The more I think about this the more I am against it. (OP - please don't take these comments as personal, they are not aimed at you, more the whole process in general).
I am struggling to see how anybody could be writing to a prisoner for any other reason than personal curiosity - as has already been suggested on this thread there are tons of other ways you can be a pen pal or communicate with people without contacting an actual incarcerated criminal. (Appreciate there are a small number of instances where innocent people are incarcerated but let's face it, the overwhelming majority of these people will have committed the crime they are convicted of). The argument of I'm doing it because "good people sometimes do bad things" or " they had a bad upbringing which affected their decisions - they're not a bad person" doesn't sit well with me. If we were discussing a child rapist, who had been abused all their life, you would not be using their upbringing or past events as a mitigating factor, you'd be disgusted at what they did. So I don't think those arguments can be used to apply to lesser crimes either.
I also can't help but feel that these people on the inside are master manipulators, granted, not all of them but I think a large majority, who will use the pen pals to get what they want, whatever that may be. I cannot see how having a pen pal from a different country will in any way aid their rehabilitation. Let the prisons do what they are there to do, rehabilitate. Contact is allowed with the outside world via phone calls and visits to a select number of people who were involved with the person before they were incarcerated. I can't see why there is any need for a total stranger to be in touch with a prisoner, or what benefit that will have to the ultimate goal of rehabilitation.
I am struggling to see how anybody could be writing to a prisoner for any other reason than personal curiosity - as has already been suggested on this thread there are tons of other ways you can be a pen pal or communicate with people without contacting an actual incarcerated criminal. (Appreciate there are a small number of instances where innocent people are incarcerated but let's face it, the overwhelming majority of these people will have committed the crime they are convicted of). The argument of I'm doing it because "good people sometimes do bad things" or " they had a bad upbringing which affected their decisions - they're not a bad person" doesn't sit well with me. If we were discussing a child rapist, who had been abused all their life, you would not be using their upbringing or past events as a mitigating factor, you'd be disgusted at what they did. So I don't think those arguments can be used to apply to lesser crimes either.
I also can't help but feel that these people on the inside are master manipulators, granted, not all of them but I think a large majority, who will use the pen pals to get what they want, whatever that may be. I cannot see how having a pen pal from a different country will in any way aid their rehabilitation. Let the prisons do what they are there to do, rehabilitate. Contact is allowed with the outside world via phone calls and visits to a select number of people who were involved with the person before they were incarcerated. I can't see why there is any need for a total stranger to be in touch with a prisoner, or what benefit that will have to the ultimate goal of rehabilitation.
I’m almost 30 so not the young silly person everyone thinks haha! X