Befriending inmates - would you?

[scottishterrier]

Just to add. I wouldn't knowingly sign up to write with a rapist paedophile or murderer.

 

[krystal&jack]

i almost signed up with a local prison chapel to go and visit people in prison, it's a scheme they have for inmates who don't have family or friends who visit them. They weren't rapists or murderers though.

Reason I was going to do this is my dad was in prison, I'd fallen out with him cos i though it was a pretty damn stupid thing to be doing at his age I refused to visit him or write him letters and I was all he had. He ended up killing himself. When I went to prison to speak to governor and collect his belongings I'd found he'd been on list to get one of these visitor people but it never happened.

So I guess my reason for wanting to do it was a little cos I was feeling guilty over my dad.

I don't think anything wrong wanting to help people, not all people who are inside are bad people. Some f them just need a little help. Think it's a really personal choice that needs a lot of consideration before you would decide to do it.

I in the end decided not to cos I felt it could put me in danger but that was cos it was meeting them face to face, i think i would write but certainly not let me feelings take over and run off and marry someone on death row

 

[frangelle]

Some inmates have no living friends or relatives or have been disowned by them Alot of them have gone through the care systems from a young age too. A penpal means someone for them to to stay in touch with the outside world, someone to listen when they feel down/angry/upset. I happen to think that knowing someone cared enough to take the time and effort to write could mean the difference between coming out and changing or coming out with the no one cares attitite so many do and messing up again.

I couldn't sympathise with someone who had ruined another human beings life be it through murder and leaving the living family behind, rape, child abuse etc. They don't get a second chance so I don't see why these awful people should

Yes I know I'm very intolerant, my OH tells me everyday