So I’m new to this whole experience and decided to write to a few Penpals late last year. I picked 5 people as I wasn’t sure who would actually write back!
And I noticed when I had added them to my JPay account, most had already written the first message back to me.
So I was quick shocked at the quick response specially after reading the forum regarding this. So is JPay a better way to connect or do most reply instantly ?
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I'm not entirely sure what you mean?
If you are talking about inmates with access to Jpay email, they can recieve emails within 20minutes sometimes (although it can also take hours or sometimes days). So it's going to be quicker than using snail mail.
When you add an inmate to JPay, your info comes up on there account.
Not all inmates have the email direct. Some States print of the emails and the inmate can only reply via snail mail.
If they have a JP5 player though or access to a kiosk, they can usually reply via email too. Which is usually as quick as their incoming emails.
Jpay will notify inmates when an outside person adds them to a contact list. So the inmates will often reach out to you before you write them. I once added my Tennessee pen pal to Jpay so I could send her some money (as a birthday gift). I had no intention of writing her. She saw I had added her and wrote to me. I didn't have any Jpay E-Mail credits so I couldn't respond to that E-Mail.
E-Mail is certainly quicker. A lot of people use it. I don't really like it though. If I wanted to trade E-Mails, I would do it with someone on the outside. I prefer the "slow burn" of snail mail correspondence.
There’s lot’s of snail mail going on outside of prison, so that’s a bit of a weird argument.
I think there are a lot of ‘purests’ out there. When you want a pen pal, that is exactly what you want. To be able to put pen to paper.
I find handwritten letters so much more personal. Although I’ve used JPay email too as it’s more convenient.
I don’t think written correspondence between friends is that popular these days. I don’t personally hear of many people writing missives. I might be totally wrong however!
Zarchery, I agree 100 percent. I too prefer snail mail over email, electronic is so impersonal and we do most communication that way out here, part of what makes prison penpals unique and more rare is the actual pen to paper correspondence. True, there is still snail mail penpal stuff going on other than with prison penpals, but it still is a bit of a lost art considering most of us are into the texting and technology realm out here, I can do that anywhere out here. Snail mail with my pals has taught me how to be more patient, whereas had I been JPaying all this time, I still wouldn't know how to wait for anything, because I'd never really have to. I'm still not great at waiting for things, but it's gotten alot better over the years, LOL. What I don't do with people in my personal life is write letters, I talk to them in person or I text them or whatever, so I have something with prison penpals that I don't have otherwise. I had a brief experience with Corrlinks years ago that blew up in my face, so I'm in no rush to start with email again. I guess I fit the purist definition to a T.