Grab a friend! (Or two or three!)
Our penpal program has changed significantly.
The #1 request we receive from people inside is to be matched with a penpal.
For incarcerated trans and queer people, penpal correspondence is often the only connection they have to people on the outside.
LGBTQ+ people also faced increased isolation within prisons—such as being placed in solitary confinement “for their own protection.” This makes having outside support all the more important. While our inside members value the birthday cards we mail them, there is no substitute for consistent communication.
Given this, we take our penpal program seriously and have always asked our ‘free world’ penpals to treat their commitment similarly.
However, traditional one-on-one penpaling has so far failed to meet this need.
When we first ran this program in 2020–2022, around 90% of the penpals we paired stopped communicating within the first 6 months.
Penpals might stop writing for any number of reasons, but two themes emerged: those outside prison A) became too preoccupied with other life matters to keep up the correspondence, or B) felt unable on their own to support their penpal through the difficult situations presented by incarceration.
We believe that pairing small groups of friends on the outside with a single incarcerated penpal can address both these issues.
Introducing:
PENPODS
PENPODS
A few years back, one of our outside penpals organized a group of their friends to support their incarcerated penpal’s upcoming release. We thought, What if everyone had that support network from the outset?
A PenPod is simply what we’re calling a group of 2–4 friends writing to a single incarcerated queer or trans person. You can decide for yourselves whether to write your letters together or on your own, but the benefits of acting collectively remain the same: you are able to support one another through the ups and downs of writing to someone in prison, and your inside penpal receives more of the consistent communication they need.
One member of your PenPod is having a busy semester, lost their job, or is moving across the country? Someone else is on hand to ensure that the penpal friendship continues! You want to help your penpal with something major, like preparing for a parole hearing, but don’t know where to start? There’s a team of you ready to divide up the research effort!
We believe so strongly in the potential benefits of PenPods over one-on-one penpaling that we’re making this the default form of our refreshed penpal program.
So really… grab a friend!
(If you truly believe one-on-one penpaling is right for you or your only option, we do still offer that as a possibility—though we'll ask you during the sign-up process to consider some ways to receive extra support in fulfilling your commitment. Please look further down the page for info on where to review our foundational agreements for becoming an individual PenPal. Keep in mind that your one-on-one support will be as friendship only—our program is not for people seeking romantic relationships, even as we recognize and affirm the importance of such intimacy whether inside or outside prison walls.)
Power Blossoms is here to support your PenPod with a shared online interface for writing and receiving mail, at no cost to you—and without lining the pockets of companies that profit off of imprisonment.
Your password-protected PenPod Inbox is where our all-volunteer, community-funded team will scan and upload mail we receive from your penpal at our Los Angeles PO Box. You will also be able to write all your replies online, including the ability to upload handwritten letters, artwork, and photographs that we’ll print in full color and mail swiftly to your penpal. No stamps, no envelopes, and no trips to the post office needed!
This program is entirely free so that it is accessible to the widest range of penpals possible. If you are able to, please donate to support it!
Watch this video for more info:
Send this video to a friend who might be curious about joining your PenPod!
If our PenPod Program sounds right for you and your friend(s), here are the three steps to be matched:
1) At the button below, read fully and complete our PenPod Agreement
2) At your convenience, look over the available penpals to find someone who would be the right fit for your pod
3) Write your first letter to your new penpal—all online.
We will then print & mail your letter so your correspondence can begin right away! A link to your shared PenPod Inbox will follow by email within the next several weeks, in time for the first reply from your penpal to be scanned & uploaded.
If you would strongly prefer to become an individual PenPal instead, head here.
If you want to learn more before proceeding, check out answers to frequently asked questions below!
FAQs about PenPods
There’s no one I know who will form a PenPod with me. Can I still be a penpal?
Don’t be so sure! You might be surprised who in your life could be up for joining you in this undertaking if you share about it with them, answer their questions, and listen to their concerns. It is our hope that the PenPod Program can bring people into prisoner letter-writing who would otherwise never have considered it, over time growing the community of people who care about our queer and trans family behind bars.
However, if you’ve fully thought it over and decided that one-on-one penpaling is right for you (and something you can truly commit to), we do still offer an individual PenPal Program. You can sign up for that here.
We are fine with romantic partners starting a PenPod together, but we ask that you do so thoughtfully and with care. If you break up in the future and need to dissolve your PenPod into separate PenPal Inboxes, contact us right away at letters@powerblossoms.org.
Can my partner and I form a PenPod together?
We set up only one password-protected inbox in our database per PenPod, meaning all members of your group can see all letters mailed to and received from your inside penpal. This is a highly intentional choice designed to help your PenPod act collaboratively in support of your penpal and keep everyone on the same page.
Other than that, your correspondence is confidential and private with one major exception:
Our database is maintained by the same people who print, mail, and scan your letters. We will never read your personal mail unless specifically requested by you.
Please be aware that prison guards often read incoming mail:
Keep your own safety in mind when deciding whether to disclose personal information about yourself in your letters! (For instance, your immigration status or history of incarceration.)
Avoid writing things that could potentially get your penpal into trouble. (Ask them what’s okay to discuss, and reach out to letters@powerblossoms.org with any questions!)
Who can see our correspondence?
Do what works for you! We ask that you at least all contribute something to (and collectively sign) your first letter so that your penpal understands you know each other, but after that, it’s your decision. The PenPod Program is something of an experiment we’re running, so we expect different pods will try different approaches:
Maybe you write your letters at the same time each month and upload them as different pages of the same document
Maybe you rotate who responds to each letter from your penpal
Maybe you each keep up a separate correspondence with your penpal and respond individually as works for your schedule
Maybe you share a Google Doc that melds your voices into one massive heartfelt missive
…or all the above at different points in time!
Do we have to write our letters together?
What do you mean when you call a PenPod a “support network”?
When we first ran a penpal program, we mistakenly tried to get incarcerated and outside penpals to ‘meet in the middle’ on an imaginary ‘even playing field’ where both participants valued and treated their shared correspondence equally. This, however, ignored the reality that your penpal is in prison and you are not. Everyone has their own problems going on, to be sure, but this program exists because penpaling is a lifeline for our members behind bars.
Given this, we believe now it makes more sense to acknowledge from the outset that your penpal will rely on you all for support. What “support” means, though, is for you to decide as a collective. We require only that your PenPod write a minimum of four letters in total in a 6-month commitment window; what those letters consist of or what might occur beyond them is something you’ll navigate together.
You can, for instance, set a boundary with your penpal saying you won’t be able to send them money—or you could fundraise to buy them a package. You could say you’ll do your best to research a legal question they ask you—or state that you don’t have the capacity to do anything more than be friends through your letters. (Etc.) Your penpal will be glad to get to know you all and appreciate the clarity!
FAQs about (One-on-One) PenPals
Why have you deemphasized one-on-one penpaling by making PenPods the default?
We did this to address some basic and depressing math: an overwhelming percentage of the outside penpals who participated in our program in 2020–2022 were breaking the agreement they signed by writing only a small handful of letters and then vanishing off the face of the earth. This is sadly a systemic problem across essentially all prisoner penpal programs.
It is our hope that the PenPod structure will solve some of the problems that lead to lapsed communication—and so we want to guide people towards that structure. In recognition that it might not serve everyone’s needs, however, we are leaving a one-on-one PenPal Program available here. We’re crossing our fingers that those who choose this route will treat their commitment seriously so that we can keep offering it as an option.
Is my correspondence private?
See our answer to “Who can see our correspondence?” above. The same applies to your individual PenPal Inbox, except of course that you will be the only one accessing it.
Miscellaneous FAQs
I know an incarcerated person who is looking for a penpal. Could I sign them up for your service?
If this person is A) LGBTQ+ and B) incarcerated or detained in California, yes! Contact us here and we’ll get them signed up.
If this individual is not in California but is LGBTQ-identified, check out this map of orgs supporting trans & queer prisoners around the country that you could try reaching out to instead.
We also suggest you look over this fantastic list here of orgs that are pairing incarcerated people of all identities with outside penpals.
If you have written the minimum 4 letters you agreed to send (which you must write even if you don’t hear back from your penpal much or at all!), we will extend you the option to commit to another 6-month cycle with the same requirement. However, you could also choose then to conclude your penpal friendship—or opt to start communicating with your penpal directly through the mail or a for-profit app like GettingOut.
If you have not written the minimum 4 letters by the 6-month mark, you’ll possibly have a grace period of around a month or two to reach that threshold; this will be at your inside penpal’s discretion as declared to us in a prior form. Any PenPods or PenPals who have still failed to fulfill their agreement by then will have their inbox closed and their participation in our Letter-Writing Project restricted to Birthday Cards.
If a PenPod’s membership is divided about whether to commit to another 6-month interval, those who wish to continue are welcome to do so on their own. We will, though, always encourage bringing in replacement members anytime people drop out due to other obligations—especially if you're ever down to a single member.
What happens at the end of the “6-month commitment”?
Is it possible to write an inside penpal directly?
We ask both ‘free world’ and incarcerated penpals to stick to writing through our online correspondence system for the first 6-month commitment, as this allows a rapport to build up while best positioning us to offer support if any issues arise at the outset. Once you have fulfilled that initial commitment, you’ll be emailed a form asking if you’d like to continue through our system or directly with your penpal (or not at all).
It is important for us to hear briefly from you every 6 months that you are still in touch with your penpal if writing directly, as we can only match our inside members with one PenPal or PenPod at a time due to high demand. If we don’t hear from you, we’ll assume you’re no longer in contact and return your penpal’s profile to our website—which we only want to do if you truly aren’t in touch anymore.
If you do choose to correspond directly, you will be responsible for the cost of your own stamps through the US Postal Service or for-profit services like GettingOut. While many of our inside members prefer the speed of the GettingOut app (which also allows for phone calls), please keep in mind that these “Robber Barons of Prison Tech” have “turned prison tablets into a predatory scheme”—it’s shitty stuff!
Can I have more than one penpal?
We will only pair a PenPod or PenPal with a second inside penpal in limited circumstances, like if your first penpal isn't responding to any of the 4 letters you've written them in 6 months or if you've demonstrated an ability to maintain a consistent correspondence over multiple cycles.
Can I write letters if I’m under 18 / outside the US?
Unfortunately, we cannot pair penpals who are under 18! You are welcome to participate in our Birthday Card program, however.
People outside the U.S. can sign up for a penpal without issue! All your mail will be marked as originating from our Los Angeles PO Box.
