WriteAPrisoner.com is an online Florida-based business. The business's goal is to reduce recidivism through a variety of methods that include positive correspondence with pen pals on the outside, educational opportunities, job placement avenues, resource guides, scholarships for children affected by crime, and advocacy. The site began primarily as a place to post pen-pal profiles and requests for legal assistance for inmates and has evolved to take a more comprehensive approach to addressing the challenges in the life of an inmate. Studies show many inmates have experienced trauma early in their lives that may have been the impetus for the actions that led to incarceration.
Background
There are approximately 17,000 inmates profiled on the site, most of whom are incarcerated in the United States; however, the site also includes international inmates. Although the site provides no Internet access of any kind to inmates, it has often been called the MySpace and Facebook for inmates by the media. Because the business is housed online and includes inmate profiles, it has been compared to social media; however, most agencies recognize it as promoting traditional pen-pal postal mail because the site provides no mechanism for inmates to access the site online. By 2003, the site had about 10,000 hits per day and presented profiles from inmates in about a dozen countries. Inmates using WriteAPrisoner.com only have access to postal mail. Inmates pay at least $65 per year (with additional options that cost more) to post their profile and photo, which are viewed by the public at no cost. The site encourages writing directly to inmates or sending a first message through its free e-mail forwarding service. The president and owner of the company is Adam Lovell, author of WriteAPrisoner.com's SELF-HELP GUIDE FOR INMATES: Flourishing Through Adversity. In 2010 the website received about 2 million page views per month.
Media
The site received national media attention in July 2003 when Susan Smith, a young mother convicted of killing her children, posted a profile seeking pen-pals, which received 800,000 hits. Smith received more than 6,000 letters in response to her profile. The South Carolina Department of Corrections issued a press release related to the incident. WriteAPrisoner.com removed the profile at Smith's request. The site received some criticism when its spokesperson used the term "freak show" to describe the media coverage of the Susan Smith story. The site later issued a press release apologizing and stating that the term had been taken out of context.
The site has been featured on many programs including 20/20 and E! True Hollywood Story. In March 2006, the site made local news when it posted a profile for Adrian Peeler, who was convicted in the killing of an eight-year-old boy and his mother. The site immediately removed Peeler's profile when the story was featured in the Connecticut Post. The site had also featured a profile for Peeler's brother, Russell Peeler, who was involved in the murder. His profile was also removed by the site. Several states have placed a ban on inmate penpal sites in response to these issues, which the site owner has stated is a violation of the First Amendment.
On October 28, 2014, Lifetime aired the Prison Wives Club reality show, which features some couples from WriteAPrisoner.com in the series. Artist Benjamin Wills' popular exhibit Airplanes at the Kansas City Public Library featured paper airplanes made by inmates contacted through the site. In 2019, Netflix released a new show, Exhibit A, in which an inmate from WriteAPrisoner.com was featured in the first episode. The third and fourth season of WE tv's Love After Lockup also featured inmates from the site.