Snail mail simply means you correspond through handwritten letters that require stamps and are delivered by the postal service. Sometimes people do actually meet and consider a relationship but that is not the purpose of these sites.
The definition of a pen pal is a person with whom one keeps up an exchange of letters via snail mail*, usually with someone so far away that a personal meeting is unlikely.
Many of them don’t have people to write nor have connections outside of the prison. A lot of people in jail and or prison struggle with loneliness.
The latest research shows that there’s around 2.3 million people incarcerated in the US.
