For 33 of Missouri's female inmates, it's been a match made in prison - and a lucrative one at that.
But Attorney General Jay Nixon is playing the role of meddlesome chaperone, cracking down on romantic Internet pen pal services to the tune of nearly $300,000.
That's how much Nixon says the inmates may have collected from adoring "pen pals," thanks to sultry singles ads they placed on Internet sites that connect the lonely with the incarcerated. . . .
[N]ixon filed legal action Thursday in Cole County Circuit Court to recoup that bounty from 33 prisoners, citing a Missouri law that allows the state to cover prison costs by seizing inmates' assets.
Details here from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.