Letters to criminals

[AcornAutumn]

Yes, it's a weird one

I was thinking about how some serial killers etc get people writing them letters.

What happens in high security prisons? I'm guessing the letters get read before they are passed on?

And are criminals free to write back to whoever writes to them?

I guess i just thought there'd be an approved list or something!

That's horrible, you'd think the prison would refuse to send out abuse letters from inmates

The letters aren't consistently checked even in higher category prison. Some prisoners may have markers that means their mail is checked (i.e. correspondence with someone you can't contact, writing to a child if you are a paedophile) but other than that they can send and receive letters as they like

I know someone who did this anonymously through a charity. They left her full name on one letter and he used that to find her address through his prison contacts. He is a very dangerous man and she was lucky that when he was released he was housed far away and didn’t show up on her doorstep.

@PolPotNoodle

The letters aren't consistently checked even in higher category prison. Some prisoners may have markers that means their mail is checked (i.e. correspondence with someone you can't contact, writing to a child if you are a paedophile) but other than that they can send and receive letters as they like

It's mad isn't it.

Thank you all for the answers.

My gran, god I loved her to pieces but she was mad as a box of frogs.

She wrote to a man on death row in Alabama called Eric for years, and he’d phone her too. She just saw it as part of her charity work. I’m pretty sure I remember saying happy Christmas to him on the phone once, and she’d always have me draw him little pictures and letters and so on and he said he’d put them up in his cell!

He was definitely on death row, I’d love to know his story! Such a random thing to get your granddaughter involved in! I was about 6/7 at the time.