Advice For Friends And Family Of Inmates Episodes

Robert, a PenPals.Buzz Super Fan, works as a caretaker in Illinois. After some personal experiences with friends and family members being arrested and incarcerated, he decided it was time for less judgment and more kindness. In addition to helping the free-world senior citizen residents as his place of employment, he felt a strong desire to help those behind the walls, too. That's when, about a year ago, he happened across PenPals.Buzz and began writing to male and female prison inmates around t...

Annie Perry is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who often helps her therapy clients learn to manage grief. She's also a prison wife. Annie met her husband, Henry, nine years ago on a prison pen pal site called Friends Beyond the Wall. Today, their relationship is stronger than ever.Together, they formed a business called JailHouse Books, and have subsequently published over 90 books, including at least 75 activity books created specifically for incarcerated men and women. In addition to sud...

Everywhere you go, everywhere you look, you'll see and hear people asserting that all inmates are scum, that inmates deserve to rot and die in prison. Big Steve disagrees, reasoning that with 2.3 million incarcerated men and women in America, it's impossible to put them all into a tiny little box labeled "SCUM". While some inmates (like the ones depicted in movies) have committed heinous crimes and may be where they need to be, our mission is to share with the world some more uplifting stories of prison inmates. Redemption is possible. Thousands, just like our guest on this week's episode, have worked tirelessly to change their lives for the better. When we interview Daniel Morris, you won't hear Hannibal Lecter. You won't hear Charles Manson. You'll hear a human being who admits he made some terrible choices in life, but who has worked unbelievably hard to improve himself both mentally and physically. You'll meet a guy who loves the stock market, loves octopuses, loves his daughter, …

Here's a fairly common scenario: you meet an amazing pen pal, you exchange letters and emails, talk on the phone, and make a genuine connection. But you want something more. You want to see them in person, hug them, hear their laugh, or even eat a meal together. It's time to think about filling out a visiting application. Visiting an inmate, especially if it's your first time at a prison, can cause feelings of stress and anxiety. However, it's not as scary as it probably seems. In this episode, PenPals.Buzz founder, Big Steve, and office manager, Daisy, share their real-life stories and advice to help ensure your first visit goes as smoothly as possible. They also discuss topics such as visiting room food, dress codes, do's and don'ts, and even the people you may meet in the waiting room. Steve also speaks with a PenPals.Buzz member, Jacques Avery, who is incarcerated in Illinois and hoping to meet a woman who will eventually visit him.

Prisons in over 15 states no longer deliver physical mail. Birthday cards, letters, and family photos now all must get scanned and uploaded to an inmate's tablet. Those without a tablet can pay for a printed color copy of the mail. The process is slow and flawed; mail often can take months to arrive, the quality of the scans is abysmal. What's worse, the purported benefit of reducing drugs and dangerous contraband from entering facilities never came to fruition. In fact, Missouri reported more drug overdoses a year after their Mail Scanning Policy was implemented. In this week's episode, Big Steve unveils the real reasons why prisons have implemented these draconian measures. The answer may surprise and sadden you. He will also explore the ways these sadistic policies by prison officials have created more harm than good for everyone involved.