From the pen, inmates look for pals online -- Inside America's Correctional Facilities

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 03:50:42 02/10/02 Sun
Author: MAJ
Subject: From the pen, inmates look for pals online

More are using the Web to solicit letters of friendship, even romance.
By Edward Colimore
Inquirer Staff Writer

Their personal ads aren't much different than those filling newspapers, dating service magazines and Internet sites.

They provide the names of men and women, along with physical descriptions and general interests. Many are accompanied by photos.

"My name is Tony though I prefer Kimani....I would like to meet someone with whom I can share thoughts and ideas for the purpose of laying a foundation upon which we can both grow and benefit from."

What distinguishes Anthony Hardaway's online ad from most others in the line about his Trenton address: "I have been held captive here in New Jersey State Prison for the past 17 years".

The ad-accompanied by photos of Hardaway, serving a 30 year sentence for manslaughter-is part of a Web site called Cyberspace Inmates, one of dozens of sites catering to thousands of prisoners in search of pen pals or relationships.

The use of such sites by inmates has grown significantly over the years along with the increasing public use of the Internet to communicate.

Hardaway, 37, said he had written his online ad and paid the $10 fee as a way of staying engaged with the outside world.

"This is an attempt to preserve my humanity; this is an inhumane place," Hardaway said during an interview at the Maximum security prison. "I'm just looking for a meeting of the minds. A meeting of the hearts would be good-but it doesn't have to necessarily be romance, just someone caring and intelligent."

The names of the pen-pal web sites run the gamut from utilitarian to provocative. They include Prison Angels, Friends on Both Sides, Meet an Inmate, Inmates-4-u, Prison Pen Pals, Women Behind Bars, Jail Babes, and Caged Kittens.

Jon'a Meyer, an assistant professor of criminal justice at Rutgers University-Camden, said some inmates who use the Web sites are seeking pen pals "for something to do, someone to write back and forth."

"There are well intentioned ones," she said. "The bond with their own families and friends has deteriorated over time. A wife may have remarried, parents die, friends stop writing as often. They are the less nefarious ones."

"Others are looking to milk people financially," Meyer added. "Some of the women may try to get lonely men to send them things, books and other stuff. As long as inmates are not trying to hit you up for stuff, then the writigng is good for you to gain insights into someone and good for them emotionally."

Chris Carden, a spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Corrections, said the inmates do not have access to the internet, and that the state "plays no part in encouraging inmates to use these types of sites."

The Web sites also advise caution when contacting inmates. Prison Angels states that it "doesn't verify the accuracy of ads placed on this site. Please use good judgement when corresponding with an inmate. We therefore accept no responsibility for any content posted within the inmate's ad on this site. It is wise, at least initially, to use a post office box until you become comfortable enough to share your home address."

Cyberspace Inmates prints e-mail responses to inmates and sends them to the inmates via the regular mail, according to the site. When "the inmate sends us a response," the site tells penpals, "we type it in our computer and e-mail it or snail mail it to you."

The Rev. Rene Mulkey, who has operated Cyberspace Inmates as a ministry since 1996, said she lists about 1,700 inmates. She charges a $10 fee to cover the cost of postage, envelopes, paper, ink and online services.

Many sites charge a small fee-usually $10 to $20 for listings that run several months to a year. Others are free.

"I get 5,000 a week hitting my Web site and several hundred e-mails a day," Mrs. Mulkey said. "Each day, I send out 100 envelopes to the prisons, some with several letters for various inmates. I like what I do. It fills part of me that was missing."

For many prisoners serving long sentences, such as Anthony Hardaway, the letters become a kind of lifeline.

Hardaway said his incarceration began nearly 20 years ago after a traffic dispute in Newark escalated to a fatal shooting.

He said he was walking across the street in front of a car but did not move fast enough for the teenage driver, who stopped and exited for a confrontation. During the arguement, Hardaway said, he shot the youth and changed his life forever.

A soft-spoken man, he said he spent long hours reading and watching television-but that he hoped to do more letter writing.

"Some of my outstanding qualities are that I am an honest and principaled person. Anyone interested in corresponding can be assured that I will manifest these qualities. I look forward to hearing from any and all that are interested."

One of the responses Hardaway received was especailly unexpected- a letter from a man named Muscat living across the globe in Oman.

The inmate says he writes to two women but is "still waiting for that memorable one. I'm looking for that one to vie with intellectually."

Some of the ads seeking pen-pals are filled with pain.

Samuel "Saleem" Ryan, 28, an inmate at New Jersey State Prison, says on Prison Angels that he has been wrongly convicted.

"It has totally engulfed me beyond the sum total of anything I have ever experienced before," his ad says. "There is no greater emotional pain....I hope this brief missive will attract a lady who has no boundaries when it comes to stimulating consversation and most important a friendship."

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]