If you spent Valentines all alone look no further .. maybe www.hotprisonpals.com will have a just the right man for you. Yep. Some of America’s most desirable felons are lining up to send you love letters, poems and even proposals of marriage.
Some of the men are getting out soon while others are until 2023. If you like space in your relationships this might just be perfect.
The idea for hotprisonpals came from New York pop artist Sam Wagner, who began writing to a friend in jail several years ago. The prisoner then asked Wagner to write to his cell mate who had stopped receiving letters from his family.
Requests for letters from lonely prisoners kept coming, until Wagner was sending a monthly letter to more than 100 inmates.
With no access to the Internet, letters are often the only contact U.S. prisoners have with the outside world.
“Prisoners have real abandonment issues. Friends and family often stop writing after a couple of years,” said Wagner’s business partner, Jason Rupp, who built the Web site in 2003.
“The letters they get through the site are crucial to their well being. They need to know someone on the outside cares.”
The inmates, both straight and gay pay $19 each to have their photos and a short note on the site. Female inmates have been invited to join hotprisonpals but so far none have joined.
“We don’t require that prisoners say what crime they committed,” said Rupp, a 30-year-old photographer who runs the site from his home in the Thai capital, Bangkok.
“We take everybody. If they are murderers or rapists they are not going to put that in the ad.”
“Sometimes the messages get a little racy and we like that,” said Rupp. “We pride ourselves on having the hottest prisoners on the Internet.”
Pen pal friendships often lead to prison visits and serious long-term relationships.
The prison marriage of Erik Menendez — convicted with his brother Lyle of the 1989 murder of his wealthy parents in Beverly Hills — has helped generate interest in prisoner dating.
Menendez married a woman with whom he had corresponded for years from jail. A book by his wife Tammi, “They Said We’d Never Make It”, heavily romanticizes the unconsummated relationship.
“It’s a thrill for women. These are good looking guys and they can seem really exotic from the outside,” said Rupp. “It’s a fantasy. You don’t see any of their flaws.”
“We have scoured the prison floors and checked each bunk bed, both top and bottom, looking for the men that you have dreamed about,” the site says.
Ladies? Get your pens ready.
