Editorial: Letters to pals in the pen

Photo / Thinkstock

Pen pals. It has become a bit of an old-fashioned term, now that you can interact with most people online or texting. Even email's a bit old school these days, with Facebook and messaging popular ways to talk to family and friends new and old.

But not everybody's online - and I'm not talking about your nana and grandad (who may well be).

Reports this week that prison inmates were entering the online dating sphere on a Facebook page have stirred up a storm of controversy.

The page, Prison Pen Pals New Zealand, was set up in August last year and has been publishing "pen pal profiles" from inmates.

Prisoners don't have internet access - they need to pass their details via hard copy through friends and family.

Their profiles list their mailing address and those interested in making contact can write, literally write, to them.

Understandably the Sensible Sentencing Trust is appalled, with a spokeswoman saying it was "was hugely concerning that members of the public were endangered by being exposed to high risk offenders".

Fair call, but those members of the public would have to knowingly seek out these profiles on the clearly labelled Prison Pen Pals Facebook page, and, if choosing to take it further, would have to put pen to paper, or type, a letter and send it through the post.

Since this week's story came out, the Facebook page has been made private, so interested parties would also have to take the extra step of asking to join.

After all that they would be the ones exposing themselves to high risk offenders.

So should prisoners even be allowed to have an online presence like this?

Corrections' website lists one of its target "outcomes" as such: "Offenders' legitimate health, physical, cultural, spiritual and social needs are met."

Social needs. I'm not sure that should include advertising themselves on what could be seen as a dating site.

But really, as none of this appears sanctioned anyway, and as distasteful as it may seem to some, are there any rules being broken?