I Got my first letter back!

Some people find it cheaper and easier to use jpay, its not nescesarily a red flag.
 

Jpay is faster , alot more user friendly , you can send photos and videos.. its a blessing for anyone that is incarcerated. 

YOU are the one that decides to send money in the end.

Thanks! I signed up for jpay yesterday and sent him a letter. So much easier. Took him three weeks to write me back using snail mail.

Funny thing just happend. They rejected my second letter because i used a label maker for the return address and his address.  The first letter i sent i used the same label maker and he got that letter.

I found JPay easier for a few reasons, other than saving paper, envelope, and stamp: it's all just right here on your computer or smart phone/tablet. You're checking your email and Facebook already, right? Now you just check for a JPay letter. A letter gets to them and a reply back to you slightly faster than snail mail does (still a several day process). Right before you send a message via JPay, there's a tiny box at the top that you click that says something like "include return stamp." That makes writing back to you easier for them, because it's a free stamp. If they don't have money in their account for a stamp, they can't write you back. Anyway, I think it's a great app.

I like writing letters when I have more to say on something or express deeper emotion. Otherwise, jpay is quick. Also, check out the videogram feature which is so much fun.

Do you need to be on the approved list to send a video gram? I have a friend on jpay and I can t find the send a vid feature

You don't need to be on any approved list but the option is only located on the app for a phone. You may have to check to see if his prison allows it though. I think one of my pen-pals who has jpay doesn't have the videogram option. It's like 6 stamps to send a 30 second clip. Thank God I can view it first before sending it off. lol

Lol..yeah..that's important....imagine just having to send it without being able to view it...sheesh...

I use JPay to talk to my girl in KCIW. I'm from the UK and snail mail takes anything form 6 to 14 days to get to them. With JPay there are delays becuase the institution has to screen messages. That means some days it look slik e you have not written to your loved on or vice versa. Also messages created at different times can arrive in bulk or out of sequence. The inmate can use the JPay kiosk to take a photo but the resolution is so poor and pixelated. Also the sound typically does not work when my girl tries to send me a Videogram message. Poor quality hardware. Also you can only send videograms if you have the Android or Apple iOS app, so is for mobile devices only with no equivalent for a Windows PC or Apple Mac desktop, which seems bizzare given that desktop PC's still account for a significant number of users.

JPay is a 'for-profit' company and some of the profits are given as a kick-back to the prison as a financial incentive to encourage the prison to allow their devices. The claimed intention of offering kick-backs is that funds can be used to finance the creation of inmate education programs, but that is not always the case. Essentially we the love-one's family and friends shoulder some of the costs of keeping inmates.

Remember inmates are slaves earning a $1 a day or $0.40 a day for cleaning toilets. The legislators interpret the Constitution to allow servitude of prisoners as they are 'property of the state'. This is less than a child working in a Chinese sweatshop making fake Nike's. A can of soda costs 85c so basically they are working for a can of coke a day. This is their State Pay wage. Items in the Commissary typically cost more than they do outside in say Walmart. On my first visit to see my girl I went into the local Mega Walmart to compare prices as she sent me a list of how much things cost inside.  I was horrified at the markup the prison system made of  a vulnerable, captive market..