hey all, I’m new to this site so any tips will be greatly appreciated. I’ve emailed a couple of people in the hope to become pen pals but my main worry is, will they receive them? And can they email back? I live in the uk so I’m assuming actual letters would be a lot harder then email? Sorry if I’m coming across as silly. thanks in advance for any comments on this.
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Hi Kay,
so, you emailed inmates through the site?
Yes, they will receive them - though it can take time. They will NOT email you back (WAP uses this opportunity only for first contact), so you will get letters to the address you gave to WAP. (It's shown in the email). In fact, it's not a real email, WAP prints these msgs and sends them as letters.
Some prisoners do have access to emails, many don't. There are also a few states where you can send emails in (they get printed and handed out like letters), but where the inmate can only reply via snailmail.
That all depends on where the ppl you wrote to are imprisoned. Each state (and the fed prisons) has its own subforum here. The state's writing guidelines are linked there. Read them thoroughly and you'll get a feeling on what's ok to send and what's not.
I live in Europe,too (Germany to be exact). I normally get replies 2-3 weeks after I sent a letter, emails are faster.
But, one word of of caution about emails: It's faster, yes, but that can be both an advantage and a disadvantage.
Building trust takes time and it's okay to take one's time to do so.
Writing only emails can bring much communication in a short time, but it can also lead to weird situations, like ppl writing daily for a fortnight and being totally devastated when "their loved one" doesn't respond for a day.
So, go into it - but have a good head on your shoulder while you do.
I'm writing to 4.5 inmates at the moment (I say, .5 because one is writing very infrequently and I'm not really sure whether this is or isn't a penpalship).
The other four are two only letter penpalships, two mixed. Mixed means, we're writing letters, but there can be an email in-between.
One of the mixed ones is a pp in IL with whom I've been writing for a while and we're friends by now.
The email thing came in after a letter didn't come and we both decided we wanted to let each other know when we sent sth.
Now, it's usually one or two emails per week, just in between-letters. But we both wouldn't stop letters and write "only" emails.
Emails are a short "Hi, how are you" , but letters are the longer conversations. Works well and I'd never go to "just" emails. There's a lot that would be missing, then.
Happy writing!
Kirsten
Thank you so much for your reply! I’ve emailed 3 via this site so I shall wait to see if a reply arrives :)
You're welcome, Kay.
You wrote to guys?
If you did, there probably will be replies.
All in all I wrote to 6 guys (not all simultaneously, though). They all replied back, but with one of them it didn't really work out. We just didn't click.
The rest: as said above.
Yeah, it was guys I wrote to. As I said, I’m new to all this so didn’t really know where to start but really appreciate all your feedback
Hi Kay,
I had the same worry when I first started this. I live in indonesia, it's even farther than US to UK and mails even took a longer time to arrive. But they usually replied. There's an option in their profile whether they want to corresponding overseas or not. If they said "no", I wouldn't even bother to mail them. One of my friend asked me to join Jpay, since it's faster. Each states have different policy, but basically you can use Jpay to send email to inmates.
If you use the email in wap site, they will print it and send it to inmates by mail. I forgot the date, but they only send the emails twice a month, on 6th and 23th I think (I forgot, maybe it's not the exact date). They will receive it by mail and they will have to reply you by mail too, so I hope you put your address in it.
Hope that helps :D
Thanks Dave,
Yeah the ones I wrote to said yes to overseas. What is jpay? I’ve never heard of that before! Is it something we would both have to accept? I did put my address in the email via this website also.
Thank you for your reply
Hi there! Welcome to the site. I was new here back in May as well, so know how it feels! To my knowledge, yes, they will all receive your emails you've sent via here. Expect anywhere from 1 week to 2 months for a first reply. It can vary.
Yes, they can email back - but if so, it will appear like a JPay or Corrlinks invite in your email. If your penpals are in Federal prison, then it's free for you to email them via Corrlinks (it's not free for them to use however). I've personally found JPay a bit more difficult to use, so haven't bothered with that one.
I live in Australia, which is further away than the UK is from the States - and I receive numerous letters from my penpals just fine.
Hope that answers some of your questions - feel free to ask away if you have anymore. Everyone here is quite welcoming and understanding :)
Thank you so much, I was so confused to start with! I will hopefully look forward to some replies and a lasting penpal with any luck :-)
I think they would get your e-mails printed and snail mailed by WAP, and as long as you gave a good snail mail address they'd be able to respond. If they had 'willing to correspond overseas' as 'yes' that might be a better chance of them being able to reply. Sending an international letter is easy from the U.S. nothing special needed $1.15 at the current rate gets the 1 ounce letter worldwide. If they list an e-mail such as JPay in the profile and you use that then at some institutions but not all they can reply by e-mail. Wishing you the best responses!
Hey Richyw here, I'm new to this site as well I've wrote to 5 inmates to start with through there email option just for first contact then if I hear a reply do it through snail mail, I guess I'm just going to have to wait and see if I get a reply fingers crossed on that one bit thanks for the info take care everyone all the best Rich.