|
1..
Why was WriteAPrisoner.com started? I saw an opportunity to make a living doing something I believed
in. The inmate population is, unfortunately, thriving in this
country. The U.S. incarcerates more of its people than any
other country on the planet... our prisons have become society's
dumping grounds. Yet, almost every inmate behind bars today
will be released someday. I think we can help bring them back
to us better than we sent them in, one letter at a time. There
is a proven correlation between positive influences and productive
people.
2. What, if any, precautions are taken when running a business
of this nature? I have been asked this question many times.
The fact is, with thousands of letters being exchanged weekly,
we have yet to incur a major incident of any kind. The last
thing most incarcerated men and women want to do is create
more problems for themselves or scare off new friends. However,
we do take the following precautions:
-
Members must post crimes with their ads.
-
Links are provided on every member's page to their specific Department of
Corrections website to verify criminal record.
-
Any inmate found purposefully misleading the public will have his or her ad
removed.
-
A guide is provided to the public on our homepage for potential postal scams to be
aware of.
-
When submitting an email to an inmate, all of your Internet provider information
is recorded in case an incident with a minor contacting an inmate arises. Should
this happen, the member will be notified, as will the Internet provider's
abuse team and the legal resident of the home the letter came from. Members
of our service know that a minor contacting them is something that needs to be
reported to us immediately.
3. Have there been any stories of two people connecting and, say, getting
married? Yes, many. Inmates contact us on a regular basis and ask to have their
profiles removed from the site because they have become romantically involved with
someone they met through WriteAPrisoner.com. We were somewhat surprised the first time
this happened, but this has become a regular occurrence. We do maintain a list of pen
pals romantically involved with inmates from our website who are interested in speaking
with members of the media.
4. What do you think the majority of the inmates are looking to gain through your
service? I can say without a doubt that it is an outside human connection. Although
many will write about meeting that "special someone" and even describe certain
characteristics they are looking for in a partner, the true objective of most is simply
to hear their name at mail call.
5. Receiving thousands of visitors everyday and dealing so closely with America's
inmate population puts you in a unique position as a business. What hopes do you have
for WriteAPrisoner.com in the years to come? I feel that the
business portion of WriteAPrisoner.com has been strongly established.
Inmates and pen pals are both confident when they hear our name or see
our logo. I believe running the business as we have over the past few
years and word of mouth will continue to help WriteAPrisoner.com reach
thousands more of both concerned citizens and inmates. The topics I
really want to address are restoring inmates' voting rights upon
release, helping them develop new skills while incarcerated, lining up
employment for them immediately following release and helping restore
their status in society overall. There is no "lock them up and throw
away the key" solution. The vast majority of inmates are coming back to
us one day. I believe WriteAPrisoner.com, working alongside its many
great affiliates, can help make this happen.
|