Here's the reality of all this. Some States MAY allow inmate to inmate correspondence, but MOST do not. Those that do, allow it in very restricted circumstances, as Skye has pointed out. I can't say for certain, not knowing the regulations of EVERY State DOC in the U.S., but I would guess it would be very rare to permit this kind of correspondence.

That being said - - - - I revisit what I've said in the past. If it WAS permitted, your penpal would have no reason to ask YOU to pass on the letter, or to reproduce it in your own handwriting under the guise of being a letter from you to the other inmate. The long and short of this is that you are violating a DOC regulation by doing either one of these (redirecting the letter, or reproducing it).

Realistically, you can probably get away with doing that for some time (especially the reproduction method), but you still run the risk of being discovered through a random examination of incoming mail. The odds are not that great, but the possibility exists.

Once you are discovered, the penalties are varied. YOU, as a correspondent, do not have a legal right to correspond with an inmate. Mail into and out of the institution is a "qualified privilege". This means that, in order to maintain that contact, you must comply with the rules that regulate such correspondence. If you, as a private citizen, violate those rules, the least that could happen is that your correspondence privileges with that particular inmate could be terminated, either temporarily or permanently. This would apply to the inmate you are passing correspondence to, and to the inmate from whom the original correspondence originates.

The inmate(s) involved could suffer more severe penalties. First, their correspondence with YOU could be terminated completely, and their correspondence with others could be either suspended or terminated because they knowingly solicited another to violate the rules of correspondence. Secondly, they could be subjected to disciplinary action, up to and including temporary segregation. This disciplinary action then goes on their permanent prison behavior record, which later, has a demonstrable negative effect on things such as job assignments, security classifications, and yes, parole.

We all get a thrill out of getting away with something we know we're not supposed to be doing. That's human nature. For the most part, there are no negative consequences to others due to our actions (or inactions). In cases such as this, however, the inmate has much more to lose, if discovered, than you do. In this case, there ARE potential negative consequences to others due to your actions.

There are a lot of rules and regulations that most either do not agree with, or that are not understood, because the logics behind the rule or regulation are not immediately recognizable to the lay-person. With that, many tend to lean toward violating the rule or regulation more out of the mere ignorance of the legitimacy of the rule or regulation.

The fact that you don't agree with the rule or regulation is not a defense to a violation of it. So, when "the other shoe drops", many tend to be incensed with the notion that the institution found something you see as so insignificant to be "such a big deal". If you go into something with that frame of mind (thinking it's not really that harmful to anyone), you are going into it either uninformed, or misinformed. It IS a big deal, or the rule / regulation would not exist in the first place.

What you have to consider here is how you would feel if, eventually, this WAS discovered, and your pal ended up serving time in segregation for a rules infraction, and has to carry that black mark forward to the Parole Board. Further, you would have no way of knowing WHAT penalty the inmate received from your actions, because he would then be prohibited from writing to you in order to explain the punishment he received because you all thought it was "no big deal".