How will prisoners respond to someone who is writing from overseas?

There are many ppl on here writing from Europe, including myself.

First letters can take longer, but once you established contact, it tends to get easier. A letter normally has a turnarond time from 2-3 weeks, depending on how fast an inmate can write back, whether s/he's got stamps available and how fast the mailroom is working.

TX & AZ usually have a week (from the date on the envelope to my home), IL is a bit slower with 10-12 days and PA takes the longest ever. (Maybe that'll be changing now with their new mail policies, I really hope so. So far it's just been taking ages...).

Some ppl can send you emails as well. My very first pal (a guy from IL) has two way messaging in his facility, so there usually is an email or two back and forth per week as well. (I say usually, because so far I did not get ANY mail from the US in 2019. Maybe it's the shutdown & ppl don't work in the mailrooms, I don't know.)

Anyway, good luck & happy writing. Oh, and just a tip: Don't stress religion too much. Most of them don't like to be "converted".

Oh hell..I forgot about the shut down..sigh....I write to a lady in MI..but we have 2 way jpay..so I hear from her twice a week..but in november I just started to write to a guy on DR in AZ..He sent me a letter on 3rd dec..it got to me on 4th jan..but his 2nd letter left him on 26th dec and got to me on 5th jan..so that was faster..I replied immediately so I hope it gets to him soon...hopefully the shutdown won't affect mailrooms...

If I email the inmate, can they see my profile picture ? I noticed it be at the bottom of my email once I'm done writing, can they also see that? I actually want them to know what I look like.

Yes, the inmate can see your profile picture. 

Does this cost at all to get the emails or letters back to you

Nope.

The initial contact e-mail sent through WAP is free. Any contacted inmate responding to your e-mail will reply by snailmail and, of course, pay for his or her own stamp(s). And the same applies to any future letter that your pen pal might write to you; naturally you will pay yourself for the stamps on any future correspondence you will send your pen pal.

Reynout, I am not sure I understand... Am I not able to write only e-mails to my pen-pal? Wouldn't that be easier for both of us, since it would be cheaper for me and he would get mail in a less time? I am aware that prisoners are able to write their own e-mails, but I thought that at least I can write as many e-mails as I want to...

Adrian​, through WriteAPrisoner.com you can, very unfortunately, indeed write only one e-mail to your pen pal.

​If you want to write more e-mails to your pen pal you will have to use a paid service like Jmail.cc or JPay. You will, of course, also have to check which service is available at the facility where your pen pal is incarcerated. It often is one-way e-mail where you can send e-mails to you pen pal and she will then reply by snailmail. However, at some institutions there even is paid two-way e-mail where your inmate pen pal can respond to you by e-mail.

Write a Real letter.. Many of them just sit and wait to get it.. i write a letter one a month... to Texas ( from Denmark ) and get one back 3-4 weeks later... so i guess it takes one-two weeks each way... and so far i dont have any problems with a letter...

 

 

How do you get a reply from an inmate if you have sent them an email but you live overseas? Do you get an email back or is it a different form of reply?

 

Hello everyone,
I'm new here and I was wondering what the email address means that is shown once an inmate is on your list. Then you can see more info and then there's an email address and I wrote an email to this address and I don't know what to expect now.
Thx for the help in advance.
Sarah

Evejonesx, the "email" you send through WAP gets forwarded to inmates as a letter, and the way they reply to you is with a letter back in the mail.  To your postal mailing address, which hopefully you included in your letter you sent.  

Sara Lance, I have trouble understanding what you mean, but there is no email address to write to to contact inmates.  And you cannot get emails back from anyone via WAP.  This site basically allows to you see profiles of prisoners who want to get mail, so that you can write to them via postal letter or one of the prison special messaging systems (Jpay, Corrlinks...).  They unfortunately have this whole "email the inmate" now feature which confuses everyone and makes them think they can exchange emails with inmates on this site.  Not so.  

Hi! So I think I was wrong and I'm waiting for a reply to a letter from me that has never been sent !! Because basically when I saw this guy's profile and saw the "send an email to the inmate ..." section I clicked on it, wrote my email and in theory I should have sent it, but reading yours comment I'm understanding that it never got to him. So now I have to send him a letter by going to the post office?

in case, how do i if i want to send a Wap letter? Thank you very much for your availability!!

Maissaa, why do you think your WAP "email" (the thing you clicked on and wrote) was never sent?  Did you click "send" when you were done?  If so, and it was sent as a printed out paper letter by WAP, it should indicate somewhere in your account profile that you wrote to that inmate on that date.  If it doesn't show any indication anywhere that your email was submitted to be processed by WAP, or you don't recall hitting "send", then no, I guess your WAP email was not sent.  But to send that first initial letter to an inmate through this site, that is the process to follow.  And if you prefer to write a letter to the inmate directly, you can always do that, as often as you want, just by writing a snail mail letter to the name, number and prison address given on the inmate's profile page.  And always include your return mailing address in your letter when you write to someone for the first time, so they have the address to write you back at.

Good morning!! Thank you so much for your answer! I just double-checked and on the prisoner's profile (where there are various contact methods) I just realized that I clicked the "type and print" option and not "via e-mail", so he never got the my letter. Thank you very much for your availability

 

Hi, I write from Italy, my pp is located in Oregon. The first letter was sent by me with international postapriority and his reply arrived about a month later.

I replied the next day and am now waiting for your second letter.

Ciao, anche io scrivo dall'Italia, come hai fatto a mandare la lettera con priorità posta internazionale?

Omg thank u so much Kirsten! I didn't know it would take 10-12 days from Illinois to here haha. I was kind of scared that i scared my pp away lol.

Because when my Texas LO writes me it'll be here in 7 days :)

this is my first post so please be kind. I am looking to see if anyone is interested in talking with me. I have no agenda just looking for someone to communicate with.

I'll try to be kind, jolouise!  ;)  But first, what is it you're trying to find, when you say "someone to talk to"?  Are you looking for a pen pal who is incarcerated?  if so you'll need to go to the main page and look for the "Inmate Profiles" menu item to see all the people you can choose to write to.  If you mean you're looking for non-prisoners to talk to, about various subjects that are posted on the forum, you're in the right place.  Choose a topic to  post about that's already here, or post a new topic of your own.

Hi, I send an email to an intimate. Does he need my home address or he can send his response to my mail address by getting help from the workers? If you can let me know, it would be great!