I am an englishman living in Uk and have established a penpal relationship with a girl in VSPW. So what are the rules? what do you reccomend? You must realise as a foreigner i know nothing of the US prison system HELP
:confused:
Capn John

Do you mean rules for writing to a prison? Different facilities have different guide lines, but the basics are: no pictures with any nudity, gang reference, drug or alcohol references. You can't send cash. Usually they have a maximum of 100 sheets of notebook paper and 10 envelopes per letter if you are sending her in some writing supplies. One book of stamps, although some institutions do not allow any stamps through the mail. Greeting cards have to been seen through if you hold them up to the light usually.
Glad to hear you're helping someone by being a friend in their time of need, welcome to the group! :)

One thing I have learnt that might be useful. VSPW only allow 10 photos and no polariods but if you put the pictures on the computer and print them out with a large number on one page they seem to class that as only a piece of paper and let it go through even if there are more than 10 pictures on the page
rgds
capn john

Also I have a question. I have sent International Reply coupons to save postage from that end but it appears the prison post office dont know how to handle them. Living out of U.S. what else can I do to relieve the cost to my penfriend because postage basically costs her two hours work.
Rgds
Capn John

You can try sending her pre-stamped envelopes. Like Amy said, some jails don't allow stamps. This is to prevent stuff being snuck in on the sticky side of the stamp. But some of those do allow pre-stamped envlopes like those brought in the post office.

You can try sending her pre-stamped envelopes. Like Amy said, some jails don't allow stamps. This is to prevent stuff being snuck in on the sticky side of the stamp. But some of those do allow pre-stamped envlopes like those brought in the post office.
Unfortunately UK stamps dont work in the US. Some how the US post Oficce cant work in pounds!:haha:
Rgds
J.N.

Good point. As my kids would say to me, "Duh".