Hello!
I am quite new to WAP, and I was wondering how CorrLinks works? Actually, how all of this works, haha. If anyone could give me some tips for how to start talking with a PP, I would greatly appreciate it! I was looking at just doing at CorrLinks since it's like emailing back and forth? I don't have a PO Box and don't want to give out my personal address (I've read too many reddit threads that told me to err on the side of caution! haha) but I really do want to start writing! I think I'm repeating myself, but anyways, help would be appreciated! I have no idea what I'm doing! :-)
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merhaba, bir mahkum profili dikkatimi çekti ve hemen yazmak istedim. Neyse, ben yurt dışında Türkiye'de yaşıyorum, yurt dışından gelen talepleri kabul ediyor. ama jpay kullanmıyor, düzeltmeler için koda ihtiyacım var, bu yüzden WAP'tan bir e-posta gönderdim, gmail adresimi verdim ve düzeltmelere eklemesini söyledim. WAP'ın e-postayı kaç gün içinde göndereceğini ve bağlantılara ekleyeceğini düşünüyorsunuz?
WAP aslında e-postaları onlara kaç gün sonra teslim ediyor? Ve bana nasıl geri bildirim verecek?
You send your penpal your email address. That way he/she can send you an invite. This contains a code that you fill in on Corrlinks and that way you can communicate. Make sure to have money on Corrlinks, otherwise you won't be able to send or respond to your emails.
If you have a loved one incarcerated in Oregon; there is a support group on facebook who provide a lot of help.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/399831503520081/?ref=share
I'd suggest going to the MainMenu of the Write a Prisoner site, click Home and then down to the FAQ (frequently asked questions)- There is a lot of good information in the FAQ section of this website, which are good to go back to if you start writing to someone and have a more specific question pop up.
There are two main ways of messaging prisoners.
Snail (postal) mail and electronic messaging. On their profile there should be a line for "Institution email" which might say JPay or Corrlinks, or one of the others, Connect Network(?) and down further on the profile will be their prison mail address for snail mail.
Corrlinks is for Federal inmates (prisons followed by USP & FCI etc.) and a few State prisons use it - Iowa for one. Though I believe the Corrlinks is a different procedure for State Prisons. For a Federal inmate, you have to send the email you used to sign up to them via snail mail and they will add you on their end. Then you’ll be sent a code to enter into Corrlinks to accept the inmate.
You can sign up to Corrlinks for free, using an email address. You can sign into the website to read your mail/manage your account details. Or you can buy a premium account for around $6-$10, that's for a whole year and lets you put the app on your phone (which is handy cause you don’t need to sign in all the time, and are notified when there’s a new message). Writing and sending messages for us on the outside is free if you sign in to their website. Inmates however, pay by the minute to use Corrlinks, and can print off messages for a fee of around 15cents (I believe).
Corrlinks allows one email with a max of 12,750 characters and does not let you send photos, only writing.
Then there is good old snail mail which is my favourite way to correspond with inmates.
Basics of snail mail are: stick to black or blue pen on white lined/ruled paper, no tape, no glue, no stickers, no glitter, no white out (scribble or cross out any mistakes), no stamps, no money, basically nothing but paper in the envelope. Write your PPs full name and DoC number correctly on the envelope, as well as your full name and complete address as the return address.