Hi All,




I am wondering why people are writing to inmates, what is the reason that they decide to write to inmates.

Let me explain why I ask this question - me myself I have a lot of friends but no family anymore. At a certain moment a colleague of me at the Houston office, asked me if I could write an imate in her place, because she did not know how to write/help a gay man, so i did give in and wrote the guy.

Writing this guy made me very happy, and it gave me a good feeling inside, at a time that i felt sometimes lonely, so I decided to write more people, to take away their lonelyness, and also mine. Some years later I feel really happy with the pen pals I have, and the feeling is mutual from my pp's.

I presume that my reason was lonelyness, what is your excuse????



Micky

I have already at least partially answered this question on another topic. I began writing to pps. due to loneliness.

For years I was institutionalized in mental hospitals and homes. In '04 I broke out of that cycle and got my own apartment. When in those places there were always people to converse with and now there was no one.

My social life still leaves a lot to be desired.

To be honset we tend to forget them after they are locked up..That is not a good feeling at all.They feel let down by their families and the system but most of all they need to know they are care about...

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Bri_30

I always enjoyed corresponding with people from all over the world - loved the envelopes in my mailbox with foreign stamps. Getting to know other cultures. Then a co-worker told me about writing to inmates and I loved the idea of writing to someone who would appreciate my letters as much as I appreciate my mail

Hi All ok for me I am a social worker and work in a prison if i am assigned there. I am not a kiwi (new zealander) but when going to the prison here I found out that they are better provided than some of the people outside.

This is not prison its a holiday camp BELIEVE ME........I met my pp on a dating site here in NZ not WAP I wrote more out of curiosity for i wanted to know what it was like in prisons in USA. never in a million years i ever thought of ever communicating with a prisoner but............ I never regreted it i have learn alot from it.......sometimes I wish that law in the usa works here....lol....believe me working with YOUTHS.....

cheers

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windygirl

Several years ago this story impressed me.

VP Menon was a significant political figure in India during its struggle for independence from Britain after World War II. He was the highest-ranking Indian in the viceregal establishment, and it was to him that Lord Mountbatten turned for the final drafting of the plan for the independence of his country. Eldest son of twelve children, he quit school at thirteen and worked as a labourer, coal miner, factory hand, merchant, and schoolteacher.

When Menon arrived in Delhi to seek a job in government, all his possessions, including his money and ID, were stolen at the railroad station. He would have to return home on foot, defeated. In desperation he turned to an elderly Sikh, explained his troubles, and asked for a temporary loan of fifteen rupees to tide him over until he could get a job. The Sikh gave him the money. When Menon asked for his address so that he could repay the man, the Sikh said that Menon owed the debt to any stranger who came to him in need, as long as he lived. The help came from a stranger and was to be repaid to a stranger.

Menon never forgot that debt. Neither the gift of trust nor the fifteen rupees. His daughter said that the day before Menon died, a beggar came to the family home in Bangalore asking for help to buy new sandals, for his feet were covered with sores. Menon asked his daughter to take fifteen rupees out of his wallet to give to the man. It was Menon's last conscious act.

This story was told to me by a man whose name I do not know. He was standing beside me in the Bombay airport at the left-baggage counter. I had come to reclaim my bags but had no Indian currency left, and I was uncertain about getting my luggage and making my plane. The man paid my claim-check fee -- about eighty cents -- and told me the story as a way of refusing my attempt to work out how to repay him. His father had been Menon's assistant and had learned Menon's charitable ways and passed them on to his son. The son had continued the tradition of seeing himself in debt to strangers, whenever, however.

From a nameless Sikh to an Indian civil servant to his assistant to his son to me, a white foreigner in a moment of frustrating inconvenience. The gift was not large as money goes, and my need was not great, but the spirit of the gift is beyond price and leaves me blessed and in debt.

So many people -- some I knew and some were strangers -- have helped me over the years when I have been in need. I have many debts to repay. It is now not possible for me to repay many of those whose kindness was so valuable to me at the time, so I repay the debts I owe to people whose need is most. This is one of the reasons why I write to inmates.

Ron

Great story Ron

So this help you got from India and the other story about Lord Mountbatten made you write to prisoners...ehhhhh....

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windygirl

Dear Jazfan,


At least here you don't have to be lonely, here are always friends to talk.

Greetings,


Micky

Ron,



I think this is a good lesson for all of us, I hope more people will read this story, and act like it. I will remember it and will do the same somebody is in need (which i do already more or less).

You have the right admirable reason to write to inmates.

Greetings,


Micky