Three steps. Most active correspondences last six months to three years. Some last longer.
Filter profiles by interests, age, state, language, or release window. Every profile has been verified against state and federal corrections records before publication. Charges, entry date, and earliest release date are on the public profile so you can decide for yourself.
Through the platform or directly to the person's CorrLinks email or mailing address. If you'd rather not share your physical address, the Letter Relay add-on routes mail through InsideLines and forwards via email.
There's no commitment beyond the first letter. Continue based on what comes back. Pause or close any time. We don't match — we list. You do the choosing.
"The person you write to will care about your letters more than your letters will care about you. That's the asymmetry. It's part of why this kind of correspondence is rare and why it matters."
Decide whether you can be consistent before you start. Most active correspondences last six months to three years; some last longer; some end after a couple of letters. The variable that determines which one yours becomes is almost always whether the outside correspondent kept writing.
A paid listing service that connects incarcerated people with outside correspondents willing to write to them. Inmates pay a quarterly subscription to be listed on this site; outside correspondents browse and write for free. Every listed profile is vetted before publication against the safety rule, and charges are published on the profile so correspondents can decide what to engage with.
Not a dating site. Most correspondences are platonic. We're explicit about this because the category is full of services that hedge it. If your interest is romantic, this may not be the right service for you, and we recommend being honest about that in your first letter rather than discovering it three months in.
Not a charity. Inmates pay to be listed. Outside correspondents are not "giving back" or "serving" — they are choosing to participate in a relationship. The framing of "help" is not how we think about this and is not the framing the listed people are looking for.
Not a religious mission. Many of the people listed here are religious; we respect that fully. The platform itself is secular. If you're looking for ministry-coded correspondence, there are other services that fit better.
Not an activist organization. Some of the people listed have strong political views, including about the carceral system itself. That's their voice, not ours. InsideLines is a service, not a politics.
Outside correspondents who can write a real letter once or twice a month for a sustained period. The minimum cadence we'd point you at is one letter every 4–6 weeks. The cadence at which a correspondence usually settles into something durable is about every two weeks.
People who can hold honest conversation about real things. Politics, faith, family, books, what you're working on, what you're afraid of, what you regret, what you find funny. Not "what's it like inside" as the only thing you ask about — the people listed here are not interview subjects.
People who are not looking for a transformation arc. The person you write to is not a project. They are a person with a life, an interior, opinions, and a reading list. The brand voice on this site doesn't lean on redemption rhetoric because the people we work with don't talk about themselves that way and don't want correspondents who do.
People who want to write three letters in the first month and then taper. The inside correspondent's experience of that pattern is being abandoned mid-conversation. We'd rather you not start than start and stop.
People looking for romance or sexual content. Other platforms exist for that; this isn't one.
People who would write a stranger to feel better about themselves. The asymmetry rule is the most important thing on this site. Read it again above.
The inside correspondent receives your letter via the channel you used (CorrLinks email, physical mail, or Letter Relay). Reading and reply latency varies by facility — some inmates have daily terminal access, some weekly. Expect a 1–4 week reply window on the first exchange. Subsequent letters usually move faster as the rhythm settles.
If you wish to pause or close the correspondence at any point, you may do so without penalty. We ask that the decision be communicated explicitly rather than executed through silence. The inside correspondent has no way to distinguish a deliberate ending from a postal delay, and a brief closing message is a more considered ending than indefinite absence.
InsideLines does not list anyone convicted of crimes against women, children, or vulnerable adults. We verify charges against state and federal corrections records before publishing any profile.