I finally decided to take the plunge and write a prisoner; I found one at Donaldson Correctional Facility that I'd like to contact but when I checked the Alabama DOC website to find information on their mail regulations, their FAQ mentioned that "Alabama inmates may receive correspondence through the U.S. mail." Does this mean that they can't receive mail from outside the U.S.? I sure hope that's not the case, and that they just mean that mail must be delivered through the postal service and not, like, carrier pigeons or a caravan of traveling gypsies or something...

I just fired off an e-mail to the Public Information officer asking if stamps were permitted to be sent to an inmate, and whether it would pose a problem that I'm a Canadian resident, but I was curious as to whether anyone else had any experience with this.

Thanks for any help you can give me, I'm really new to this whole thing and I'm crossing my fingers that I can still write to the inmate I had chosen!

LOL, you are funny, carrier pigeon. That is kind of a confusing statement on their part. I wrote a Canadian inmate in Kingston Pen up in Ontario and I’m an American so unless that particular facility in Alabama doesn’t allow international mail for some reason. I think you will be fine and I would try sending the letter off now. You will most likely get a response but I might in the mean time simply send a letter in by airmail so it gets there faster. It will cost a few bucks, no big deal and then you will know based on what happens to it.

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"Thats it then, they will go on double, secret, probation..."

Haha, I try, I try... I hope my future pen-pal can appreciate my humour too

It just seems silly that they wouldn't allow international mail - what if the inmate hypothetically had family in Canada? Could I call for discrimination?! Ha, ha, ha... Another thing that they say is that "Inmates are allowed to correspond by letter with family members and friends [...]" which makes it sound like the inmate is only allowed to correspond with friends with whom he or she already has an established relationship... somebody needs to rewrite these answers for clarity! Jeez!

Thanks for the tip, I'll be sending out a letter hopefully this week, so we'll see what happens with that.

Exactly. I mean, I live in New England and tons of folks here have relatives in Canada so that’s absurd. I think perhaps what they mean is it has to go by USPS and maybe they wont allow UPS (United Parcel Service) or anything other than the United States Postal Service for delivery on their end. But even that seems a little bit restrictive. Hopefully you get some kind of clarification on that. As for that friend comment, I think all they meant by that is it IS in fact allowed for an inmate to have personal correspondence. If the inmate had an ad posted on WAP, then hopefully he is allowed to utilize the internet to solicit a pen pal. Perhaps, in writing your letter, you might NOT want to mention how you found his ad. I know in the state of Florida it’s definitely a problem and you NEVER want to say you found their ad posted on any website as it is not allowed. I don’t know about Alabama so just to be on the safe side, maybe don’t say anything about where you discovered his ad.

Let us know how it goes because it will help others.

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"Thats it then, they will go on double, secret, probation..."

In the FAQ, it also says something about how the inmates are strictly forbidden from utilizing the internet, but I was totally ready to write that I'd found his ad online - thanks for the heads up, I'll keep that information to myself just in case. I hadn't realized that it might be a problem.

I'll definitely let everybody know how it goes, for future reference.

It may not be a problem but Florida definitely no longer allows inmates to purchase ads on pen pal websites. I guess it was a decision by the governor probably to appease victim's rights groups in the state. I don’t know all the details but that’s my guess. If an inmate already had an ad up, then they need to allow it to run until it expires because they purchased it. But they will no longer be able to sell the ads in that state at the correctional facilities.

Prisoners have no access to the internet except in some federal pens they can purchase minimal email service. That’s it though. No browsing websites or using messengers. It’s still quite restrictive from what I understand. They don’t want to immediately lose the privilege due to complaints of abuse.

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"Thats it then, they will go on double, secret, probation..."