Postal Mail Episodes

Thinking about writing to a prison pen pal? Before you choose an inmate, you might want to think about what state they’re incarcerated in. In this quick-hit episode, Big Steve breaks down which states and messaging services can make communicating with an inmate easy—and which ones can turn it into a frustrating nightmare. He covers Corrlinks, JPay, Securus, Getting Out, Smart Inmate, and Corrlinks Text Chat, along with the best and worst states for traditional snail mail. He also explains why fe...

Prison Pen Pals, defined as prison inmates who write letters to people on the outside, may be incarcerated for doing really bad things, but they're STILL HUMAN. That's the belief of Salena in Indiana, a 22-year-old student (and soon to be school teacher) who has written over 30 prisoners in the past two years. "You think they're bad, but they're actually really sweet," Salena noted on this episode, adding that prison inmates (and her prison pen pals) are still human and still deserving of human ...

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.