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Tis The Season...

farouk said:
We are old fogies...
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It's a good tradition. Letting the more distant friends and family know that you haven't forgotten them and wish them well by going through the effort of mailing a real card with a handwritten note is a much better style than just postig a "merry Xmas guys" message on one's facebook.
 
Claudya said:
It's a good tradition. Letting the more distant friends and family know that you haven't forgotten them and wish them well by going through the effort of mailing a real card with a handwritten note is a much better style than just postig a "merry Xmas guys" message on one's facebook.
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Distance can be metaphorical as well as physical. Letting someone know you are thinking of them can be encouraging to them. And there's a lot of truth - the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus - linked with Christmas, also.
 
It's too late this year because the deadline to sign up has come and gone, but last year I participated in a Secret Santa on Dogster. It was fun, although we were sending gifts to other peoples' pets rather than the people. (Well, you could include something for the person if you wanted to.)
 
A few years ago a woman visited our church on one of the advent sundays. She was part of a prison ministry and asked us to write christmas cards for people in jail, because many of them have no family or at least no functional one, or have been abandonned by their families for being criminals; so many of them would be very lonely during christmas. Thus the christmas cards for encouragement.
I wrote one, but I thought it was extremely difficult to find the right words to encourage a complete stranger, most likely not a christian, in such a dark place in life.
 
Same here if a prisoner is suspicious.
And no, they didn't write back. It was explicitely an anonymous thing. They asked us to sign with our first names only.
(But there are organisations here that facilitate penpalships between "normal" people and prison inmates, because they think that'll help their social rehabilitation and motivate them to seek to return into a normal life when they are released.)
 
no, In America its all mail. not just if they are one the trouble ones. they cant read the letter but just look for things that aren't allowed in jail. that said. you sound against the idea of that. I can see why but it can be helpful.
 
jasoncran said:
no, In America its all mail. not just if they are one the trouble ones. they cant read the letter but just look for things that aren't allowed in jail. that said. you sound against the idea of that. I can see why but it can be helpful.
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Honestly I have little knowledge about how mail to and from prison inmates is handled in Germany, I only know that the guards have the right to search letters from and to inmates and even to read them - except letters from/ to the inmate's lawyer.
What idea do I sound to be against? Searching inmates' mail or having penpalships with prisoners? I'm opposed to neither of them, the penpalships can be a good and encouraging thing.
Although reading prisoners' personal letters can be quite an invasion into their private sphere - imagine some prisoner receiving a letter from his wife with some saucy content, so prison guards must use a lot of discretion here.
 
Claudya said:
Honestly I have little knowledge about how mail to and from prison inmates is handled in Germany, I only know that the guards have the right to search letters from and to inmates and even to read them - except letters from/ to the inmate's lawyer.
What idea do I sound to be against? Searching inmates' mail or having penpalships with prisoners? I'm opposed to neither of them, the penpalships can be a good and encouraging thing.
Although reading prisoners' personal letters can be quite an invasion into their private sphere - imagine some prisoner receiving a letter from his wife with some saucy content, so prison guards must use a lot of discretion here.
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What if the letter says? "be in the yard tomorrow 12PM, when a helicopter will come help you escape". I guess prisoners' correspondence can't be totally private.

It can be a very good thing to write to prisoners, though.
 
farouk said:
What if the letter says? "be in the yard tomorrow 12PM, when a helicopter will come help you escape". I guess prisoners' correspondence can't be totally private.

It can be a very good thing to write to prisoners, though.
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she would have to let the polizai know and also if that was an letter to the inmate. the officer cant read it as he must merely glance but sure if he saw that he wouldn't just let the inmate take that. the yards are supposed to have a tower to control that stuff.
 
jasoncran said:
she would have to let the polizai know and also if that was an letter to the inmate. the officer cant read it as he must merely glance but sure if he saw that he wouldn't just let the inmate take that. the yards are supposed to have a tower to control that stuff.
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Or: "Please find enclosed these razor blades that might help you..."

Total privacy can be tricky for prisoners' correspondence...
 
farouk said:
Or: "Please find enclosed these razor blades that might help you..."

Total privacy can be tricky for prisoners' correspondence...
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in jail there is no privacy. for they have inmate.com frankly I don't care whether they have privacy or not. the only way to have any privacy is to go into the single housing unit. inmate.com is the gossiping its also used by the guards.
 
farouk said:
What if the letter says? "be in the yard tomorrow 12PM, when a helicopter will come help you escape". I guess prisoners' correspondence can't be totally private.
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Haha well that sounds like a lousy escape plan. :lol But I get what you mean. Communication between inmates and outside relatives can be important for example when the inmate is part of a criminal organisation.

Now of course a prisoner may not have the same rights of privacy as they would in the outside world, it's supposed to be punishment after all. But considering the example of a wife sending a letter with some very private messages to her husband in prison. If the guards read it they do not only intrude the inmates privacy, but also the privacy of the wife who is not a prison inmate and may never have commited a crime in her life and who has full right of privacy. That's why guards need a lot of discretion and discrenment what they should or shouldn't read.

It can be a very good thing to write to prisoners, though.
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Yeah, besides the encouragement it'sgood to let those people know that they are likeable people, and not just criminal outcasts. Also, prison inmates are surrounded day and night by other criminals and may get absorbed in a world of crime and disregarding of the law. So having a penfriendship with a "normal" (i.e. well adjusted and non-criminal) person can show them that there's a different and more honest and safe world out there, so they may be motivated to get into that world rather than staying among offenders and commit more crimes.
 
excuse me. the rights of the person who visit, write letters are to my limited knowledge, are abridged. a visitor to jail has no say if they want to enter about being searched before and after visitation.
 
farouk said:
Or: "Please find enclosed these razor blades that might help you..."

Total privacy can be tricky for prisoners' correspondence...
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There's a joke about prisoner correspodence. I hope it works in English.

A prisoner receives a letter from his wife. She writes: "It's spring and with our money being so tight I would like to plant potatoes in our backyard so we can safe some money. But with my bad knees and the children needing all my attention I will barely be able to dig the soil over so I can't plant any vegetables."

The prisoner replies: "Honey, do not, BY ANY MEANS, touch the backyard. The yard is hiding the booty from our last bank heist that I and my buddy Ed did together, and that the police never could solve. Also I had to dispatch Ed when he demanded more than his share, and I don't want you or the kids to accidentially find him when digging the yard."

One day later 50 policemen surround the wife's house. They spend the entire day examining and searching the backyard 2 meters deep, inch per inch. But they don't find aything of interest. So disappointed they leave.

Another day later the wife receives yet another letter from her jailed husband: "My dear wife, I assume the yard is completely digged over now. You only need to plant the potatoes. That's all I could do for you from here. Give the kids a hug from me. Love, your husband."
 
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