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Prison Pen Pal Safety

Writing to an inmate can be meaningful, but every new correspondence should begin with thoughtful privacy choices, clear boundaries, and attention to conduct. This guide explains how to protect personal information, respond to financial requests or unwanted contact, recognize pressure or deception, and report concerns through the appropriate channel. Incarceration itself is not a warning sign. Safety decisions should be based on conduct, requests, and circumstances.

Before Correspondence Begins

Making a few decisions before you write can help you communicate more confidently and respond consistently if a concern develops.

Decide What Personal Information to Share

You can introduce yourself honestly without sharing every personal detail immediately.

Before beginning correspondence, decide whether you are comfortable sharing your:

Never provide passwords, authentication codes, banking credentials, payment-card details, Social Security numbers, copies of identification documents, or access to personal accounts.

Follow the facility’s requirements for sender identification and return addresses. Privacy choices do not override correctional rules or postal requirements.

Choose a Return-Address Option Carefully

If you prefer not to disclose your residential address, you may investigate a USPS P.O. box or a private or commercial mailbox.

Neither option is universally accepted by correctional facilities. A commercial mailbox is not a guaranteed workaround when a facility rejects P.O. box return addresses. Verify that the facility accepts the address type you plan to use and follow its requirements for the sender’s name and return address.

USPS identifies businesses that receive mail for customers as Commercial Mail Receiving Agencies. Commercial mailbox addresses generally use the provider’s street address with the required private-mailbox designation and assigned number. Review the USPS rules for P.O. boxes and commercial mail-receiving agencies.

For detailed mailing, addressing, and return-address guidance, read How to Write to an Inmate.

Verify Facility Rules and Approved Channels

Before communicating, verify the person’s current facility and the facility’s correspondence rules through the responsible correctional agency or facility.

Depending on the facility, communication may be available through:

A provider may offer different services at different facilities. Confirm the approved provider and available features before creating an account, paying a fee, or sending content.

LockedIn Letters does not operate USPS, a correctional mailroom, or a digital correspondence provider.

Set and Maintain Clear Boundaries

A respectful correspondence does not require unlimited access to your time, personal information, money, family, social-media accounts, or future plans.

Decide Your Limits Before You Write

Consider your boundaries involving:

Your boundaries may change as the correspondence develops. You are not required to continue something that no longer feels appropriate or comfortable.

Communicate a Boundary Clearly

If a request makes you uncomfortable, respond directly and calmly.

You might say:

A boundary does not require an argument or a lengthy justification.

Respond to Repeated Boundary Violations

A single request and repeated pressure are not the same.

If someone continues after you have stated a boundary, you may:

Evaluate the conduct itself. Do not treat incarceration as proof that a person will disregard a boundary.

End Correspondence When Necessary

Either person may decide not to continue correspondence.

If you want communication to stop, state that clearly when it is safe to do so. Use provider blocking controls where available. If communication continues, contact the provider or facility for its current reporting and contact-restriction process.

Blocking and reporting tools vary. Do not assume that every provider or facility uses the same procedure.

Recognize Conduct-Based Warning Signs

Incarceration itself is not a warning sign. Evaluate conduct, requests, pressure, inconsistencies, threats, account activity, and the circumstances of the communication.

Ordinary friendship, emotional openness, religious beliefs, relationship interest, or a person’s incarceration should not automatically be described as suspicious.

Pressure, Urgency, and Secrecy

Use additional caution when someone:

Urgency does not prove fraud. It is a reason to pause and verify the request independently.

Deception and Impersonation

Impersonation may involve someone claiming to represent:

Caller identification, messages, documents, and account names can be manipulated. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recommends verifying suspicious requests through an independently located official telephone number or website. Review the CFPB’s guidance on common fraud and impersonation schemes.

Do not use the contact information supplied in a suspicious message as your only method of verification.

Threats, Coercion, and Retaliation

Threats and coercion are more serious than an ordinary disagreement or uncomfortable request.

Examples include:

Preserve relevant information when safe. Contact the appropriate correctional facility, provider, or law-enforcement agency based on the circumstances. Contact emergency services if there is an active crime or immediate danger.

Requests Involving Accounts or Third Parties

Use caution if someone asks you to:

The FBI describes a money mule as someone who transfers illegally acquired money for another person. A person can become involved knowingly or without understanding the entire scheme. The safest practice is not to receive or move money at another person’s direction through your personal account. Review the FBI’s money-mule guidance.

Handle Financial Requests Carefully

A financial request is not automatically fraud, and a writer is never obligated to provide money.

Evaluate the request, the conduct surrounding it, the payment method, and whether the instructions match the correctional agency’s official process.

A Financial Request Is Not Automatically Fraud

Some incarcerated people use authorized deposit systems for commissary, communication services, or other permitted expenses. A legitimate authorized system does not make every individual request appropriate for you.

Before deciding, consider:

You may say no without ending the entire correspondence. Repeated pressure after you decline is a separate boundary concern.

Verify the Facility’s Authorized Deposit Process

Do not rely solely on payment instructions received in correspondence.

Verify the current process through the correctional agency or facility’s official website. Confirm:

Some correctional systems officially authorize commercial services such as MoneyGram, Western Union, JPay, or other providers. The Federal Bureau of Prisons, for example, publishes specific federal deposit options. Those federal procedures do not apply automatically to state, county, or private facilities. Review the BOP’s federal communications and deposit information only when the person is in federal custody.

JPay also provides an official facility availability and pricing tool. Availability, fees, and features can vary.

Be Cautious With Gift Cards, Payment Apps, Wires, and Cryptocurrency

A payment method alone does not prove fraud. The surrounding instructions and conduct matter.

Use additional caution when someone demands:

The FTC explains that gift-card scammers commonly create urgency and ask for the card number and PIN. If you purchased a gift card connected to a suspected scam, keep the card and receipt and contact the issuer promptly. Review the FTC’s gift-card scam guidance.

Cryptocurrency transactions can be difficult to reverse and generally do not have the same protections as traditional credit or debit payments. Review the FTC’s cryptocurrency scam guidance.

If you believe you sent money through a scam, contact the financial institution, card issuer, payment app, wire company, gift-card issuer, or cryptocurrency exchange immediately. Ask whether the transaction can be stopped, reversed, or refunded. The FTC provides instructions based on the payment method in What To Do if You Were Scammed.

Protect Financial and Identity Information

Never provide:

If identity information has been misused, report it through IdentityTheft.gov and follow the recovery guidance provided for your situation.

Do Not Receive or Forward Money for Someone Else

Do not allow another person to use your account to receive, hold, convert, or forward money.

Money-mule activity can involve:

Someone may be recruited through friendship, romance, employment, or another trusted relationship. The risk is based on the requested conduct, not on incarceration.

Cyber-enabled money-mule activity or online financial fraud may be reported to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Use Physical and Digital Correspondence Channels Safely

Correctional correspondence is governed by the responsible correctional agency, facility, and provider.

Understand Mail Screening and Contact Restrictions

Physical correspondence may be opened, inspected, read, scanned, copied, rejected, or restricted under applicable facility rules.

USPS recognizes that mail addressed to an incarcerated person is delivered to institutional authorities and handled under the institution’s rules. Correctional officials may inspect or refuse mail under applicable regulations. Review the USPS guidance concerning mail addressed to prisoners.

Federal Bureau of Prisons rules provide a federal example. Federal incoming general correspondence may be opened, inspected, and read. Federal rules also describe restricted correspondence and certain rejection procedures. Those procedures apply to federal institutions and should not be treated as nationwide correctional rules. Review 28 CFR Part 540, Subpart B.

State, county, and private facilities may use different procedures. Verify the rules for the specific facility.

Expect Digital Correspondence to Be Monitored

Digital correctional correspondence is not the same as private consumer messaging.

Messages and account activity may be screened, monitored, delayed, rejected, retained, or restricted according to the facility and provider’s rules.

In the federal TRULINCS system, outside contacts must accept the contact request, and electronic messages are monitored and screened. Those are federal rules and should not be presented as universal CorrLinks rules. Review the BOP’s federal communication guidance.

JPay, Securus, ViaPath/GettingOut, and CorrLinks may offer different services at different facilities. Confirm current availability and rules through the facility and the provider’s official website.

Protect Provider Accounts and Login Credentials

Use a unique password for every correspondence-provider account.

Do not:

If you suspect unauthorized access:

  1. Use the provider’s official website or application.
  2. Change the password.
  3. Change any reused password on other accounts.
  4. Enable multifactor authentication if the provider offers it.
  5. Review recent activity.
  6. Contact official provider support.

Securus instructs users to protect account credentials and report unauthorized account use or security breaches. Its services and account controls remain subject to facility and provider rules. Review the Securus Friends and Family Terms.

Confirm Available Blocking and Reporting Tools

Blocking and reporting features vary by provider, product, and facility.

Do not assume that every platform offers:

Use the provider’s current help center and the correctional facility’s current reporting process.

Official provider resources include:

LockedIn Letters cannot block a provider account, control a provider’s investigation, or change a facility’s communication privileges.

Respond to Unwanted or Concerning Contact

Not every concern requires the same response. Consider what happened, whether it is continuing, and whether anyone is in immediate danger.

Ordinary Boundary Concerns

An ordinary boundary concern may involve:

State the boundary clearly. You may slow the correspondence or end it.

An uncomfortable request should not automatically be described as fraud, a crime, or an emergency.

Suspected Fraud or Impersonation

Suspected fraud may involve:

Stop the transaction and verify the request independently.

Contact the relevant financial institution or provider promptly. General consumer scams can be reported through ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Cyber-enabled fraud can be reported through IC3.

Threatening or Coercive Communication

Threatening or coercive communication can include:

When safe, preserve the communication and identifying information. Contact the appropriate facility or provider. Contact law enforcement when the conduct may involve a crime or credible threat.

Reporting the concern to LockedIn Letters may also be appropriate when it involves a listed profile, but that report does not replace outside reporting.

Compromised Accounts

Signs of account compromise may include:

Use the official provider, email service, payment service, or financial institution to secure the account.

Change affected and reused passwords. Report unauthorized transactions immediately. Use IdentityTheft.gov when personal identity information may have been misused.

Immediate Danger

Contact 911 or the appropriate local emergency service when there is:

Do not wait for LockedIn Letters, a provider, or a correctional facility to respond before contacting emergency services when someone is in immediate danger.

Preserve Useful Information Before Reporting

Preserving relevant information can help the organization receiving the report understand what happened.

What Information May Be Helpful

When safe, consider preserving:

Keep the original information when possible. Avoid editing screenshots in a way that removes relevant dates, account identifiers, or context.

Protect Sensitive Information While Documenting a Concern

Do not send LockedIn Letters:

A bank, provider, law-enforcement agency, or other reporting organization may have its own secure process for receiving information. Follow that organization’s instructions.

Evidence Preservation Is Not Universal Legal Advice

Preserving messages, dates, receipts, envelopes, and transaction records is practical reporting guidance.

What should be preserved depends on the circumstances. This guidance does not create a universal legal duty to preserve a particular item, use a particular format, or follow one process in every jurisdiction.

If you need legal advice about evidence, court orders, threats, fraud, or another legal issue, consult a qualified attorney or the appropriate authority.

Report the Concern to the Right Place

Different organizations handle different concerns. Reporting to LockedIn Letters does not replace reporting to a correctional facility, provider, financial institution, postal authority, consumer-protection agency, law-enforcement agency, or emergency service.

Profile or Conduct Concerns Involving LockedIn Letters

Email support@lockedinletters.com about:

Include:

Do not send passwords, payment-card numbers, government identification documents, or unnecessary sensitive information.

LockedIn Letters may review available information, request clarification or reasonable identity confirmation, and correct, hold, or remove a profile when appropriate. A report does not guarantee a particular response time, investigation result, or removal decision.

Review the LockedIn Letters Complaint and Concern Process.

Facility or Provider Concerns

Contact the responsible correctional facility or agency about:

Contact the applicable provider about:

Use official contact information from the correctional agency, facility, or provider.

Financial, Postal, Identity, or Online Fraud

Contact the appropriate organization based on what occurred:

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service accepts reports of fraud involving the U.S. Mail. Review the USPIS reporting options.

The FTC provides reporting and recovery guidance through ReportFraud.ftc.gov and What To Do if You Were Scammed.

Threats, Suspected Crimes, and Emergencies

Contact the appropriate correctional facility and law-enforcement agency when communication includes a credible threat, suspected crime, extortion, or coercion.

Contact 911 or the appropriate local emergency service for an active crime or immediate danger.

LockedIn Letters is not an emergency-response service and cannot replace law enforcement or emergency services.

Follow Contact Restrictions and Applicable Rules

Communication restrictions may come from a court, correctional agency, facility, provider, or another lawful authority.

Court Orders and Victim-Contact Restrictions

Do not knowingly violate or help someone evade:

The exact requirements and consequences vary by jurisdiction and facility.

If an order is unclear, seek guidance from the issuing court, responsible correctional agency, or a qualified attorney. LockedIn Letters cannot interpret or override a court order.

Communication Involving Minors

Rules involving minors vary by:

Do not assume that a rule used by one correctional system applies everywhere. Verify current requirements with the responsible facility or agency.

LockedIn Letters is an adults-only platform for writers. Its 18-and-older requirement does not replace facility rules, parental responsibilities, or legal restrictions concerning contact with minors.

Third-Party Messages, Money, or Materials

Do not carry messages, money, photographs, account information, or other materials between people when a facility, provider, or court order prohibits it.

Be cautious if someone asks you to conceal:

Federal rules require approval for certain correspondence between confined people in federal institutions. Those are federal rules, not nationwide rules. State, county, and private facilities may use different procedures. Review the applicable facility’s current instructions.

Understand LockedIn Letters’ Role

LockedIn Letters provides reviewed inmate profiles and educational guidance. It is not a correctional agency, law-enforcement agency, financial institution, mail carrier, or private messaging provider.

What Profile Review Includes

LockedIn Letters requires participant authorization and approval of profile wording and photographs before publication.

New profiles and material changes are checked against available official records as part of the review process. This check supports profile accuracy but is not a comprehensive background investigation or guarantee of identity, honesty, safety, or future conduct.

It is not:

Public records and facility information can be incomplete, delayed, or outdated.

How LockedIn Letters Handles Reports

LockedIn Letters accepts concerns through:

support@lockedinletters.com

A report should identify the profile, describe what happened, include relevant dates or supporting information, and explain the requested action.

LockedIn Letters may:

The current public process is email-based. LockedIn Letters does not offer a public complaint form or public case tracker.

A report does not guarantee:

What LockedIn Letters Cannot Guarantee or Control

LockedIn Letters does not:

Report urgent issues to the organization that has authority to respond.

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