IF YOU THOUGHT J-DATE WAS A CRAPS SHOOT, TRY MEET AN INMATE
Update May 2, 2012 Every so often we hear about a hot and trendy dating website.
Today, the news is all about the unique dating website www.meet-an-inmate.com because of some rather interesting news coverage it is receiving.
Yes, meet-an-inmate.com
shows photos and prison profiles of inmates who would like to get to know you via the U.S. Mail, and please send them some
postage stamps because, as many of them point out in their website profiles, postage stamps are hard to come by in prison.
By the way, in some cases sending those "Forever Stamps" might be appropriate.
In
the interests of objective journalism, I checked out meet-an-inmate.com and found it is a lot like the other bigger-name websites
such as Match.com and JDate.com. You can select an inmate based on age and photo and a snapshot description of their
lives such as education before prison, expected release date, and activities in prison. But if you thought dating someone
on J-Date was a craps shoot because pictures can lie, you really could be taking a chance on being surprised with meet-an-inmate.com.
But look, not all prison inmates are bad people. Many of the profiles state in the very first
line the same thing: "I am honest and caring." Some of the profiles
leave no doubt as to what the Inmate has been doing for the last five, ten or fifteen years -- "I made a mistake, but
I'm getting out soon." And the release date just might coincide with your own release date -- when your divorce
becomes final.
Anyone who has ever been on a "web date" knows that in person
your date might have have absolutely no resemblance to their website photo. And you have that risk also with meet-an-inmate.
You have to wonder when that photo in the bikini or the jogging suit or the party dress was taken? It certainly wasn't
their booking photo ten years earlier.
I'm not putting these folks down. Just
realize that some of these inmates -- even the cute girls who are showing their prom pictures and cheerleading photos -- were
not sent to prison only for stealing hearts. Some admit to drug-related convictions. Some were convicted of DUI
with a fatality. You'll find a murderer or two. You'll also find those wrongly convicted who have a lawyer, need
some cash to fund their appeals, and they know they'll be getting out of jail in the fall years before their sentence is up
because the appeals court will see it their way that they were wrongly convicted.
I
think everyone should have a second chance at love, and a second chance at life, even after doing fifteen to twenty for battery.
My Dad and my Uncle grew up in the rough part of New York City in the 1930s and 1940s and many of their
buddies were gangsters. Real gangsters. "But they were the greatest guys in the world," I was told even
if they were still doing time when I was growing up in the 1950's. When I look at the cute photos of the gal inmates
it makes me wonder how such sweet looking gals could be behind bars? But that only makes you realize that even sweet
looking gals and good looking guys you see at work, or at the mall, or at a singles' bar could be doing things that will land
them behind bars.
