"Death-Row Pen Pals," is the title of Deidre Depke's Daily Beast report.
A Texas inmate, executed Wednesday, sought companionship via the Internet before his death. Inside the death-row pen-pal business—and how felons bid for friends.
On Wednesday, Danielle Simpson, 30, became the 22nd person executed by the state of Texas this year. A few days earlier, in an interview with the English newspaper The Guardian, Simpson complained of the loneliness of his nine-year incarceration on death row, spent mostly in isolation. "Anything would be better than being here," he said.
But before giving up, Simpson, who was convicted of brutally murdering 84-year-old church organist Geraldine Davidson, had sought solace on the Internet. "I'm seeking to befriend someone of any age, race, etc...about becoming penfriends," Simpson wrote on Deathrowusa.com. "Please do feel more than honorable to contact me at your desire."
Deathrowusa, Writeaprisoner.com, and Prisonpenpals.com are a few of dozens of places on the Web on which convicts can connect with those on the outside. Yahoo alone has 68 groups built around contacting incarcerated people. The sites were originally launched by human-rights and religious groups who were modernizing their longtime efforts to help the imprisoned.
Today the practice has become a business. Inmates are charged (generally about $40 annually) to post a message and a photo, which they send by mail, since few have Internet access. The public, which receives an address at which to write to the inmates, can connect with prisoners for free. Most sites urge respondents to secure a P.O. box for their prisoner correspondence, and all require them to be at least 18 years old. The Web's largest is probably Writeaprisoner (slogan: We'll See You at Mail Call!), founded in 2000 by former Florida lifeguard Adam Lovell. Writeaprisoner, which also attracts advertisers such as phone-card and wire-transfer companies, draws 50,000 visitors a month, Lovell says.
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