Life in prison can be boring and lonely, so it’s not surprising that heterosexual male inmates would like to receive mail from women on the outside.
And despite being incarcerated in maximum security institutions for crimes that include murder, rape and even terrorism, there is a website that can help them do just that.
On Aug. 7, 2014, Aaron Douglas killed Tyler Belcourt in cold blood and tried to kill Penni White in a downtown Chilliwack apartment. He was convicted on June 26, 2017 by a jury that did not come to a verdict on his guilt in the killing of Richard Blackmon in the same incident.
The 38-year-old has been in custody since he was arrested in Abbotsford in 2014 after 49 days on the lam.
• READ MORE: Aaron Douglas convicted of 2014 murder and attempted murder downtown Chilliwack
• READ MORE: Life in prison for Chilliwack murderer Aaron Douglas
So what’s Douglas up to these days while he’s serving a life sentence at Kent Institution in Agassiz?
“I enjoy listening to music, working out and playing cards,” according to his profile on the website Canadian Inmates Connect. “Considering I’m locked in my cell 22 hours a day I also watch a lot of T.V. as well.”
Douglas’s profile includes the mailing address at Kent, his date of birth and what he was convicted of. He lists his expected release date as 2027 and that he is interested in corresponding with women.
“This is my first time doing anything like this, so bare [sic] with me. I’ve been incarcerated since 2014 and I’m looking for someone that I can start a new friendship with because sitting in here gets to be pretty lonely. I would love to be able to talk to someone about how their day went and hear about what’s going on in the outside world. Maybe I can bring some happiness into your life and vice versa.”
The website is the creation of Melissa Fazzina, who makes no apology for giving serious convicted criminals access to pen pals.
“The majority of these people are coming out some day,” Fazzina told this reporter in a telephone interview from Kingston, Ont. in 2016 for a story on a Chilliwack man convicted of raping a toddler who had a profile on the site. (See that story below.)
“So why make them worse? I’m doing Corrections Canada a favour. I’ve taken on violent guys who calm down, they’ve got something to wake up to in the morning…. They want stay out of trouble. I’ve seen the results, the transformations and the success that this website has created for these inmates.”
Fazzina did not respond to an emailed request for an interview for this story.
Chilliwack-Hope MP Mark Strahl, who also commented on the website in 2016, doesn’t like it one bit.
“This is disturbing,” Strahl said via email. “Maximum security inmates should not be given access to an online dating service that sensationalizes their crimes and causes their victims and their families further harm.”
The inmates do not have access to the internet; rather, they mail their profiles to Fazzina via snail mail, and those interested can send them letters.
Who is interested in writing to murderers and rapists in prison?
Fazzina said often it is women with low self-esteem.
“I had one woman tell me, ‘This is all I deserve,'” she said.
The website is littered with names that have been in headlines across Canada. There is 27-year-old Travis Baumgartner who claims to be a “philosopher at heart” who enjoys figuring out how the brain works. Baumgartner’s expected release date is 2049 after serving his 40-year sentence for shooting four and killing three of his fellow armoured car guards in a robbery in Alberta in 2012.
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| Convicted terrorist Momin Khawaja’s profile on the website Canadian Inmates Connect as of December 2019. (Canadian Inmates Connect.) |
Then there is Momin Khawaja, who is “interested in getting to know intriguing individuals who I can share ideas, thoughts, and good conversations with.” Khawaja is a Canadian serving a life sentence for his involvment in a plot to plant fertilizer bombs in Britain while he was working as a software engineer for Foreign Affairs.
Notorious pedophile Peter Whitmore had a profile on the website earlier this year, but it appears to be down now.
• READ MORE: Victim concerned about Saskatchewan pedophile’s online profile
Strahl wants the Liberal government to find a way to put an end to the website’s existence.
“Conservatives will always put the rights of victims ahead of the rights of criminals,” he said. “I have contacted the Minister of Public Safety to ask him to justify why access to this deplorable website is allowed in our correctional facilities.”
As for Fazzina, she is unapologetic and says there is no such thing as bad publicity. Since the story in 2016 on the website, there are more inmates listed now. Along with the close to 300 Canadians on the site, there are six profiles of women, a page dedicated to LGBTQ inmates, and an extensive section of U.S. inmates.
• • • • • •
This story originally appeared in the Nov. 24, 2016 edition of the Chilliwack Times:
Prison pen pals
Inmate Connect creator unapologetic about website, but our local MP says criminals shouldn’t have access
By Paul J. Henderson
Tyler Sturrup enjoys camping, hiking, swimming and he loves dogs. He also hopes to own his own business one day.
Matt Johnston loves to play and watch hockey, he’s loyal and he’s looking for a special girl with whom to share his love and strength.
Nathan Zuccherato is looking for female friends to write to and get to know. He likes the Blue Jays, and he likes to read and work out.
Three guys looking for a female pen pal to make a connection and maybe, just maybe, to form a relationship with.
All innocent enough sounding until you realize that in addition to Johnston’s self-identified skill of making a great baked spaghetti, he also murdered two innocent men and four rival gang members in the notorious Surrey Six slaughter in 2014.
As for Sturrup, he plans on becoming a welder and, more importantly, he’s a neo-Nazi murderer from Calgary handed a life sentence in 2013.
And Zuccherato? He likes rap and RB music.
He’s also a gang assassin who committed multiple murders during a “reign of terror” in Calgary in the 2000s.
These are just three of the dozens of posts on the website Canadian Inmate Connect where federal inmates look for pen pals.
The site’s creator, Melissa Fazzina, said the website is her passion and she makes no apology for giving serious convicted criminals access to pen pals.
“The majority of these people are coming out some day,” Fazzina told the Times in a telephone interview from Kingston, Ont. “So why make them worse? I’m doing Corrections Canada a favour. I’ve taken on violent guys who calm down, they’ve got something to wake up to in the morning…. They want stay out of trouble.”
Fazzina is adamant that one misconception about her site needs to be cleared up: inmates serving federal or provincial sentences in Canada do not have access to the Internet. She is the intermediary via snail mail.
Some of the worst offenders
The site is littered with names that ring a bell if you watch the news. For one, Momin Khowaja is looking for “women/girls who are health conscious and fitness oriented” Sound familiar? Khowaja is serving a life sentence-although he is eligible for parole-for terrorism-related offences. He’s the first person found guilty under the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act.
Infamous murderer Luka Magnotta even had a posting on the site looking for his “prince charming” until recently when it was taken down because he said he found what he “was looking for.”
But what got up the ire of some Chilliwack residents was the posting for a man whose name cannot be used because of a publication ban. That’s because K.D.C. was sentenced in 2013 to 12 years in prison for the ongoing, violent rapes of his toddler stepdaughter.
When he was arrested at his downtown Chilliwack home on Oct. 4, 2012, police interrupted the man sexually assaulting the then three-year-old girl.
In handing down the original sentence in court in Chilliwack in July 2014, Judge Roger Cutler said K.D.C. had a “reprehensible attitude towards the offences” and is a high risk to reoffend.
He later lost an appeal, the court noting that during an interview, K.D.C. said “that he did not believe he could be rehabilitated and that he would have sex with children again if he had the opportunity.”
When asked about his inclusion on the site, where he seeks a woman “to develop a friendship with or maybe eventually a long term relationship,” Fazzina was unapologetic.
Because of the publication ban, when he applied to be on the site she found nothing on the Internet about him.
“As a mother, [K.D.C.’s] charges do not sit well with me whatsoever,” she said when forwarded a Times story on him, but added that she allows any inmate to join regardless of their convictions.
“I’ve seen the results, the transformations and the success that this website has created for these inmates.”
The Times asked Fazzina to contact K.D.C. to see if he had anything to say to Chilliwack residents about him trying to connect with a woman after what he did to his last girlfriend’s daughter.
In a hand-written letter, the 33-year-old said he didn’t have anything to say that the Times doesn’t already know. He also said that because he has been in the paper, including in a story that made “me look like a monster,” he has had to look over his shoulder where he is currently at Mountain Penitentiary in Agassiz.
“There are many individuals in prison that would love to beat the s—t out of me, or even kill me if they could, and you know what, I deserve it, but it causes so much stress knowing that,” he wrote.
‘Repugnant’ website
Chilliwack’s federal representative in Ottawa doesn’t like Fazzina’s website and he said those convicted of serious crimes are separated from society for a reason.
“Why should a maximum security inmate have access to this sort of website?” Chilliwack-Hope MP Mark Strahl asked. “This has the potential to hurt the victims of crime again when they and their families see the criminal who harmed them using that crime as a way to attract people online. The rights of the victims of crime should always come before the rights of criminals.”
He added that while the site may be legal, he hopes the Minister of Public Safety will use all of the tools at his disposal to limit access to it.
But Fazzina said her site is a public service, giving the most serious offenders a second, sometimes a third or fourth, chance that in the end helps society.
“Once you get to know them and can put a voice to the picture and hear their stories, it changes things,” she said. “Their crimes should not define them at all.”
Writing to a murderer
So what type of a woman, or man, would want to write to a murderer or a pedophile or a bank robber?
Fazzina said there are all types, but she conceded it is often women with low self-esteem.
“I had one woman tell me, ‘this is all I deserve,'” she said.
Some of the women who write have no intention of ever meeting the men they write to. Some, in fact, prefer those who are in for the longest sentence possible.
As for negative feedback for what she is doing, Fazzina isn’t concerned and-particularly because of Magnotta- has had numerous articles written about her website already. “One thing I have learned in five years is there’s no such thing as bad publicity when it comes to the limitless topics surrounding this website.” As for K.D.C., his expected statutory release date is Oct. 2, 2020.
Do you have something to add to this story, or something else we should report on? Email: paul.henderson@theprogress.com
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