Questions
|
Answers
from Toja
|
| How
can I ad a new prisoner? |
Download
our form
and send it to him/her. |
| What
are the costs for him/her to place an ad? |
See
our form |
How
can I find out the current address of an inmate?
How can I find a prisoner who got transfered? |
It
is the responsibility of the inmate to send us an address
change.
If you want to verify his/her address you can do this by
using the links from our Inmate
Locator document.
A Federal Inmate has always a number like #####-### and
you can get the informations on www.bop.gov (Inmate Locator)
for the whole USA. |
| What
can I send to him/her? |
It
depends in what prison he/she is in.
Don't send him/her anything else beside your letter or written
postcard until you have asked him/her what the mail rules
are at the place he/she is in. |
| What
address do I need to write to a prisoner? |
Write
the address as it is written in the ad. |
| Can
I send money? |
Ask
the prisoner if and how he/she can receive money. Many can
receive US Postal Money Orders. Others can receive a US
Postal Money Order to an Inmate Trust Fund. The prisoner
will give you the informations and/or the necessary form.
For Federal Prisoners take a look at http://www.bop.gov/inmate_programs/money.jsp |
| Can
I send books, newspapers etc.? |
Ask
the prisoner. The most prisoners can receive them directly
from the publisher (Amazon, bookshop etc.). |
| Can
I send photos? |
Ask
the prisoner. The most prisoners are allowed to receive
photos (no polaroids, no nude ones). |
| I
have a loved one in prison, feel alone and have so many
open questions. Do you know where I could meet other people
in the same situation? |
Go
to www.prisontalk.com
There are many people in the same situation. |
| Have
prisoners access to e-mail and internet? |
No
Some prisons have now an email service for some prisoners.
Ask the prisoner, he/she can tell you more about it. |
| I
want to visit him. What do I have to do? |
Ask
the prisoner and he/she will send you a visitor form and
give you the necessary informations. When you are approved
to visit the prisoner, he/she will tell you. Ask the prisoner
also to send you the needed informations about visits in
a prison (what to wear, what to bring with you etc.) or
go to the website of the Department of Corrections/Prison
he/she is in. |
| I
will visit an inmate but don't know where to stay and the
way to prison. |
Ask
the prisoner. Perhaps there are friends outside who can
help you with a ride or stay. Or try to find a support group
for the State he/she is in and ask there. A good place to
ask is on www.prisontalk.com |
| I
have further questions and find no answer here. |
Send
me an
and I will try to help you. |
| How
do you finance this service? |
Since
2001 I paid all by myself, and the volunteers too.
This now change in 2010 and the prisoners need to pay for
a membership to make an ad on our website. |
| How
up-to-date are the informations on this website? |
When
we receive a note from the prisoner with new informations,
address etc. we add it asap.
When we have time we control the addresses of prisoners
with an online Inmate Locator.
But we request the prisoners to send new informations to
us to make their ads up-to-date. |
| What
should a prisoner do if he/she has a new address or wants
to change the ad? |
Tell
him/her to send us the changes. |
| Are
prisoners allowed to work? |
It
depends where he/she is at, if there is work for inmates,
if he/she decides to work, and if he/she is allowed to
work.
Prisoners on Death Row or in Administrative Segretion
(the hole) are mostly not allowed to work.
|
| How
safe is it to write to a prisoner? |
What
is safe in our life?
You can open a Post Box address, so your real address is
not known by the prisoner.
If you feel more comfortable you can give him/her your home
address if wanted. |
| I
want to know for what crime he/she is in prison. |
Ask
the prisoner. You can also call the prison and ask his/her
counselor. There are also States with an inmate locator
with further informations. There are also States that have
a Sex-Offender list online, or a phone # where you can call
and ask for it. |
| What
should I do if I made bad experiences with a prisoner from
your website? |
Please
let us know. At least we can remove him/her from the website
and write to him/her, so others will not go through the
same as you. |
| Are
prisoners allowed to call? |
Yes,
but it depends. There are several restrictions possible.
Ask the prisoner. |
| Can
I call the prisoner? |
No.
In urgent situations you can call the prison and ask if
they would forward a message or bring him/her to the phone.
The best is, to ask for his/her counselor. |
| Have
you checked the prisoners on your website if they are good
pen-pals and not abuse their pen-pals for some reason? |
No
That is impossible and not our business.
But we remove prisoners when we know they abused a pen-pal. |
| Do
you know for what crimes the prisoners on your website are
in prison? |
No
We don't ask, that is not our business. |
| How
is your opinion about the Death Penalty? |
If
the law does not allow people to kill somebody, then this
same law should be the same also for the States, Countries.
The most Countries have no Death Penalties and the criminality
is more less then in the States in USA with a Death Penalty.
And - the humankind should know other ways in this days
to realize that to kill people in the name of the State
is not the right way.
The State should look for ways for prisoners with a life
sentence (people on Death Row have a life sentence....),
how they could pay back something to the community. This
could be with projects to prevent kids on risk to end in
prison, work-programs for the poors etc.
And because people always ask about how many an inmate costs
the tax-payer, I think there are many ways inmates could
work and pay back for their costs. This would be much cheaper
as people on Death Row who are not alowed to work.
And it would make more sense.... |
| Why
you started this service? |
I
would give especially Native American prisoners a free place
to make contact to people in the free world. |
