Many prisons have digital messaging options available. Instead of sending physical letters back and forth with your penpal, you can send digital messages. This allows for much faster communication and is preferred by many penpals on the inside. There are many different companies that offer e-messaging; your penpal will be your best resource in determining which service their facility uses.
While often referred to as email, there are important differences, which is described in this Prison Policy Initiative brief. It is important to recognize that the companies that run these messaging services are exploitative and profiting off of the prison industrial complex. We know that we sometimes elect to still use these services, however problematic, because our penpals have asked us to.
There are a few different e-messaging services that most facilities use. One of the most common is JPay.
Setting Up a JPay Account
- Go to JPay.com
- On the left-hand side of the screen, there is a sign up search (pictured on the right). On JPay, you create an account by first entering your penpal’s information. Enter your penpal’s state and DOC number.
- If your penpal’s name comes up, click on your penpal’s name.
- Enter your email address and create a password, agree to the terms of service, and register for your account
- Consider downloading the JPay app to your phone so that you can more quickly receive notifications for new messages and send messages from your phone
- You will need to fill out some of your profile information – including payment information, so that you can pay for “stamps.”
Sending Message on the JPay App
- Open the app on your phone
- Click on the “Email” icon
- Click “Inbox”
- On the bottom right hand corner, click on the icon of a square and pencil in order to compose a new message
- Click the “+” icon on the “To” line in order to select the recipient for the letter. Note that you must have already added them to your account in order to send an email to them
- Click the “+” icon on the Attachments line if there are pictures or other items you’d like to attach to the message
- Select “Pre-paid?” if you would like to cover the cost of the return “stamp” that your penpal on the inside would otherwise have to pay in order to respond to your message
- Compose your message
- Click send!
There are a few other companies that also do e-messaging that your penpal’s facility might use instead. They are the best resource in figuring out what service their facility uses. There will be a similar sign up process for each of these. Each one might be a bit different and there can often be unexpected challenges, glitches, etc. Don’t give up! If it’s repeatedly not working, consider using a different browser, using the app, or checking a different day.
Tips:
- Make sure you let your penpal know how often you’ll be able to send messages since this is faster than letter writing
- Sending messages costs money check to see if your penpal has credits or funds for messages, if not you can consider sending funds (either by pre-paying for replies or sending money to a pen pal’s commissary account)
Here are some of the other websites that might be helpful:
- Securus: SecurusTech.net
- Connect Network/Viapath https://web.connectnetwork.com/