Can I write to a prison inmate even if they haven't requested a pen pal?

[359]

I know lots of prison inmates like to advertise for penpals.  Theres this one guy who I dont know in person but hes a friend of a friend on facebook, I found out hes doing 10 years in prison, should I write to him? Would it be weird since I dont know him and he hasnt requested a penpal, surely female attention will still be welcome? Should I do it? He likes prison and has been there most his life, so maybe I will just be bugging him!

[Patrick4024]

You can but I would not do so. Most of the inmates are psychopaths who are very slick at manipulating people. Some who have gotten in contact with inmates have gotten tragedy for their efforts.

[Ann Kunis]

Many random people actually write letters to people they don't know, who are currently in prison. To be honest with you, if I was in prison and someone I didn't know wrote me a letter, I'd be pretty happy about it. As someone who's got their liberty took some out of his or her regular life in order to send and write me a letter.