In prisons across the country, with their artificial pre-Internet worlds where magazines are one of the few connections to the outside and handwritten correspondence is the primary form of communication, the art of the pen-to-paper letter to the editor is thriving. Magazine editors see so much of it that they have even coined a term for these letters: jail mail.

The letter from inmate #374155 had lain on my desk, buried amid piles of correspondence and research for a few days. I get a lot of "jail mail" and I know what to expect.

I am at least partially responsible for the Texas Monthly ban on prison subscriptions. We are a small company whose roots began with advertising in TM in 1986.I have a file that we built titled Jail Mail, all attributable to TM. … Being in the jewelry business, I consider all correspondence with inmates a security risk.