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My name is Josh and I have been in and out of lock up facilities since I was 12 years old. Throughout my life I have had little or no support from anyone in my family. Due to that I went in search for support from the wrong people such as drug dealers, gang bangers, and other kids like me.

At the age of seventeen I commited a robbery and was sentenced to six years in the Indiana Department Of Corrections. At seventeen! I have been locked up for over five years and during that time I have had no support from my family. No visits, no phone calls, no letters, no love. In my five years I have seen so many people go home and come back to prison because they had no one to help them adjust to society.

After being locked up for so long, people forget how to function in the real world. MOST inmates are intimidated by the thought of going home. That is so sad and wrong. I used to feel the same way. Then I was introduced to a wonderful family called the Adopt an Inmate family. They introduced me to a loving, caring, and supportive mentor. Because of the support she has given me, I am no longer intimidated by the thought of getting out — because I know there is someone who will be with me and help me.

The saying goes, ‘Two wrongs dont make a right.” How is condeming someone to life behind a wall, alone, right?

I wanted to personally thank you Melissa. This last week I was arraigned for my crime and had my first interview with pretrial services. The advice, articles and links that you so generously provide on your website and newsletters helped me enormously. Using the guidance provided I was able to:

Avoid being remanded to custody until my sentencing.
Allowed to sign a personal surety bond by myself without any need for co-signers.
Understood the entire court process that my attorneys neglected to educate me on beforehand.
Have the condition of being on an ankle monitor during my home confinement removed.
The ability to travel within the continental US with 72 hours notice.
Continue working so I can provide for myself and my family.

During my interview with pretrial services I was able to:

Make a great first impression.
Have them provide allowances for me to continue my volunteer work.
Provide me leniency in my home confinement.

They were so impressed by how well prepared I was and how professional I interviewed that they stated they would support my attorneys efforts in attempting to have my home confinement order removed.

You have my gratitude. Your website provided me with invaluable information to help guide me in this unfortunate circumstance of my own making. I have a long road ahead of me to make restitution to my victims, the shareholders of insurance companies and repay my debt to society. The information you so generously make available will help me immeasurably. If there is anyway that I can repay your kindness or contribute to your website please let me know. Thank you and know that you have made an immense difference in my life.

I just wanted to write you about Adopt-an-Inmate and all the good that the program is doing. The good isn’t just for the inmates but for my family and I. I started with my first inmate in February of 2016 and I am now up to four. I am so pleased with everything involving this program. I look so forward to every mail day and getting letters in the mailbox I must be honest and tell you that when there isn’t one I get a little sad.

I found your site during a Google search on inmates needing pen pals. The reason I started this search was that my husband Steve came home from work (he is a funeral director) explaining to me that he had to pick a young lady up from the medical examiner’s office who had ended her life while in jail. I kept thinking that this young lady must have been in such a dark place to end her life and maybe she didn’t have anyone to talk to or couldn’t say certain things to them. What if that were my kids in that situation and they had no one to talk to, write to, or vent their worries to. This saddened me even more and so I set out to help someone if I could.

When I came across the Adopt an Inmate website I was excited to begin this endeavor. I e-mailed and asked what the process would be to potentially become a pen pal to an inmate. You responded quickly asking about hobbies, and interests, explained it would take a few days to match me up with an inmate and I anxiously waited. Soon I received an e-mail with my adopted inmate’s name, Angeline, her contact information, and a little about her. I sat down that night and wrote my introduction letter to her. I couldn’t wait to get it into the mailbox. Within a short time I received a response in the mail from my new pen pal. It was amazing to learn about her, and even more amazing to find out how much the two of us had in common. I couldn’t wait to sit down and respond with my next letter. We wrote back and forth several times and I realized that maybe I could help someone else.

I e-mailed about writing to a second inmate. Within a day or two I received information for Ty. I wrote my introductory letter and was completely amazed with a 14 page response from him! As Ty and I continued to write I would share the letters with my family, and my adult daughters would ask how he was doing. Now both of my girls write to Ty also.

I enjoy every letter that I receive and so I contacted you yet again to see if there was someone that might need my help. This time I received Belinda’s information and began writing. I have since received pictures from both Belinda and Ty and have returned the favor. It is always a great feeling to put a face to the letter I receive.

During this time my husband showed interest in adopting an inmate himself, and he received Zion’s information. Steve and Zion are both veterans and keep in touch regularly. It is great that you have found common interests with everyone that we write to.

My daughter decided that she loved writing to Ty and that she would like to write to someone herself. You responded with a possible match for her but decided that that person wasn’t the best fit for her after all. I appreciated that immensely and thank you for looking out for the best interests of my family. This proves to me that there is someone that genuinely cares for not just the inmates but their pen-pals. You do not complete these matches without careful consideration. This is very important. You found a better match for Kate and I offered write to the other young man instead. So now I am writing to four, my husband and daughter are each writing to one. Although the four that I write to are from different parts of this country, I have something in common with each one of them.

I am not sure how you manage to do all of this but I am grateful that you do. I thank you for allowing me and my family to reach out to each person and put smiles on not just their faces, but ours too. You and Adopt an Inmate are truly amazing! KUDOS to everyone involved and please never give up what you do! You truly help others like us make a difference in the lives of someone else.

I’ve been a penpal for quite some time now. I’ve always chosen my penpals through the main penpal sites. It can be pretty daunting to be honest, there are so many inmates seeking correspondence, wanting to experience a little normality through letters, it makes choosing very difficult. If you’re like me, you’d write to every single one of them. I decided I had the time to offer a new penpal as many of the ones I have now have access to email, so communication is pretty quick.

I came across Adopt an Inmate after searching around the net and Facebook. After looking into this I decided this was right for me. They took some details from me in order to match me up with someone compatible, who had similar interests. Pretty soon I was matched up with my new penpal and correspondence began. We get on great, we talk on the phone and exchange letters.

Being a penpal doesn’t just benefit the inmate, it benefits us too. We give them company, someone to confide in, hope and faith in humanity. You’d be amazed at how many inmates feel like they have been cast away from society. They need us! Doing this has benefited me also. Not only have I learnt about different cultures and beliefs, I’ve also gained many good friends. When I doubt myself as a person, they remind me of who I am, someone full of love and compassion and understanding.

Being a penpal has changed my life for the better. What are you waiting for? Adopt an Inmate now