These valentines headed to prisons across the country are heartbreaking and revealing

(Originally published by Washington Post on February 12, 2020)

Heart emoji and confessions of yearning fill many of the postcards that have been printed by the thousands in a Maryland warehouse in recent days. But if you look closely at them, if you study the pictures on them and read the words they carry, you will recognize they are more than just valentines. On the back of each, you’ll find the address of one of the nation’s many correctional or detention facilities, and the name of an inmate.

When we think of Valentine’s Day greetings, we usually picture those cards perched on drugstore shelves organized neatly by sentiment — humorous, romantic, religious — or those pun-filled cards that children give to their classmates. But this month is also the busiest for Flikshop, a company created by a man who grew up in the Washington area and wanted to find a way to keep families connected with prisoners across the country.

Read more via The Washington Post http://bit.ly/FlikshopValentinesDay