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10 Do’s and Don’ts of Writing an Inmate.
Sometimes the Lord uses our gifts and talents in ways we never imagined. I remember asking Him once “why do I like to write letters” In 2008 I was writing a friend of mine in prison and the Lord said “you could do this as a ministry.” I had already been sending letters to people in the county jail since 2006.In this post, we will focus on writing to an inmate. The rules I share are geared towards an individual writing the letters.
The rules can be a little different if it’s a group or a church. Such as sending money. If your group or church feels called to help them financially then by all means follow the Lord’s leading. It is crucial to be very careful when dealing with people in prison and the type of personal information you share with them. It is always best to err on the side of caution and protect yourself as much as possible without being too distant. Let’s go over some do’s and don’ts.
- Do not give out your address. Use your church’s address or get a P.O. box.
- Do not give them your last name, at least not until you’ve been writing them for a while and have built up some trust. With the popularity of social media, they can have someone look you up on Facebook, Twitter etc. and find information about you. Even if they tell you they have no one on the outside, they may not be telling you the truth.
- Do not send them money or put money on their books.
- Do not get personally involved. There are a lot of inmates who are just looking for someone to use to get things from. It’s best if women write the women inmates and men write the men inmates.
- Do not ask questions. You CAN ask about their kids. They seem to love talking about their kids.
- Do not enable them.
- Accept them where they are spiritually. I had one inmate tell me once, that they knew they needed to accept Christ as their Savior, but weren’t ready to yet.
- Be their friend. I once had an inmate tell me they just wanted someone to be their friend and not walk away from them without saying good-bye.
- Do not find people on Facebook for them. The person they are looking for may not want to have contact with them. If you do find someone for them, contact the person or persons and let them know the inmate is wanting to have contact with them, then let them choose if they want to contact the person in prison.
- Do not ask why they are in prison. Sometimes they will assume you already know, in that case I would say it’s okay to look them up on their states Department of Corrections website.