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Letters

How to Handle It When a Pen Pal Goes Quiet

By
Turbo

Turbo writes from a prison in QLD.

I would like to remind people that even if your loved one or pen pal is legit across the road, it can still take weeks for letters to go back and forth.

One person could be waiting for buy-up so they have more envelopes, transferred jails or is just naughty and in the D.U unable to reply just yet. It can be hard on partners if you’ve been denied inter-facility calls or are still waiting approval, which also takes quite a long time.

And that pen pal who just vanished after they got out. The outside is a busy life and most promises of continuing communication are not kept for long and fizzle out.

Shout out! My love to the girls at BWCC, and mates at MCCC.

Thank you.

I would like to remind people that even if your loved one or pen pal is legit across the road, it can still take weeks for letters to go back and forth.

One person could be waiting for buy-up so they have more envelopes, transferred jails or is just naughty and in the D.U unable to reply just yet. It can be hard on partners if you’ve been denied inter-facility calls or are still waiting approval, which also takes quite a long time.

And that pen pal who just vanished after they got out. The outside is a busy life and most promises of continuing communication are not kept for long and fizzle out.

Shout out! My love to the girls at BWCC, and mates at MCCC.

Thank you.

This
letter
was originally printed in the
July 2026
edition of About Time.

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Welcome to About Time

About Time is the national newspaper for Australian prisons and detention facilities

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