Hi there,
I wanted to be a friend to an inmate on death row as I am an active member of Amnesty and NCADP and felt that as well as writing countless letters to Heads of State and Governers etc. that I could but my letter writing skills to good use in other ways by becoming a friend to an actual inamte. It took me a long time to find an 'ad' that spoke to me and I wanted to write to the right person, not to just anyone (if I picked wrong then I will just try again) but to my dismay I have found that Florida inmates are no longer allowed to advertise for penpals????? :eek: :eek: I wrote a letter anyway and made sure I did not say in it that I was answering an ad, just that I thought he might like another friend. My question is.... do you think he will receive the letter given that I am a new 'penfriend' and 'they' may wonder where I got his information? I hope I have not done something wrong by writing to a Floridian inmate but his advertisement was the one that stood out to me and I wanted so much to reach out a hand of friendship to him.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
shandygirl

Hi shandygirl,

I think he will receive your letter, especially because you haven't mentioned the ad!
I have 3 pen pals in Florida and I wrote them AFTER this rule was out and in one letter I even mentioned the ad, he got the letter no worries!

I hope you will have a great friendship with your pal!

All the best!

Anja

thank you, I have my fingers crossed, though as he has more than one ad (which is why I think he stood out as I saw his ads in more than one place) I am sure he has many penpals, not that I mind at all about that, but if he doesn't I am there for him, if he does maybe he will suggest somebody else who does not get as much mail? I think I will have less questions and be less nervous once I hear from him, but if I haven't heard in a month then I will try with another. I do not want to take on too many too quick as I do not know how much time each will need from me and I do not wish to spread myself too thinly in regards to letters, it is not fair to them to not respond promptly I think.

I don't know which prison your new penfriend is in (there are 2 DR units), but FSP gives new meaning to snail mail! I know the guys love getting their mail at the end of the day. The gentle readers are mainly concerned about explicit content, not how you came across the guy. You can find them on the DOC website just as easily. I knew my partner years before his arrival at Camp FSP so my first letter flew through, even though I did mention seeing an old Pampered Prisioner thing before he was sentenced.

I've been allowing about 10 days for mail to travel a 2.5 hour drive. So you might want to double that for overseas.

Enjoy the journey!

Hi Shandygirl
I also met three new pen pals in Florida only recently and all after this ban. I just didn't mention where I found them. One of my friends got asked to take his ad off the internet pen pal site and told he would receive a disciplinary otherwise and his ad has now gone, but there are loads of new ads from Florida all the time I've noticed. One of my deathrow pen pals is in Florida and I only just started writing to him. Mail to England can take anything from 5-9 days and I've noticed mail from Florida is especially slow, so give it time to get a reply. One pen pal took ages to reply simply because he didn't have stamps and had to get paper together etc.

If you didn't mention the ad, then he should receive your letter. I have two penpals on Florida's death row, and haven't had a problem writing to either one. What facility is your potential pal at? If he's at FSP then the mail will take longer. I live in Gainesville which is about 30 miles west of where the prisons are at, and my mail takes three days to get to them, four to get to me-about a week. Good luck, I'm sure you will enjoy being a pal to a DR inmate.

thank you for the responses, in answer to the question, he is at Union not FSP so fingers crossed :)

i dont find union to bad it takes mine about a week and im in Canada,enjoy your new friend

Shandygirl,
I don't have a penpal in FL at the moment, but I had before and I still have in several other states. It usually takes about 2 - 21/2 weeks till I hear back from them (was with FL the same). And I'm from Germany, so close to you;-)

Good luck and lots of fun with your new friends!

Peach

thank you for the responses, in answer to the question, he is at Union not FSP so fingers crossed :)
Union seems to be ok. I am really surprized at how quickly letters get to me. Sometimes it takes only one week. Hope you're lucky and it takes less!!:D

hi my name is kat.
my husband was in fl and i use to write him but he was on a pen pal list to thats where he met his girlfriend but thats beside the point. just write the letter like hes your best friend in the world and itll go through but watch out they read the letters for content"