do they know it’s christmas time at all

prisoners don’t just go away.

The other day on NPR, there was a bit about mandatory minimum sentencing for nonviolent drug offenses, which got me thinking. There are a lot – a LOT – of people in prison for the dumbest reasons imaginable. I happened to have a few extra Christmas cards, and a couple stamps kicking around, so why not?

Googling around for prison pen pal sites came up with http://www.friendsbeyondthewall.com , and a few clicks later I had the face, bio, and mailing address of some woman incarcerated in Texas staring back at me. I wrote out something pretty generic about happy holidays and whatnot, stuck on a stamp, addressed it, and boom.

I figure that no matter what people are in prison for, basically everyone deserves to be happy. If you’re so inclined, you can get the name, address, and other relevant details from the site without any of your information getting passed to them – you have to give a name and email address to the page to have them email you the mailing address, but you can use a fake name and a throwaway email if that makes you feel safer, and just omit the return address from your envelope (I didn’t use one).

Author: pope crunch

fun fact: i am terrible at writing 'about me' or 'biographical info' blurbs hard to believe i know but it's true

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.