Thanksgiving in prison is a plate full of mixed emotions. On one hand, there's excitement with the special holiday meal (often including real turkey, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie). It's a time for cellmates and friends to get together and create something unique and delcious, like Jovan Stewart's Famous Banana Pudding, Rachell House's Enchilada Bowls, or Angelina Omara's Vanilla Pancakes. But the Holiday also serves as a painful reminder of what these individuals don't have -- the chance to be surrounded (at least physically) by family and friends. The chance to be around kids, parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, and childhood friends. The chance to share a meal with the people that mean the most to them. If they're lucky, they might get a phone call or a card or an email on their tablet as a reminder they haven't been forgotten. In this episode, we speak with some of the hundreds of inmates who called in to share their Thanksgiving stories, traditions, favorite foods, and who or what they're thankful for. It's an honest, raw, touching, heartwarming, sad, and sometimes humorous depiction of what Thanksgiving really means to someone incarcerated.

When Ryan Rice was growing up in Illinois, his parents let him do anything he wanted. Spoiled might be the word that comes to mind. The "freedom" he was granted as a young child ultimately sculpted him into a man with no direction, quitting most of the things he set his mind to...until, that is, he was sentenced to 35 years in a Dixon, Illinois prison. That's when things had to change. Tired of "going nowhere fast," Rice, a prison pen pal and member of PenPals.Buzz, shares why he made an "executive decision" about his life, and what that decision was. In the interview, we also discuss his over 60 tattoos, his love of women with accents, his propensity for telling corny dad jokes, and what he's seeking in a pen pal.

Prison Pen Pals, defined as prison inmates who write letters to people on the outside, may be incarcerated for doing really bad things, but they're STILL HUMAN. That's the belief of Salena in Indiana, a 22-year-old student (and soon to be school teacher) who has written over 30 prisoners in the past two years. "You think they're bad, but they're actually really sweet," Salena noted on this episode, adding that prison inmates (and her prison pen pals) are still human and still deserving of human interaction.

Hear her entire story, including who her very first prison pen pal was, what got her started writing to inmates in 2023, and how she deals with the pen pals who ask her for money. Then, we speak with penpals.buzz member Angelina Omara, a female prison inmate convicted of two murders and currently seeking a pen pal companion. Finally, we briefly check in with federal prison inmate Victoria Guerrero, as she describes how prison conditions have worsened since the government shutdown.

As we celebrate Halloween today, we thought we'd invite inmates around the USA to join in on the fun, eat some candy, and share their traditions both in and out of prison. We wondered if they watch scary movies from the prison dayroom, if they make homemade goodies or buy homemade candy from other inmates, or even if they give candy away to trick-or-treating cellmates. So we asked male and female prison inmates to call PenPals.Buzz and share their stories on this extra spooky and fun bonus episode.

First, we talk to PenPals.Buzz member and friend, Jason Kurtz, about his myriad Halloween experiences and traditions, and what he does from inside the prison walls to celebrate and enjoy the spirit of the holiday. Jason also shares some true real-life scary stories from his book, Secret Tales of the Supernatural, available now on Amazon.

Then, Cheyenne Smith and Laura Wickham, both from a Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee, Florida, talk to Big Steve about their Halloween traditions, and what they can (and can't) do, while inside.

Over 25 years ago, just a few days after the turn of the millennium and the Y2K madness, Marvin Dearing was arrested, interrogated, and ultimately convicted of murder. But did he do it? New DNA evidence suggests not, but the judge is unwilling to revisit the case. Mr. Dearing, a member of PenPals.Buzz, now in his early 50s, has spent over a quarter-century (and more than half of his life) locked up in Ohio. He hopes that someone, somewhere -- maybe even Kim Kardashian -- will take another look at his case, the evidence, and his conviction. Later, we hear from Tyrone Brewer, Jr., a member of PenPals.Buzz and author of Poetry of an Inmate: Thoughts of a Prisoner, available at Amazon. Mr. Brewer bills himself as a loyal, funny, ambitious, passionate, goal-driven type of guy, who is seeking a female pen pal and lady friend to help him mentally escape the prison walls. Tired of the negative energy, Tyrone hopes for some good vibes in his life.

Prison Pen Pal David Bomber has been incarcerated for 15 years at Nottoway Correctional Center in Burkeville, Virginia, but there's so much more to his story. This blogger and artist once acted in the same movie with Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning -- War of the Worlds! During our interview, he shares fond memories of his brush with stardom. David, an avid blogger on both InmateBlogger.com and PenPals.Buzz, talks about his motivation behind his most popular blog entry, Herman. Also in this episode, we touched briefly on his criminal convictions, and on how he could be convicted of both Aggravated Malicious Wounding and 2nd Degree Murder, for the same stab wound. Double Jeopardy, perhaps? He thinks so and we think so. View his artwork, read his poetry and blogs, and check out his prison pen pal profile at https://penpals.buzz/inmate/david-bomber.

Jason Kurtz, an incarcerated author at the Waupun Correctional Institution in Wisconsin, has written four highly praised books: Secrets to Wealth, Secrets to Wisdom, Secrets to Wealth and Wisdom, and Secret Tales of the Supernatural. All are available as paperbacks or e-books at Amazon. We interview Jason Kurtz, a member of PenPals.Buzz, as he shares fascinating details about what it took to actually write and publish a book from his prison cell. He also shares excerpts from his books and talks about his motivation for writing them.

Locked up for over ten years, Kurtz purchased and read hundreds of self-help, personal growth, and prosperity books from his prison bunkbed. He took notes on the most important parts of each book -- topics such as gratitude, dating, concentration, healthy eating, hypnosis, body language, self-esteem, wealth-building, lie detecting, and so much more. Due to his prison's limit of 25 publications allowed per Inmate, Kurtz took copious notes of the most important parts of each book so that he would still have the valuable information (even if the prison guards took the books away from him). A decade later, Jason Kurtz compiled all of this amazing information (without all of the fluff) into one all-encompassing book: Secrets to Wealth and Wisdom. He has done all the reading, and all the work, to make your personal growth journey easier and much more affordable. Pretty amazing, if you ask us, even for someone on the streets to accomplish. But to do all this from the confines of the Waupun Correctional Institution is, in our minds, incredible.

His fourth book deviated from the Self-Help genre. Secret Tales of the Supernatural is a non-fiction account of terrifying events that the author experienced firsthand. All stories are 100% real and 100% frightening. In this episode, he'll share some of these supernatural experiences with Big Steve.

We think you'll enjoy Jason's personality, charisma, and the tremendous effort he put forth in writing and publishing these books. When he speaks, you can tell he has a passion for helping others learn some of these beneficial concepts that helped him get through a decade behind bars. He also discusses his plans for his future, once released from prison, including becoming a stand-up comedian! We regret not asking him to tell us his favorite joke; perhaps we will in a follow-up episode. Learn more about him at https://penpals.buzz/inmate/jason-kurtz

It was Easter, 2020. PenPals.Buzz member Colby Brookman was driving home from dinner at his mother-in-law's house, where he had been drinking. His wife, J'lynne Stothers, was a passenger in the front seat. In the back were Colby and J'lynne's two infant daughters, Ariana and Ava, along with his 32-year-old brother-in-law, Matthew, who was autistic.

Unaware he had made a wrong turn, Colby was trying to find a local radio station on the dial as he drove his 2004 GMC Sierra, too fast, down Grand Avenue in Oroville. He thought he was on a highway heading back toward Sacramento. It happened so fast. He heard his wife yelling his name, "Colby!!" When he glanced up from the radio, he knew he was about to crash. Afraid of rolling his truck, he continued straight. Seconds later, he, his car, and his entire family were submerged 32 feet underwater in a canal near Lake Oroville. His brother-in-law died at the scene. His two daughters died at the hospital the next day. J'lynne survived. Colby was arrested at the scene, after blowing a 0.12 blood alcohol level, just slightly over the legal limit in California.

Today, Colby Brookman is five years into his 37 years to Life sentence at the Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California, a prison exclusively for inmates with "sensitive needs." He's housed with gang dropouts, police informants, sex offenders, and former law enforcement officers. When a man is convicted of killing two young children, he wouldn't fare too well in a general population prison, especially one in California. The life sentence sounds harsh, but the ultimate punishment, says Colby, is looking in the mirror each morning and knowing he, himself, was responsible for the death of his children. He was supposed to be their protector, and instead he drove them into a canal, to their death.

We interview Colby about life with his daughters before the accident, what happened leading up to the crash, his alcoholism, his intense guilt and shame, and his coping techniques which help him get through each day in prison (including trying to make new pen pals and friends to communicate with through his incarceration). What might his daughters would say to him today, if they could speak from the grave? Would they forgive him? Would he ever want to marry and have kids again? What advice would he give to an alcoholic who continues to drive drunk (as he did almost every day)? He'll answer these, and so many other questions in this heartbreaking interview.

Learn more about Colby Brookman on his PenPals.Buzz profile page