Writeaprisoner.com
Encyclopedia
WriteAPrisoner.com is an online Florida
, (USA) based business
whose stated goal is to reduce recidivism
through a variety of methods that include: 1) positive correspondence with pen-pals on the outside, 2) educational opportunities, 3) job placement avenues, 4) comprehensive resource guides on a variety of related issues, and 5) scholarships for children impacted by crime
. The site began primarily as a place to post pen-pal profiles and requests for legal assistance for inmates and has evolved to take a more comprehensive approach to addressing the life of an inmate. The site addresses other prison-related issues.
The prison
pen-pal website was launched in 2000 and typically hosts more than 7,000 inmate profiles. With the growing trend in incarceration
(the U.S. prison population quadrupled between 1980 and 2000), the impact is felt by families and society. The site is also involved with human rights
activities.
The site's stated mission is to reduce recidivism
through letter-writing and self-help initiatives in light of the expanding prison population in the United States
. In recent years the site expanded its resources to more comprehensively address growing concerns in the prison commuinty including families and friends impacted by a loved one's incarceration. Specifically, the site:
The site features: 1) Pen-pal profiles; 2) Educational profiles; 3) Employment profiles; 4) Housing profiles; 5) Legal profiles; 6) inmate art; 7) inmate blogs; and 8) inmate poems.
WriteAPrisoner.com provides empirical evidence through a meta-analysis, which supports claims that positive relations built through correspondence help reduce recidivism.
and Facebook
for inmates by the media. The site has evolved from its primary focus on pen-pals to include related features such as its Books Behind Bars and Back to Work programs, resources for inmates and their families, resources for crime victims, and publishing free self-help guides on topics such as going to prison, furthering education while incarcerated and repairing credit while in prison. The interactive features include polling and chats, with most emphasis on the site’s Internet forum
where friends and family of inmates share stories and advice. Many of the forum participants are pen-pals to inmates on the site. Topics include sharing advice about corresponding with inmates and visiting inmates. The site charges inmates $40 per year to post their profile and photo, which are viewed freely by the public. Inmates cannot receive email because they do not have access to the Internet
. The site encourages writing directly to inmates or sending a first message through its free e-mail forwarding service. The site responds to social trends and began addressing crime prevention by launching a sister site in 2010, CrimeFreeKids.com. The site maintains its own Facebook page and Twitter account and uses site alerts to notify constituents regarding time-sensitive issues such as letter-writing campaigns, volunteering to mentor children of incarcerated parents, or media requests. Because of the unusual nature of the business, many newspaper
and journal articles have addressed the site, and the owner, Adam Lovell
, has been interviewed by many media organizations. In 2006 GoDaddy owner Bob Parsons
chose to interview Lovell for GoDaddy Radio's first anniversary because of the widespread influence WriteAPrisoner.com has had in the prison subculture. Lovell established a blog
on the site to personally address specific topics and wrote a guest article for QuintCareers.com offering suggestions for ex-offenders looking for work.
, a young mother convicted of killing her children, posted a profile seeking pen-pals. The South Carolina Department of Corrections issued a press release related to the incident. WriteAPrisoner.com removed the profile at Smith's request. The site received some criticism when its spokesperson used the term "freak show" to describe the media coverage of the Susan Smith story. The site later issued a press release apologizing and stating that the term had been taken out of context. The site has been featured on many programs including 20/20 and E! True Hollywood Story
. The site claims to avoid 'shock media' and notorious
inmates and has pulled and denied inmate profiles to avoid sensationalism
. Kenneth Foster
, Jr., whose stay of execution was granted by Texas
Governor Rick Perry
just hours before the scheduled execution, maintains a profile on the site. In March 2006, the site made local news when it posted a profile for Adrian Peeler who was convicted in the killing of an eight year old boy and his mother. The site immediately removed Peeler’s profile when the story was featured in the Connecticut Post
. The site had also featured a profile for Peeler's brother, Russell Peeler, who was involved in the murder
. His profile was also removed by the site.
Some controversies involved claims of inmates misleading the public. When the state of Missouri
investigated claims that female inmates were deceiving male pen-pals, the proactive response of the site resulted in a positive response by the public. The site has received occasional negative comments by public officials in some regions and has been criticized by some members of the public as well. A study conducted by the University of Louisville
reported that not all inmates on the site accurately report their crimes or release dates. However, this study was rebutted by the site. WriteAPrisoner.com provides a link from each inmate's profile to his or her respective Department of Corrections website so that the public can verify the information. WriteAPrisoner.com's stated policy is to remove the profile of any inmate found misusing the site.
. The emerging use of technology
regarding inmate pen-pals appears to be gaining acceptance. The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
, for instance, upheld inmates’ rights to receive e-mail printouts from online pen-pals. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
also found that inmates have the constitutional right to receive e-mail printouts from online pen-pals. Precedent has been set regarding the rights of inmates to receive mail.
The site states that it seeks to work with states' Departments of Corrections to ensure that the First Amendment rights of inmates are protected. The site has previously collaborated with the ACLU and the Florida Justice Institute
regarding rights of inmates and has been represented by the Florida Justice Institute. The site also claims to maintain a zero tolerance
approach towards scams committed by inmates as well as scams committed against inmates.
In Arizona
a House Bill was passed to bar inmates from posting profiles on WriteAPrisoner.com and similar websites. The law was later ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge
after the ACLU challenged it in court.
was awarded to Joseph Hallinan
, whose book, Going Up the River: Travels in a Prison Nation, reported that the prison
experience has become so commonplace in America that one in eleven American men can expect to be incarcerated at some point in his lifetime. That number has now reached one in ten, with one in one hundred Americans presently incarcerated. Prison pen-pal sites are a growing phenomenon as a result. Although the site is the largest of its kind, it is not alone in its endeavor to help inmates find pen-pals, legal aid, education, housing and employment
. There are many other commercial
and non-commercial sites. Some religious sites, such as Prison Fellowship International
, offer pen-pal programs for inmates.
The site has gained attention in books and publications. It is linked to a fictional character in The Memory Artists, a novel by award-winning author Jeffrey Moore
. The character of Dr. Emile Vorta is the novel’s linchpin, and in the preface he cites his affiliation with WriteAPrisoner.com. Another book, The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue: A Novel, 2004, by Barbara Samuel, quotes WriteAPrisoner.com. Another, One Good Work at a Time: Simple Things You Can Do to Make a Difference, 2006, by Frances Sheridan Goulart, encourages readers to donate to the site's Books Behind Bars program. Its Books Behind Bars program has been lauded in O, The Oprah Winfrey
Magazine. Not This Sunday, a children's novel by Cindy Lovell, is about a fifth grade boy dealing with his father's recent incarceration
and mentions the site as a resource for families. The site sometimes finds itself the subject of parody at times by some media outlets. The site was mentioned in the Mensa Research Journal as an example of giftedness in the workplace.
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, (USA) based business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
whose stated goal is to reduce recidivism
Recidivism
Recidivism is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have either experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or have been treated or trained to extinguish that behavior...
through a variety of methods that include: 1) positive correspondence with pen-pals on the outside, 2) educational opportunities, 3) job placement avenues, 4) comprehensive resource guides on a variety of related issues, and 5) scholarships for children impacted by crime
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
. The site began primarily as a place to post pen-pal profiles and requests for legal assistance for inmates and has evolved to take a more comprehensive approach to addressing the life of an inmate. The site addresses other prison-related issues.
The prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
pen-pal website was launched in 2000 and typically hosts more than 7,000 inmate profiles. With the growing trend in incarceration
Incarceration
Incarceration is the detention of a person in prison, typically as punishment for a crime .People are most commonly incarcerated upon suspicion or conviction of committing a crime, and different jurisdictions have differing laws governing the function of incarceration within a larger system of...
(the U.S. prison population quadrupled between 1980 and 2000), the impact is felt by families and society. The site is also involved with human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
activities.
The site's stated mission is to reduce recidivism
Recidivism
Recidivism is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have either experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or have been treated or trained to extinguish that behavior...
through letter-writing and self-help initiatives in light of the expanding prison population in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In recent years the site expanded its resources to more comprehensively address growing concerns in the prison commuinty including families and friends impacted by a loved one's incarceration. Specifically, the site:
- hosts an interactive forum where friends and families of inmates connect to provide support and guidance;
- offers Back to Work, a free online résumé-posting service for inmates being released within the year;
- coordinates Books Behind Bars, a program to promote literacy and educational opportunities;
- publishes a free, comprehensive Prison Resource Directory and Victim Resource Directory;
- provides college scholarships through its Children Impacted by Crime Scholarship Fund;
- provides free Welcome Home Kits to select indigent inmates upon release;
- receives e-mailE-mailElectronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
messages on the inmates' behalf, prints the messages, and mails them to the inmates twice monthly; - publishes a free self-help series for inmates covering topics such as education, employment, parenting from prison, credit repair and more.
The site features: 1) Pen-pal profiles; 2) Educational profiles; 3) Employment profiles; 4) Housing profiles; 5) Legal profiles; 6) inmate art; 7) inmate blogs; and 8) inmate poems.
WriteAPrisoner.com provides empirical evidence through a meta-analysis, which supports claims that positive relations built through correspondence help reduce recidivism.
Background
There are approximately 7,000 inmates profiled on the site, most of whom are incarcerated in the United States. However, the site also lists international inmates. It has been called the MySpaceMySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
and Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
for inmates by the media. The site has evolved from its primary focus on pen-pals to include related features such as its Books Behind Bars and Back to Work programs, resources for inmates and their families, resources for crime victims, and publishing free self-help guides on topics such as going to prison, furthering education while incarcerated and repairing credit while in prison. The interactive features include polling and chats, with most emphasis on the site’s Internet forum
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
where friends and family of inmates share stories and advice. Many of the forum participants are pen-pals to inmates on the site. Topics include sharing advice about corresponding with inmates and visiting inmates. The site charges inmates $40 per year to post their profile and photo, which are viewed freely by the public. Inmates cannot receive email because they do not have access to the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. The site encourages writing directly to inmates or sending a first message through its free e-mail forwarding service. The site responds to social trends and began addressing crime prevention by launching a sister site in 2010, CrimeFreeKids.com. The site maintains its own Facebook page and Twitter account and uses site alerts to notify constituents regarding time-sensitive issues such as letter-writing campaigns, volunteering to mentor children of incarcerated parents, or media requests. Because of the unusual nature of the business, many newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
and journal articles have addressed the site, and the owner, Adam Lovell
Adam Lovell
Adam Lovell is the founder and owner of WriteAPrisoner.com. Lovell, who founded the organization in 2000, is frequently interviewed in various media due to the unusual nature of his work. He has been featured on 20/20, FoxNews, E! True Hollywood Story, CNN, and many other media outlets. Lovell...
, has been interviewed by many media organizations. In 2006 GoDaddy owner Bob Parsons
Bob Parsons
Bob Parsons is an American entrepreneur. He is the CEO and founder of The Go Daddy Group, Inc., a family of companies comprising three ICANN-accredited domain name registrars, including flagship registrar GoDaddy.com, reseller registrar Wild West Domains and Blue Razor Domains...
chose to interview Lovell for GoDaddy Radio's first anniversary because of the widespread influence WriteAPrisoner.com has had in the prison subculture. Lovell established a blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
on the site to personally address specific topics and wrote a guest article for QuintCareers.com offering suggestions for ex-offenders looking for work.
Challenges
The site received national media attention in July 2003 when Susan SmithSusan Smith
Susan Leigh Vaughan Smith is an American woman sentenced to life in prison for murdering her children. Born in Union, South Carolina, and a former student of the University of South Carolina Union, she was convicted on July 22, 1995 of murdering her two sons, 3-year-old Michael Daniel Smith, born...
, a young mother convicted of killing her children, posted a profile seeking pen-pals. The South Carolina Department of Corrections issued a press release related to the incident. WriteAPrisoner.com removed the profile at Smith's request. The site received some criticism when its spokesperson used the term "freak show" to describe the media coverage of the Susan Smith story. The site later issued a press release apologizing and stating that the term had been taken out of context. The site has been featured on many programs including 20/20 and E! True Hollywood Story
E! True Hollywood Story
E! True Hollywood Story is an American documentary series on E! that deals with famous Hollywood celebrities, movies, TV shows and well-known public figures...
. The site claims to avoid 'shock media' and notorious
Notorious
Notorious is a 1946 American thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains as three people whose lives become intimately entangled during an espionage operation...
inmates and has pulled and denied inmate profiles to avoid sensationalism
Sensationalism
Sensationalism is a type of editorial bias in mass media in which events and topics in news stories and pieces are over-hyped to increase viewership or readership numbers...
. Kenneth Foster
Kenneth Foster
Kenneth Foster, Jr. is a prisoner formerly on death row in Texas, convicted under the law of parties. He was convicted of murdering Michael LaHood in August 1996...
, Jr., whose stay of execution was granted by Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
Governor Rick Perry
Rick Perry
James Richard "Rick" Perry is the 47th and current Governor of Texas. A Republican, Perry was elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1998 and assumed the governorship in December 2000 when then-governor George W. Bush resigned to become President of the United States. Perry was elected to full...
just hours before the scheduled execution, maintains a profile on the site. In March 2006, the site made local news when it posted a profile for Adrian Peeler who was convicted in the killing of an eight year old boy and his mother. The site immediately removed Peeler’s profile when the story was featured in the Connecticut Post
Connecticut Post
The Connecticut Post is a daily newspaper located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It serves the greater Bridgeport area, Fairfield County, and the Lower Naugatuck Valley. Municipalities in the Post's circulation area include Bridgeport, Ansonia,...
. The site had also featured a profile for Peeler's brother, Russell Peeler, who was involved in the murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
. His profile was also removed by the site.
Some controversies involved claims of inmates misleading the public. When the state of Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
investigated claims that female inmates were deceiving male pen-pals, the proactive response of the site resulted in a positive response by the public. The site has received occasional negative comments by public officials in some regions and has been criticized by some members of the public as well. A study conducted by the University of Louisville
University of Louisville
The University of Louisville is a public university in Louisville, Kentucky. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of the first universities chartered west of the Allegheny Mountains. The university is mandated by the Kentucky General...
reported that not all inmates on the site accurately report their crimes or release dates. However, this study was rebutted by the site. WriteAPrisoner.com provides a link from each inmate's profile to his or her respective Department of Corrections website so that the public can verify the information. WriteAPrisoner.com's stated policy is to remove the profile of any inmate found misusing the site.
The Courts
WriteAPrisoner.com has made an impact in the prison community and the courts. In 2009 the site was named as a plaintiff in Perry v. Hicks, a lawsuit against the state of Florida for violating inmates' First Amendment rights. The site was named along with Freedom Through Christ Prison Ministry in the suit filed by the Florida Justice InstituteFlorida Justice Institute
The Florida Justice Institute is a public interest law firm in Miami, Florida. The firm is headquartered at 100 SE 2nd St in the Miami Tower in Downtown Miami. It was established in 1978 by Randall C. Berg, Jr.. The institute has been dedicated to improving conditions in Florida's prison system...
. The emerging use of technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
regarding inmate pen-pals appears to be gaining acceptance. The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the courts in the following districts:* Central District of Illinois* Northern District of Illinois...
, for instance, upheld inmates’ rights to receive e-mail printouts from online pen-pals. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is a U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* District of Alaska* District of Arizona...
also found that inmates have the constitutional right to receive e-mail printouts from online pen-pals. Precedent has been set regarding the rights of inmates to receive mail.
The site states that it seeks to work with states' Departments of Corrections to ensure that the First Amendment rights of inmates are protected. The site has previously collaborated with the ACLU and the Florida Justice Institute
Florida Justice Institute
The Florida Justice Institute is a public interest law firm in Miami, Florida. The firm is headquartered at 100 SE 2nd St in the Miami Tower in Downtown Miami. It was established in 1978 by Randall C. Berg, Jr.. The institute has been dedicated to improving conditions in Florida's prison system...
regarding rights of inmates and has been represented by the Florida Justice Institute. The site also claims to maintain a zero tolerance
Zero tolerance
Zero tolerance imposes automatic punishment for infractions of a stated rule, with the intention of eliminating undesirable conduct. Zero-tolerance policies forbid persons in positions of authority from exercising discretion or changing punishments to fit the circumstances subjectively; they are...
approach towards scams committed by inmates as well as scams committed against inmates.
In Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
a House Bill was passed to bar inmates from posting profiles on WriteAPrisoner.com and similar websites. The law was later ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge
Federal judge
Federal judges are judges appointed by a federal level of government as opposed to the state / provincial / local level.-Brazil:In Brazil, federal judges of first instance are chosen exclusively by public contest...
after the ACLU challenged it in court.
Impact
A Pulitzer Prize for Investigative ReportingPulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting
The Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting has been awarded since 1953, under one name or another, for a distinguished example of investigative reporting by an individual or team, presented as a single article or series in print journalism...
was awarded to Joseph Hallinan
Joseph Hallinan
Joseph T. "Joe" Hallinan is an award-winning journalist and author. He has written extensively on the criminal justice system in the United States.While a journalist with the Indianapolis Star he and Susan M...
, whose book, Going Up the River: Travels in a Prison Nation, reported that the prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
experience has become so commonplace in America that one in eleven American men can expect to be incarcerated at some point in his lifetime. That number has now reached one in ten, with one in one hundred Americans presently incarcerated. Prison pen-pal sites are a growing phenomenon as a result. Although the site is the largest of its kind, it is not alone in its endeavor to help inmates find pen-pals, legal aid, education, housing and employment
Employment
Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as:- Employee :...
. There are many other commercial
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
and non-commercial sites. Some religious sites, such as Prison Fellowship International
Prison Fellowship International
Prison Fellowship International is an international non-governmental organisation of national Prison Fellowship organisations from 117 countries.-Primary Mission:...
, offer pen-pal programs for inmates.
The site has gained attention in books and publications. It is linked to a fictional character in The Memory Artists, a novel by award-winning author Jeffrey Moore
Jeffrey Moore
Jeffrey Moore is an internationally recognized championship accordionist, keyboardist in award-winning alternative rock group The Double Yellow, and multi-instrumentalist composer from Nashua, New Hampshire. He has performed for thousands nationally including venues in the United States like...
. The character of Dr. Emile Vorta is the novel’s linchpin, and in the preface he cites his affiliation with WriteAPrisoner.com. Another book, The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue: A Novel, 2004, by Barbara Samuel, quotes WriteAPrisoner.com. Another, One Good Work at a Time: Simple Things You Can Do to Make a Difference, 2006, by Frances Sheridan Goulart, encourages readers to donate to the site's Books Behind Bars program. Its Books Behind Bars program has been lauded in O, The Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
Magazine. Not This Sunday, a children's novel by Cindy Lovell, is about a fifth grade boy dealing with his father's recent incarceration
Incarceration
Incarceration is the detention of a person in prison, typically as punishment for a crime .People are most commonly incarcerated upon suspicion or conviction of committing a crime, and different jurisdictions have differing laws governing the function of incarceration within a larger system of...
and mentions the site as a resource for families. The site sometimes finds itself the subject of parody at times by some media outlets. The site was mentioned in the Mensa Research Journal as an example of giftedness in the workplace.