Meet an Inmate
Certain things in life evoke mixed emotions. Mild amusement, bewilderment, shock…sadness. Such was the case when I stumbled upon Meet an Inmate where “lonely attractive inmates in the USA seek penpals.”
I browsed around for a minute, somewhat astonished. It’s a nice idea, I’m sure many folks in jail would appreciate some contact with the outside world. But, I found it odd that the crimes committed were not listed anywhere, especially because this site is working the dating service angle (lonely attractive inmates). Personally, the crime that put them in jail is relevant information that I’d like before giving out my mailing address and beginning a relationship with them.
Anyway, I felt so weird about it, I figured I should write about it and see what you guys think. Just to be clear, just because you’re in jail doesn’t mean that you’re an evil or dangerous person. I’m sad to say I’ve had several friends wind up in jail (mostly during high school for various stupid, but harmless, things). But there are also some evil scary mo-fo’s in jail too. Anyway, this sites strikes me as somewhat exploitative, since they’re charging money and profiting off the inmates’ loneliness and desperation. Maybe I’m blowing it out of proportion?
What do you think?
December 16th, 2006 at 4:22 pm
Wow, that seems sketchy for so many reasons. (And, like you, I understand that people go to jail under many, diverse circumstances — a number are even innocent!)
1) There’s kind of a mismatch between the phrases “attractive” and “penpal” — I can’t quite tell if they’re looking for conversational partners or something more along the lines of life partners.
2) I seem to recall hearing many stories about gullible women devoted to scary male felons (why is does it never seem to be the other way around?), claiming “He’s really kind and loving!” after the guy went to jail for mass murder or something. (Okay, this is a bit exaggerated, but you get my point.)
3) I didn’t catch onto the inmate-exploitation angle you brought up, but that’s an important one. The folks in prison are already exploited in so many ways, mostly by the state or corporation running the facility.
Then I visited the site. It seems to be your run-of-the-mill e-cottage industry site, complete with a couple of animated GIFs. (Site was made in FrontPage, to no one’s surprise.) Down at the bottom I see “Meet-An-Inmate.Com is Ranked Number One”, according prisonpenpaldirectory.com. Is this a little-known subculture, people who seek out inmates to become penpals? That’s one thing, but the dating twist kind of throws me off.
I dunno.
January 5th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
seems fine to me - “make an inmate smile” - is a tagline that touches me.
for instance -
http://www.meet-an-inmate.com/ladies/esther-9831.htm
esther seems nice. we knew an esther in san diego, she ran the Royberto’s burrito shop that we used to play nba jam at. she had the cool shell toe adidas too. liek you said, not everyone in jail is a evil or dangerous person. and even if they are, maybe some people are looking to meet evil and dangerous people. so that seems fine too.
i’d write more comments here, but i just noticed that esther will be released on 1/21/07 - so i gotta get my letter out to her real fast.
what’s the url of your potential pen pal?