having finally got my act together to write to a (can;t say the word can we)
in railford I now find that I sent stamps which may cause grief for him, quite apart from them not being able to advertise for pp's anymore .(I did try and make my letter sound from an old friend so he will be really confused now, or do they know how we will try and get around the new rules?) Is anyone an expert. will my letter just not get to him, will it reach him but bring down a hole heap of s**t.? Is it just florida that have got all arsey over the pp thing? I am trying to do my bit to cheer for some poor guy up and may be doing more harm than good. :pissed: :fb:

If you really made your letter sound as if you're an old friend, there won't be any problem for your penpal :) Sending stamps is absolutely no problem either. However you can't send more than 20 X 37 cents or a total amount of $ 7,40 per letter. If you sent more than this, no problem, they will send you back the additional stamps, and will give the others along with your letter to your penpal.

Hope that helps.
Phil

Hi there :)

I am a member of a death row advocacy group for Florida and there have been no problems yet that we know of with the new pen pal rule. This is very hard for them to enforce too so I really don't think your new friend will have any problems.

In the 4 years I have been writing to UCI in raiford, this is my experience with stamps. They will let in any denomination (37 cent, 60 cent, 23 cent) as long as there are no more than 20. If there are 21, they will send you back the entire envelope and it's contents. They won't give him anything in the envelope. That's just been my experience. If one little thing is against the rules, everything comes back. They are not very cooperative!

Skyblue,

I just recently started writing a DR prisoner in Fl as well. I found his name on a website just around Christmas and decided to write. I was not aware of the new penpal law so in my first letter I introduced myself and told him where I had found his address etc. Only a couple of days after I posted the letter did I read about the ban for prisoners advertising for penpals on websites. I was afraid he was going to get in trouble and that the letter wouldn't be delivered. Not the case. He received the letter and didn't mention anything about being given a hassle or anything regarding the new rules. I wouldn't worry about it. Have you heard from your penpal yet? I am very new to this and my letter in December was the first time I had written anyone in prison, let alone on DR. My penpal and I get along really well and any misgivings or fears I may have initially had about writing were completely put to rest after receiving his first letter. His letters are warm, friendly, and honest. I hope you have the same experience with your penfriend! About the stamps, I am from outside the US and was told that I could sent the equivalent of 20 -39cent stamps. So I send him only 5 or 6, 80-cent stamps at a time.

I have just sent my first letter to a new death row pen pal in Florida. I didnt realize they we werent suppose to mention that we saw them in ads. He got my letter and didnt say a word about it being a problem. This was just yesterday I got his first letter.

Shoot I did the same thing...I hope he does not get in any trouble...Man!! I didnt know either.