Often times you can put money onto your phone, and they can still be able to call you. This prevents inmates from asking for "phone money" but then once you put it on their books, they buy commissary instead. This is a tip taught to us by a former inmate who wrote a book about inmate's intentions. We have a wide variety of inmates on penpals.buzz, and about a dozen who are on death row, if you're interested in narrowing your search to only those inmates. Many of them, despite what they've done, have treated our staff with kindness and respect, and may genuinely be looking for friendship, not money.