I was watching an episode of VH1’s Mob Wives last night and boy was it their best episode, especially if you enjoy a good “cat fight!” Lots of hair pulling, down on the floor scrambling around that kept my attention. Aside from that, there was the usual: friends gossiping behind each other’s back that inevitably leads to drama, conflict, name calling and fisticuffs. However, in last night’s episode, one of the housewives, Renee Graziano, plugs her new business enterprise called Jail Mail Inc.
Apparently, Renee has visited many a prison and written many letters to inmates. She has decided to pursue this as a business venture by creating a website called Jail Mail Inc., with the slogan “we’re not incorporated, we’re incarcerated.” Catchy? This website is for those who know people in prison and want to send then an e-card every month. If you subscribe and purchase a 12 month package, the prisoner of your choice will be sent various e-cards, for holidays and birthdays etc., automatically on a monthly basis. She even saw a web designer about this and told him how she wants it to look. Black background with “prisoners” popping out when they hear the words “mail call.”
Personally, I would have never come up with this idea in a million years. I’m surprised Hallmark hasn’t. They could have had a section of cards for prisoners long ago. It’s been an overlooked population who are characterized as looking forward to mail because they want to feel people still think about them and care about them while they are away. Now Renee has corner the market on this idea! And she even has a popular television show to promote her new enterprise.
What I am trying to envision is how prisons supply access to computers to prisoners and WHY? Aren’t they there to be punished for crimes? Or is it a mini vacation where you watch television, go online, listen to music, workout and read? On Mob Wives, the incarcerated husbands seem to be able to make phone calls to their wives any time they choose and more than once a day. They are even allowed to receive packages with snacks and pictures. This does not fit the image I have in my head of what jail is supposed to be like. Now, thanks to Renee, they can get e-cards filled with good wishes, love and kisses.
Some days, you wake up and you think you’ve seen and heard everything, and then, you learn you haven’t.
