Online sites for dating prisoners have proliferated in recent years. On the surface, these sites profess to specialize in connecting people behind bars with those seeking pen pals. Behind this façade, sites with names like jailbabes.com act as bridges that transform long-distance friends into lovers.

Arlen Bischke started a prisoner pen-pal site called meet-an-inmate.com in 1998 to help prisoners connect to the outside world. “They become very lonely and often get cut off from their friends and family,” Biske told theGrio. “Correspondence with a stranger can give them something to look forward to and help their moral.”

Yet his site and those similar to it feature inmate profiles as inviting as any on OkCupid. Posing in spruced-up versions of their prison uniforms, prisoners use these sites to sell themselves to potential pen pals and describe the types of people they want to meet.

One compelling prospective pen pal, Israel Cosme, age 30, displays his perfectly toned chest to visitors of meet-an-inmate.com telling all takers, “I love to laugh and have been told I have a great sense of humor.”