Why you should become a pen pal for a prison inmate?

A prison is a monotonous place and it gives a sense of relief whenever someone understands the feeling. Having pen pals in prison is certainly a gift of friendship that has the potential to change the behavior. Are you interested in being a pen pal in prison? To be honest, in case you are thinking anything along those lines, it is a great decision. Writing to someone in prison will help the inmates a lot and also you, the pen pal. The idea of having a pen pal is fascinating as you get to be in touch with a person of the different career, culture, language, etc... One gets to know about a lot of things by simply writing. The learning can be considered a firsthand experience.

Talking about prison pen pals, it has several benefits that can’t be overlooked. For starters, it gives the prison inmates a sense of relief from the monotony. They get to express their feelings and feel good about their own lives. With someone on hand with whom they can share their innermost secrets and desires, prison inmates can feel the positivity of compassion. This compassion is infectious and has the potential to spread on to anyone who is one either side of it.

Though, there can be no reasons for making someone feel good, here are some reasons you should write to a pen pal in prison.

•         Improve compassionate behavior: When you start writing to pen pals in prison, no matter whatever motivation it is, you start becoming more compassionate. Compassion is one of the most humane qualities that you can work on. A compassionate person in return tends to harbor empathy and sensibility. These qualities will make you a better person in future.

•         Look at the other side: Generally, we tend to ignore a side which doesn’t suit our ideology completely and that has several repercussions. Writing letters to pen pals in prison can make us look at them and any problem in general from all possible perspectives. There are several instances where prison pen pals have transformed into a different person, albeit better.

•         Be the reason for someone’s happiness: Talking about humane things, the best thing anyone can ask for is making someone else happy. Making a stranger happy is the best feeling that you can ever imagine. Prison inmates have pent-up emotions which they are typically unable to show. With you being the pen pal, it becomes easier for them to express what they are going through. Sharing emotions eventually makes people happy and you can be the reason for someone’s happiness. Moreover, writing makes them emotionally stable to fit in when they get out.

Our society is an unforgiving one. We tend to behave harshly towards prison inmates. Most of the times we tend to forget that they are also humans. It is understandable that they have done some heinous crimes, but aren’t they paying for it? In addition to that, some are also wrongly convicted. To keep humanity alive, and to give it back to the society, it is better to be a pen pal in prison. It has the potential to change a lot of things in your vicinity and it will.

Breaking The Monotony In The Prison Routine

“Prison Inmates.” The first thing that comes to anyone’s mind after hearing these two words is often something along the lines of cruel, heinous, or even deservingly. However, most people tend to comfortably forget the other side of the coin. The side which describes the inmates alone and institutionalized is often overlooked. Agreed, they committed crimes. But, they are serving sentences for it and it doesn’t make them any less human. The way we treat prison inmates might make us more human. There is a constant need for companionship in most prison inmates and we, the free people, should acknowledge the same. A prison pen pal is one of the best ways to break the monotony of prison inmates and a source of companionship.

Correctional facilities are in place to make the inmates a better person. However, as the popular saying goes, “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop”. The same holds true in the case of prison inmates as well. Having prison pen pals is just one way of showing the much-deserved compassion to inmates on the other side of the barbed wire. The prison pen pals system is a proven method of getting the inmates writing and sharing their thoughts outside. It is always a great pleasure to have a friend. When that friend is someone from the outside and has the time to listen (or rather read) your grievances and achievements, it feels good. It is a known fact that the sense of achievement increases when shared with a dear one. The inmates of the correctional facilities have no real dear one. A prison pen pal can be the one inmates share their true feelings with.

There are several instances where a prison pen pal has had a lasting impact on an inmate. Sometimes, so much so that, the prison inmates have changed for the better. No matter which part of the world you are in, having an institutionalized routine life is harsh. With a prison pen pal at hand, the prison inmates can spend their time judiciously. This can act as a learning curve as well. If an inmate rectifies his/her mistake after having a prison pen pal, it is a success for the correctional facility, as well as the whole of humanity.

Try being a little more compassionate to people on the other side of the wall and become a prison pen pal.  Bring back the old idea of a pen pal back to the fore while providing companionship to the ones who need it the most.