is there anything wrong with writing to an inmate in jail?

Answer 1

no, its not wrong...as long as you are not doing it looking for love
as a matter of fact, the bible says prisoners are to be visited and ministered to Matthew 25:35-46

Answer 2

It may not be wrong. But its like walking thru a bad part of town, at night, alone, and with your money sticking out of your pockets. You may be lucky if all you lose is your money.

Inmates fall into 2 categories. Those in jail and those in prison. People in jail are serving 12 months or less. Those in prison are serving 1 year or more. In most cases, a judge has let them off with a warning and probation several times before finally giving up on them and sentencing them to incarceration.

Sometimes jail is seen as kindergarden - when they get to the serious offenses - then they may get caught and serve years in prison.

Inmates tend to be "victims" - they didn't really mean to do a "bad thing" it was really because of something beyond their control. But if they can not made a good decision, what kind of decision are they making when they correspond with you?

Inmates appeal to the "good girls" - those who are lonely and who want to help others. Inmates can be very good at being manipulative. Sex offenders are so good at it, that probation & parole officers receive annual training on how to handle them.

I worked for a state's Dept of Corrections for 12 years. Each year, inmates were evaluated by trained counselors to determine what level of security (low, medium, and high) the inmate should be in. The counselors had the ability to adjust the scoring based upon their perception of what the inmates were telling them. Scoring was based upon information on behavior (had the inmate been in trouble) and time to serve (already served & to be served). Since I was in the computer department, I develop a computer program to automatically do the scoring and compared this to the scoring that had already occurred. There was a 25% error rate where the counselors were conned by the inmates into placing them into lower security levels. So even experienced and trained people can fall under the influence of inmates. And this trained staff is rotated so they do not stay assigned to the same inmate, year after year.

If you want to do something positive, join an organization in your area that is trying to make it a better community. You may have fun, meet some people with similar interest and....who know what may happen. Try your local civic groups or Big Brothers/Big Sister organization. Or contact the Youth Service America (www.ysa.org to see what volunteer opportunities are in your area.)

Answer 3

No, I dont think so. I have a friends who's brother got locked up. I never knew him before he went to jail. We would always hear stories about each other from her, we decided to become pen pals. Ive been writing to him for 2 years now. Hes a great friend, hes not a bad person at all. Sometimes people are just mislead by friends. We all make bad decisions in the heat of the moment. Just because we make wrong decisions doesnt mean that we are horrible people who desrves no friends. I feel sorry from him and I always send magazines, cards, letters and different things to him. I t seems as thought he's going to be there for a long time. I hope one day I can actually meet him in person. So basically, you SHOULDNT give your info to a complete stranger. Thats a VERY BAD idea. But in my case it's different, my good friend is his sister and my co-worker.

Answer 4

Most inmates use people to get them to put money on their books to purchase commissary items-to make their stay more comfortable. i worked in a jail and saw this so many times! One guy was writing to 5 different girls, saying all the same things to them, asking for $10 or $20 (all the while telling her everything she wanted to hear..like, "Your the kind of woman that can make me quit this life and go legit" etc..etc..
Don't even get caught up in that that trash!

Answer 5

Yes. You may feel that its OK, but by associating with people with a criminal background you will slowly become like one of them. I know some people will say that you have to give these people a second chance, but the truth is that they have had many chances. People in jail are not there because of one act, they usually have to get caught several times before they actually get put in jail. ( depending on the severity of the crime ). Anyway, you can find lots of other people to talk to. Let the inmates talk to each other. Please, have yourself a good life.

Answer 6

No, there really isn't anything wrong with it.

A lot of inmates are not monsters like most people think, they're just regular people who made mistakes and really are looking forward to being a productive member in society again.

Just be careful with who you get in touch with.

Answer 7

nothing is wrong if you already know the person and as far as your personal info being spred thats not true, the jailer takes the letter out of the envelope skims through it then gives it to the inmate so they rarely get the envelope besides you dont have to write it on all the letters just the 1st one if they dont aready know it plus you can get a po box and a pen-pal name!

Answer 8

Wrong, no. Stupid, yes. Most of those inmates are in there for a good reason - they're DANGEROUS. If not to your body, than to your pocketbook. Ask any police officer how many people got robbed, raped or murdered by criminals they met while the criminal was in jail.

Answer 9

There is nothing immoral about it, but it might not result in being beneficial to you.

The odds are greater that you might be abused in some way by someone in jail are greater than if you wrote someone you picked at random from the phonebook.

Answer 10

Only the fact that you obviously have too much time on your hands.....

Now think......what other more productive things could you be doing? Or do you really think that it's your destiny to help all the poor losers in the world. That's what jail is for!