This guy was publishing his writing to the public during his sentence. And of course you can still have pen pals using snail-mail.
Its not impossible to see how romances start from that. How they make them work long term remain a mystery to me, nevertheless it does happen. I can imagine that someone on the inside would really value the companionship of a partner with indisputable sincerity. That must count for something.
When the 20th reunion of Shorecrest High School, class of 1982, rolled around, Santos was in a low-security institution at Fort Dix, N.J., and unable to attend. But Carole Goodwin, who organized the event and had known him since fifth grade, tracked him down through his website.
Divorced, living with two kids in Lake Oswego, Ore., she had been aware of his criminal past but that didn't stop her. "I was drawn to him from the second I saw his picture," she says.
As he puts it, "She went to my website and wrote me a letter. That led to a correspondence and then a romance, and then we got married in a prison visiting room in 2003, at Fort Dix. I still had 11 years to go."
It takes all types. Women who like men in prison is a pretty well know phenomenon. It's no more bizarre than worldwide romances started via email with physical contact. If you're prepared to forgive someone for whatever landed them in jail in the first place, then it's just like any other long distance relationship.
