The Pen Pal from within the High Walls

On the inmate letter exchange program here…giving both individuals, different perspectives of life…translated…

The “Classmate” Held Nothing Back, in Introducing Himself, His Date of Birth, and Why He’s, Serving Time, Too Blunt that It Was, Surprising to the Members of the Audience………

I’d thumbed across the internet, of an ad for pen pals for the “classmates” who are, a “watch group for the penitentiary”.  Recalled how as I was, just out of the services, I’d felt a ton of bad feelings, didn’t want to trouble my families, and can, only write to my fellow, servicemen who’d served in my time.  And, I had a record of thirty-three letters in one week in my spare time in the busyness of my service term.  Trading thoughts with the various servicemen of my term scattered all over the island, that was, my major emotional support that’s helped me weathered through the very long service term.

The addresses we used, were all coded, we can’t disclose to one another of the missions we’re on, nor the location of where we all were, in those times of the period of authoritarianism being just over, we could, get punished severely for this.  Being like the “classmates”, at least, I got to write the letters, out on leave of holidays, but for the “classmates” who were sent into “study”, they can’t write at any time they wish to, it depends on their behaviors.  The fourth grade “freshmen”, can only write to their next of kin, and there were also the limits to the number of letters they get to write, and, the benefits are also, different with the years served as well.

illustration from UDN.com

To the classmates, the birth of a letter, was way more, difficult than those from outside can, ever, imagine.  Having served my service terms, I could, empathize with the trials of what these, “classmates” were, going, through, as I’d past the orientation, I’d, immediately signed on as a volunteer penpal with those serving time, after a few months, after the sponsor program matched me up, I’d received, my very, first, letter.

The “classmate” openly introduced himself, his date of birth, reason why he’s serving the time, too blunt it was, very, surprising to me.  In the prison, other than not having the freedoms, the technologies were back decades of times, no cell phone, no computer, letter writing, are restricted to pen and paper form.  The man whom I exchanged letters with, is a young lad, he wrote with such animation, with the cutesy pictures on the papers, actually, I could’ve, typed the letters to send back to him, but, to show the ingenuity, I’d, selected the letter papers with the red lines.  It’d been too long since I’d sent a letter, the postal code changed to six-digit now, and, the cost of stamps went from five dollars to eight now too.

a handwritten letter to someone who’s serving time in prison…found online

All the letters, were sent, unified into an office, all the letters sent to and from, all go through the office, and the senders can’t sent them by mail nor receive them individually, to evade from disclosing the inmates’ locations which are the, penitentiaries.  Waited until the “classmates” wrote bac, the sponsor organization then, scanned them into electronic format, then, e-mailed the letters to me.

Based off of the rules, the “classmates” need to use their real names, comparing to how my pen pal wrote, I’d also, dissected my own self, talked about my interests, my life, I wrote in pseudonym and, it all depends on, how much of my own self I want to, disclose, to him.

It’d been a long, long time since I actually wrote the letters by pen, I’d forgotten a lot of the, characters, thankful, that dictionary was only, dusty, I’d not, discarded it, otherwise, I can also, look up the characters online.  The letter correspondences took me back to the elementary school years, I’d, relearned the strokes of the characters and the phonetic spelling, this is, an alternative sort of, getting an, education, I suppose.

Don’t know if it was my ingenuity that’s moved my first pen pal, he’d, introduced more of his, “classmates” to start corresponding with me, it’d, encouraged me.

This plan that began from the height of the pandemic, with the convicted unable to have any visitors, in two short years, the volunteer responders went from single digit to eight hundred, and there were, as many as 1,500 “classmates” who wanted to be pen pals with someone on the outside, the total number of letters coming and going passed ten thousand to date.

There are, about 50,000 total “classmates” who are, “studying” within the, tall walls of the penitentiary, some had lost the support from their loved ones, and, the volunteer correspondents accidentally, became, their, families.  On the surfaces, it seemed, like it was the volunteer correspondents, offering the inmates care and concerns, but, looking at it closely, the inmates also, opened up a window, for the volunteer correspondents, to see the society, more, clearly.

The originally two tracks of life that normally wouldn’t intersect, through the letters, connected up, showing many of the, amazing sights of, life, I helped my classmate to see the wide open oceans from my end, and the classmate helped me see the sharpened cliffs on his, side too.

So, this is, a sort of a, reform program for the convicted, like the program of training service dogs, and, this, is a reward, for good behavior, because these individuals who are, serving their times in the tall, tall walls had, done something bad, that’s why they’re, on the, inside, and, the exchanges of, correspondences, can help them introspect about what they’d done wrong, and, how it feels, to be free again, and hopefully, it will, keep them, from breaking the laws repeatedly, so they don’t get, put back, inside, the four walls again.