Today’s Solutions: December 26, 2024

If you have a loved one in prison and want to contact them, generally you are allowed to call, email, or video chat with them. The only problem is prisons can charge a fortune for these services, leaving physical mail as the best and sometimes only option for people behind bars.

But mail comes with its own problems. If you send a letter, there is a very real chance that it will never reach its intended recipient. That’s the letter your sending may violate the prison facility’s mail rules, which can dictate everything from acceptable paper sizes to what the writing implements. Mails can be censored too.

To help make it easier for people to successfully send letters to inmates, British-American entrepreneur Josh Browder has designed a “robot lawyer” that automates much of the letter-sending process. All you have to do is write your message, and it takes care of the rest.

The robot lawyer is actually an AI-powered app called DoNotPay. Browder had designed it as a teenager as a way to help people get out of parking tickets — they answer questions asked by the app’s chatbot and snap a picture of their ticket, and it writes up an appeal letter for them. In the five years since DoNotPay’s launch, Browder has added a number of features to the robot lawyer — it can now help people dispute evictions, cancel subscriptions, and navigate small-claims court, all for a $3 monthly fee.

Now DoNotPay has a built-in mail feature that helps people connect to incarcerated loved ones. So, how does it work?

A user starts by entering the name of the person they want contact in the app’s search tool. The robot lawyer then scans the roster of inmates in federal, state, county, or ICE detention centers, all at once — no need to go to a specific facility’s website to find the address. The user then chooses the design they want for the letter and writes their message. DoNotPay does not read the contents of the letter, Browder told Vice.

Once you’ve written your message, DoNotPay then prints the letter, following the facility’s specifications, and mails it to the inmate along with the postage they need to send a letter back to the original writer. Best of all, there’s no additional cost for using this feature.

Solutions News Source Print this article
More of Today's Solutions

Migration of 6 million antelope in South Sudan is the largest land mammal mov...

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL STAFF A thorough aerial study in South Sudan revealed a startling migration of six million antelope, establishing it as ...

Read More

Volcanic ash may be a game changer in sustainable solar energy storage solutions

When calamity hits and volcanic ash blankets the land, it is commonly perceived negatively, for many obvious reasons. However, novel research from the University of ...

Read More

Wind and solar energy production in US surpasses coal for the first time in h...

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM According to the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), wind and solar energy generated more electricity than coal ...

Read More

The Dominican Republic reforests a fifth of the country in just 10 years

In the heart of the Dominican Republic, the dramatic story of land reclamation unfolds. Carlos Rodríguez, a diligent farmer, thinks about the once barren ...

Read More