Success Stories Episodes

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...

This holiday season, we celebrate myriad lifelong friendships and relationships which we have helped facilitate between incarcerated individuals and their free-world pen pals. In 2024 alone, PenPals.Buzz helped generate hundreds of long-term friendships and relationships, several engagements, and at least three marriages! On this final episode of the year, we interview Patrick and Melissa Cloud, who met right here on PenPals.Buzz. Learn about their journey and discover how a nurse from South Dakota found happiness with a prison inmate in Washington state. We wish them all the best for 2025 and beyond.Later in the episode, we talk with PenPals.Buzz member Zachary (Zac) Lopez. Zac, a 24-year-old Christian incarcerated in Idaho, shares with us what Christmas is like in prison. Learn about how the holiday affects prisoners' emotions in both good and bad ways. Hear what kind of special meal awaits them in the chow hall. And learn about holidays in Zac's unit bring people together around …

Big Steve and his wife, Anya, found love on a prison pen pal website. Today they share stories, red flags, and strategies to help other couples succeed during and after incarceration. Learn what to look for in the initial pen pal ad, what red flags to watch for, and when to know to walk away. Hear about what Anya did to keep the relationship fun and exciting. And enjoy a candid conversation, with lots of laughs, between this happily married husband and wife. It's not easy, but the two of them have proven Love After Lockup is, in fact, possible! And it's not always the way it's depicted on reality TV.