plus we're exchanging 2-3 letter/email chains so I'm getting 1-2 long letters a week.  I probably couldn't keep up with any faster pace! 

 
@nderson

Is there anyone here that has already used GettingOut?
I've looked their website at https://www.gettingout.com/ , but they don't point out the costs there, nor more details about how this work for the prisoners.

 
Kirsten

*lol* Don't worry. The more you get to know each other, the more you've got to tell.

 
Cleopatraaaa

@ Kirsten Yes you’re right haha! I do hope this pen pal will last a long time so sustainability is important. Also i don’t want to run out of things to say to him this early lol. Thank you!!! I’ll take your advice and just take it easy :) 

 
Kirsten

@Cleo: I wouldn't do it after the very first letter. Take the foot off the gas and slow down a bit. Building up things slowly usually gets better (= more sustainable) results. Or do you really want to be ahead of yourself? 

 
Kirsten

It depends. I just use email with one of my pps - and this only inbetween letters, not exclusively. He suggested using it after one of his letters took almost 8 weeks to reach me (don't ask me where that letter went first, I don't know). I wrote him a short letter, like: "Hope you're ok, haven't heard from you for eight weeks." to which he was replying sth. like: "hey... and I thought you'd suddenly stopped writing." After that we started using email, at first just to say we'd sent sth. off. In the meantime it's become   an email once or twice per week. But it just came with time and today it's just the normal thing to do. It didn't change the contents of writing, just its frequency - and I guess, sth. would be missing if it would only be letters now. We got accustomed to hearing from each other, I guess.  

Jpay I use regularly with my Texan pp. He loves getting them, though he can only reply via snail mail. For the rest it's snail mail. And I wouldn't necessarily say, emails are more superficial. Faster, yes. But superficial? Depends on the writer, I suppose.

 
Cleopatraaaa

I’m overseas as well and just posted my first letter response. Do you guys think that it would be a good idea to send a quick little JPay email to just say that I’ve sent a letter? Just so if it takes a while to get to him, he doesn’t think I’ve forgotten or decided to stop writing to him! Or would that be doing the most? I’ve read on here that letters from here can take between 10 and 28 days to reach inmates! Thanks! 

 

 
FrankieBones

In Texas they print them out and they get collected at mail call.

 
Anonymous

Texas inmates receive a printout of the JPay. It gets sent to the facility, and if received before 08:00 (I think) it gets printed out and delivered same day. Thats what I use for my Texas inmate to send her stories, jokes and interesting tidbits inbetween snail mail. The snail mail contains written letters, photos and articles of interest I've printed out, mainly Wiki stuff. It spices things up by sending things in, rather than just saying "Hi" a few times per week via JPay only. There's no cost to the inmate for this JPay service.

 
@nderson

Do you live overseas?

What you described is exactly what I'm afraid of happening to me, if I start using electronic means of communication with my pen-pals. To all of them, I replied their first letter thanking for the idea of using JPay/GettingOut/whatever, but stating why I prefer snail mail. I'm yet to receive their replies; I'm not sure what to do if they insist on electronic means. I won't drop them just for that "detail". Maybe I'll use Jmail to print the letters, as suggested above, I don't know. The main reason they suggest electronic means is that they want faster communication, and Jmail solves that problem.

I believe lifers don't mind using snail mail because there is no hurry, they are not going anywhere for many years. Short-termers probably want something faster, before their jail time ends.

One of my pen-pals can receive e-mails through JPay, but cannot reply by e-mail, just through snail mail. She is in Texas, just like yours. How does it work for your Texas pen-pal? She needs to pay by the minute for reading e-mails? I guess the internet access is not for free, someone has to pay for it...

 
Thucy82

I live in France and only write letters : it's actually quite fast. I've kept track of when I sent each one of them, then compared it with the date the reply was written and mailed. If, say, I send my letter on a Monday, it will have arrived at the facility the Monday/tuesday after. And if, for example, the letter was sent on a Monday, I'll get it the next Monday/Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest. It's much quicker than I thought. 

One of the reasons I started doing this was also to start receiving mail again and finding letters in my mailbox instead of just bills. E-mails are practical, sure, but I prefer letters that you can hold and touch ; they feel much more personal, since everyone has their own writing style - way better than an Arial font e-mail. Plus, one of my penpals always adds a little drawing here or there and writes my initials in a calligraphic way, which I love. And call me silly, but I like the idea of mail going from one country to the other. 

 
FrankieBones

Perhaps its because they can access photos and books on their tablets which takes the wonder out of receiving a book in the mail.

 
Anonymous

I have three female lifer pen pals and one short termer. Two have snail mail only (Texas and Illinois), while two (including the short termer) have JPay tablets and kiosks (California and Ohio). The ones with the easy access JPay are my most unfulfilling pen pals... it’s very superficial and I’m wondering if I should continue with them. Their emails are short and a waste of effort imo, despite them being nice people. There’s just no connection. I’ve offered to send letters in, photos, books etc and they’re not interested. My two pen pals with snail mail only really go for it, with long and detailed letters that have thought and effort attached to them. They crave anything/everything I can send in and it’s the reason why I signed up to be pen pals. I’m just worried that my two snail mail pen pals get JPay kiosks/tablets... and the dynamic is ruined. Although, my Texan pen pal can receive JPay emails, but not send them. I use that feature for daily messages with stories and jokes etc.. so she gets a shout out daily at mail call. The big stuff (large printouts, photos and whatnot) go through the mail weekly. My Illinois pen pal just has snail mail and no JPay whatsoever.

 
FrankieBones

I've written to people like before... Using snail mail is mostly fine... but with my MWI. I mentioned writing by mail and she said no. It depends...
 

 
GalapagosDiver

Snail mail is my only method of communication with 3 of my penpals.  They are completely fine with that, though 1 of them has mentioned Corrlinks in future as a way of having a video visit with me.

The other 2? They have even mentioned at times that it's cheaper for them than using email.  You also have that mail call element, which is so exciting and uplifting for them.  They can say a lot more in a handwritten letter, and they're not under time pressure (i.e not being charged by the minute as they frantically try to type).

So in a nutshell? Snail mail is cheaper for them, more uplifting and personal for them, more expensive for me, but more rewarding for me.  I prefer it.

 
@nderson

Thanks for sharing.

But, my focus here is on the people you cantact only through snail mail. There are 1 or 2, as you mentioned earlier, right? If that's the case, how did they react to your choice of only using snail mail?

 
IL_PPP

GTL here. We get 2000 characters a message. He gets (right now because he doesn’t have a tablet) 15 minutes a day to review and reply to messages. We’ll use email to send brief “thinking of you” messages or updates on when we’re sending out post. Our postal letters are invaluable and always much more involved. And somehow, despite me being only 12 hours away from him due east, it takes our letters about 4-6 days to get to each other.

 

 
FrankieBones

Well you can't send photos with Corrlinks for federal prisoners so you have to send them by some other service. Either you get them printed out where you live and put them in an envelope or you can have them sent by a service such as jmail within the United States. That's the reason why I use jmail. Like GalapagosDiver said its a real highlight for them to get anything in the mail for th day when everything is so boring and repetitive. Sending a photo or a book is worth so much more to them.

I print out things from Facebook that are of interest to her. There was a snow storm in the Mid West recently, so I printed out a photo of a persons toilet that had exploded because of the cold like wen you leave a bottle of beer for too long in the freezer. It was -60 degrees (Fahrenheit) a couple weeks ago. This was something that was quite ridiculous and funny. It always make their day…

Before that we were talking about ladders to get over Donald Trump’s wall and a post from Go Fund Me about a person who started a funding page for Donald Trump’s wall.

It also helps them stay in touch with the musings about the real world. I hear people from South America have a really good sense of humor, maybe you could try something like this.

 

 
@nderson

OK, let me understand: do you use Corrlinks with all your Federal pen-pals, and with some of these you additionally use overseas snail mail? The other 1-2 others are not Federal and you only use overseas snail mail with them?

 
FrankieBones

I use Jmail because you can spend about $3AUD to send something from inside of the US and have it arrive in 3-5 day depending on where you send it or you can use Australia Post and have it turn up anywhere between 12 and 28 days. But then you're right a handwritten letter is more personal. You're also right that mail call is the highlight of their day. People love hearing their name for various reasons, one of them is to feel like they're not forgotten, the other is it feels like Christmas to them to get a gift from someone who cares, and a letter is a gift. A book or som personalised photos is even more significant to them. I think the best thing you can really do is give them gifts that are well thought out and deeply meaningful. Especially in my case because she doesn't get anything from anyone else in spite of being one of the most attractive women on this site.

 
GalapagosDiver

I only use email with my Federal penpals, due to it being free for me (Corrlinks)

I still write snail mail to some of those penpals ($3 per letter), and 1-2 others.  It typically takes about 12 days from Australia-USA in my experiences.  Sometimes up to 21 days though.

Having something waiting for them at mail call is a real highlight in their day, as well as a handwritten letter and/or photos being more personal, more indepth.  So I do prefer it in some ways.

 
FrankieBones

You pay for every letter. Its $1 per every 20 pages or so whether this is text or a PDF copy of some other page printed out. They also print out photos for an additional $1 for every 2 photos. Its not the cheapest place to have your photos printed but they print full colour 6x4 inch 300dpi photos that are high quality and meet all the prison regulations.

 
@nderson

The US$25/year is only for those wanting the optional Jmail Box (like a PO Box), isn't it?
Considering what I read, you only pay for each letter printed and sent.

 
Isabelle

Costs 25 bux a year and then I think a dollar a letter....if this prolonged waiting with B continues..I m going to suggest it to him

 
FrankieBones

Yes it works like the email forward on this website... Except the mail goes out quicker... Jmail sends your mail out almost every day except on the weekends and holidays. You don't have to sign up for a jmail box and you can use your own return address. It just makes the process a bit faster for them to get a reply from you.

 
@nderson

Hm, that's interesting. It works like the WriteAPrisoner email forward: the text I write is printed and sent normally through USPS.

I prefer receiving the replies through normal snail mail, though, instead of virtual replies (Jmail Box)... I understood that it's optional, so if I don't sign up for Jmail Box, the only option the prisoners will have is to reply through snail mail.

 
FrankieBones

You can send letters by https://jmail.cc/ from inside of the US you can also buy a jmail box. Of course most prisoners want to use email because its exciting to receive something "instantly" when everything else is slow slow inside a prison.