Angie Dodge was raped and murdered by Brian Dripps in 1996. The location of the murder? Her bedroom in Idaho Falls, Idaho. The cause of death? Stabbing (and near decapitation). But Brian Dripps wasn’t arrested until 2019 — 23 years after the crime occurred. Another man, Chris Tapp (completely unrelated to the crime) was wrongfully […]
Camy Matthay co-founded Wisconsin Books to Prisoners in 2006. For 18 years, she and her team of dedicated volunteers have sent over 70,000 books to prison inmates in Wisconsin. It has been proven that inmates who read while incarcerated are significantly less likely to reoffend. Why, then, would Sarah Cooper, administrator for the Division of […]
Is your prison pen pal genuine, or could he or she be manipulating you for money and commissary? This week, we’re joined by Chris from Colorado. Now retired, Chris worked inside of a correctional facility for over 17 years and has some stories to share. You may or may not agree with his opinions about […]
Everywhere you go, everywhere you look, you’ll see and hear people asserting that all inmates are scum, that inmates deserve to rot and die in prison. Big Steve disagrees, reasoning that with 2.3 million incarcerated men and women in America, it’s impossible to put them all into a tiny little box labeled “SCUM”. While some […]
Clifford Williams Jr. and his nephew, Nathan Myers, were released from prison in 2019 after 43 years of being wrongfully convicted of murder. Already suffering from early onset dementia, Williams wasn’t really able to celebrate his release, nor to enjoy his freedom before his death earlier this year. He was given close to 2 million […]
Over the course of three months in 2015, PenPals.Buzz member Trent Bouhdida sold undercover officer Ronald Elcock (call me Kev) a total of one ounce of marijuana. Eight months later, he was arrested by two U.S. Marshalls, while attempting to drive his wife (who had recently given birth) to a job interview. He never made […]
Here’s a fairly common scenario: you meet an amazing pen pal, you exchange letters and emails, talk on the phone, and make a genuine connection. But you want something more. You want to see them in person, hug them, hear their laugh, or even eat a meal together. It’s time to think about filling out […]
In 1998, Benjamin Alverson was sentenced to 22 months in prison. He completed his sentence, paid his debt to society, and at the turn of the millennium he was excited to be released. Why, then, is he still locked up (without having committed any new crimes) 26 years later? It’s due to a disturbing, frightening, […]
Big Steve explores the complete history of pen palling. You’ll learn when “pen pal” was added to the Oxford English Dictionary, and what, exactly, was its original definition. Then, find out about a high-tech pen pal matching service that was all the rage at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. Later in the episode, Big Steve will talk about some famous pen pal pairs from throughout history, such as Tony Danza and Tupac Shakur.
In this episode, Big Steve discusses the differing views in society regarding high-profile inmates and their humanity (or lack thereof). If someone committed a horrific crime, are they still deserving of being treated with kindness and dignity? Big Steve shares some reasons why starting a pen pal correspondence with high-profile inmates is good for some, and bad for others. He then looks deeper into two high-profile members of PenPals.Buzz.
Big Steve and his wife, Anya, found love on a prison pen pal website. Today they share stories, red flags, and strategies to help other couples succeed during and after incarceration. Learn what to look for in the initial pen pal ad, what red flags to watch for, and when to know to walk away. Hear about what Anya did to keep the relationship fun and exciting. And enjoy a candid conversation, with lots of laughs, between this happily married husband and wife. It’s not easy, but the two of them have proven Love After Lockup is, in fact, possible! And it’s not always the way it’s depicted on reality TV.
Prisons in over 15 states no longer deliver physical mail. Birthday cards, letters, and family photos now all must get scanned and uploaded to an inmate’s tablet. Those without a tablet can pay for a printed color copy of the mail. The process is slow and flawed; mail often can take months to arrive, the […]
