There are thousands of inmates in the US waiting to hear from you
Did you know that the USA has only 5% of the worlds population and 25% of all the worlds prisoners?
Many would love to correspond either through traditional mail or often through special email services such as Jpay and Corrlinks and our site is designed to help with some exposure for those prisoners and to find people an inmate prisoner penpal.
The two main email communication providers in the US prison system are http://www.jpay.com and http://www.corrlinks.com
Check out our video tips page, click here to go to our video page.
You can easily locate an inmate or check on an inmate via the local state inmate search site. We have links to all state sites on our inmate locator page, click here
If you want to use email, you will have to register an account with the relevant provider and add the prisoner penpal to your contacts. You will also be charged a small fee for each email / page you send. On average you are charged about 25c per page – the cost varies by state and provider. You also have the option to add a prepaid reply or transfer these “stamps” . A small thing such as transferring some stamps can make a big difference to an inmate.
All emails as well as regular mail are also vetted by each prison before the prisoner pen pal receives them. Each state has different rules on mail so please check before you send. An excellent resource for this information is http://www.prisonpro.com
Be especially careful before sending photos to check the prisons rules as they will often vary. Ask your inmate penpal to clarify the rules in their location.
Another useful site, which links to every department of corrections in the country, to help you confirm details and prison addresses is https://asa-wa.us/resources
Also bear in mind that both regular mail and emails to your prisoner penpal will take longer than usual to be received, so please be patient if you are waiting for a response from your pen pal
Just receiving a letter or email can genuinely make a positive difference to you inmate penpal. Regular correspondence helps maintain their contact with the outside world and improve their mental wellbeing. Life in prison can often be incredibly lonely and having a pen pal really helps maintain and build social skills.
It is important to remember that the inmates on the site are convicted felons (there may be some exceptions of inmates in jail or not yet convicted) and caution should be used. Be understanding without being gullible. We recommend and promote using this site to find pen pals for friendships, and not romantic relationships. You can look up basic information on many of these inmates by using the inmate search sites that most states provide.
Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana, South Dakota, and Wyoming do not currently have inmate locators but you can look up information from their DOC sites.
We do not accept applications from convicted sex offenders. In some states where we do not have access to the information sex offenders may still get listed. If we place the ad and later discover the inmate is a sex offender the ad will be removed with no refund. If an inmate is a sex offender do not place an ad.