For WFLZ-FM 93.3 radio host Big Mama, it started as a bit, just like the comedy snippets he (yes, Big Mama is a man) first crafted 10 years ago when he worked for free at an FM station in Dayton, Ohio.
He took a letter he had received from an inmate and read it on the air on his nighttime show. "Jail Mail" was born.
Now, eight months later, inmates all around west central Florida hang on every word uttered by Big Mama and his partner, Mary Jane, on Monday nights. Male and female inmates searching for an outlet to send shoutouts (greetings and messages of affection) to loved ones have found it on Big Mama's Bad Boy Radio Show.
"Jail Mail" is a mix of humor, sadness and intrigue. Almost by accident, Big Mama has created reality radio without the pretense of people being stranded on an island or eating wiggling white worms. It's a far cry from his other antics, such as Topless Tuesday and Thong Thursday, and the Bad Boy crew - there were nine people in the studio Monday - seems to genuinely care.
"I just thought it would be cool to do this," said Big Mama, who like Mary Jane declined to give his real name. "Some say they are convicts, but they're still Americans. They still have the right to correspond."
Big Mama reads letters from more than a dozen prisons and jails on Mondays starting at 9:30 p.m. They come from as far north as Gulf Correctional in Wewahitchka and as far south as Avon Park Correctional. He once got a letter from a correctional facility in Duluth, Minn., and another from San Quentin in California.
On this particular Monday, he reads a letter from a woman incarcerated in the One Delta section of the Orient Road Jail in East Hillsborough. She's sending a shoutout to her man, who is incarcerated at the Falkenburg Road Jail.
Big Mama also provides "Locked-Down Love," a chance for supporters on the outside to come on air and send a message to that special person behind bars. Sometimes guards call with words of encouragement for inmates.
On this night, a Tampa woman sends a two-word shoutout to her man behind bars: "I do."
In an age in which people go from clubs to supermarkets to bookstores to Internet chat rooms searching for love, it's amazing someone behind bars can maintain a relationship, and even propose marriage. At least to me it is.
"I'm not surprised," Mary Jane said. "Love is blind."
Mary Jane, a 26-year-old brunette who has worked with Big Mama for two years, is the driving force behind "Jail Mail." She responds to every letter and keeps each neat and crisp in a plastic accordion folder. Some are decorated with handsome artwork, and those are the first to be read by Big Mama.
Mary Jane also has an address book with each inmate's name, nickname, booking number and jail address, as well as a photo album full of pictures she has received from inmates. But she's never sent back a photo of herself.
She's motivated by the experiences she gained working at a juvenile detention center years ago. She saw firsthand how much it meant when one of the teens got a letter from home.
"I saw the disappointment on their faces when they didn't get any mail," Mary Jane said. "Really, we're just treating them like human beings. They're told when to eat, when to speak. With us, they can say whatever they feel."
There are some limitations, however. Nothing profane is read on the air, and Big Mama often runs background checks to make sure he's not "putting the wrong people" on air. The inmates also have to understand that Mary Jane has a boyfriend.
For the most part, the inmates behave. There was one threatening letter that resulted in the FBI's filing 14 charges against an inmate - but such incidents are rare.
Big Mama says he would love to broadcast live from one of the local jails. It seems unlikely given security concerns. But if he could, well, I guess that would be the ultimate shoutout.
