Downstate.
Okay, so the letter I wrote on Wednesday actually only went to the post office on Thursday; so two days to you is still pretty good. And your letter got here in two days so that is not bad either!
I did not choose to come here. Downstate is a reception center for the region. There are five or six reception centers around the state. While there is a "select" group of inmates that actually stay at Downstate, I would not be eligible for that.
I had no choice to leave Downstate. This place is truly unique in that for the hundred or so inmates, we have five to eight officers keeping watch over us at any given time. Even though we are within the perimeter of the general prison, our unit is surrounded by a double fence razor wired barrier. So we are locked in as well as all others are locked out.
Regarding the typewriter, the worst case is I will end up with the Brother typewriter with a beep type spell checker and a one line typed then printed setup. Not the best, but as long as I take time at my end, you would not have any editing to do.
Hey you could make it part of blog; find the errors and critique the writing. I would definitely do at least one rough draft before typing and would not use the typewriter to just spew letters on the page.
The pen pal thing is the next logical step and one that I want to hold off just a bit.