Pamela Grieve met the man who would become her fiancé through an online profile. Then she went on a blind date with him.

Yes, nothing unusual there. But this is a very different love story. The couple met on Canadian Inmates Connect and their first meeting was in the visiting room at a federal penitentiary with guards watching over them.

Prison penpal service Canadian Inmates Connect contains dozens of profiles of inmates across the country who are looking for letters from people on the outside. Since inmates don’t have internet access, any courting has to happen the old-fashioned way.

Grieve says she wasn’t looking for a “romantic connection” but she fell for Glyn Lloyd-Owen nonetheless. Letters turned into phone calls and, eventually, a face-to-face visit.

“I was nervous. I was so nervous. It was, I think, the most extreme kind of blind date you could almost ever have,” she told CTV News Atlantic.

Many more visits followed. All of them supervised.

“We’re in open seating areas, very uncomfortable seats I might add. We sit across from each other. We can hug each other, we can kiss. That’s as much physical contact as we can have. So for those seven hours, we’re sitting there talking.”

Lloyd-Owen was convicted in 2005 for the second-degree murder of his landlord and sentenced to life in prison. It will be at least another six years before he can be released on parole. But Grieve is willing to wait. She believes in second chances and sees a bright future with her fiancé.

“He’s a very supportive person. He’s very caring. He’s honest with me,” she said.

“The man I know is not the man he was 15 years ago and the man I know would never re-offend in that way. I have no concerns over his future.”

The Canadian Inmates Connect website includes a testimonial from Lloyd-Owen. He says he was skeptical of the website at first and thought joining would be a waste of time and money. But he says he “met some really cool, strange people and started to think outside of the walls.”

Then Grieve’s letter arrived.

“’Hello’ was the first thing I saw and I’m certain to my core nothing will ever be the same.”

The inmates’ profiles include a photo, date of birth and expected release date. Most of the inmates state their crime. Inmates also include a short biography in which many of them talk about loneliness.

Website founder Melissa Fazzina says those behind bars are more than just what got them locked up.

“These people shouldn’t be defined by their crimes. You know, they’re human beings and allowing them to have contact with outside people just changes them. It changes a lot of people, not just the people inside, but the people on the outside.”

She urges people on her website to consider doing a “random act of kindness” for an inmate by writing a letter.

“Inmates are people too. Unfortunately over time they are forgotten about by family and friends who were once there for them,” she wrote.

Fazzina says she knows of no safety issues arising out the connections made on her website.

“I don’t really have any safety concerns. I always say that I think this website is a little safer than others that are out there because you know what you’re getting yourself into.”

Former inmate Derrick Lombard says the letters from the outside helped him get through his stint at Springhill Institution in Nova Scotia where he was serving time for aggravated assault.

The Truro, N.S. native now lives in Toronto where he works in a restaurant and writes music in his spare time. He says he still keeps in touch with some of the people he met through Canadian Inmates Connect.

“Two and three people and we’re just friends and we talk to try and see how each other’s doing.”

Social connections are important to those who are behind bars, says Jennifer Silcox, an assistant sociology professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

“Being able to have relationships or a friendship with somebody else can be something to look forward to. It could act as motivation and also keep people aware of what’s going on in the outside world.”

The website has made headlines in the past when some of Canada’s most notorious criminals, including convicted killer Luka Magnotta and Matt Johnson, a B.C. man convicted of six counts of first-degree murder, used it in their quests for love.

Grieve knows there is a lot of negative judgement about women who get involved with inmates. But she doesn’t care.

“I’m not going to live my life based on the opinions of other people. I know I love him and I want to spend my life with him and that should be good enough, I think, for everybody.”

-with a report by Priya Sam, CTV News Atlantic