Muller's been involved with the New York state corrections system for more than 50 years. He helps out with weddings when asked by inmates like Pérez, who participates in a prison support group he still oversees. Muller says for a long time, "lifers" — a term he uses for people serving 15 years to life — were not allowed by the state to get married. Now they can, and he says some look for opportunities, despite the complications of being incarcerated, "They reconnect with women they grew up with. Or in some cases they remarry."

It makes sense that some young singles might find a match in jail, in part because the pool of minority males is so tied to the prison population.

Brie Morris and José Pérez originally met the more modern way, online, about three years ago, on the website prisontalk.com, a kind of digital forum between prisoners and the outside world. Pérez says that virtual meeting developed into letter writing and a real connection. "We were writing each other books — we were writing each other like 20 or 25 page letters." Finally, in early 2011, after a year as Pérez's pen pal, and having never even seen a photo of him, Morris made the trip to Eastern, about two hours north of New York City.

"The first time I met him was a week after Valentine's Day," she said last night, over pre-wedding margaritas with her mother at a Times Square Mexican restaurant, after preparing for her wedding at a New York spa. "He kissed me, it just felt natural. I was like, wow." She admits that dating an inmate was difficult at first. But now, she says, "I really love him, and I don't want to miss out on something I know I want because of the circumstances."

Last September, after about a year and a half of dating, Pérez got down on one knee in the prison waiting room and proposed. Reverend Muller says relationships between inmates and loved ones on the outside can be especially passionate. "The visiting room visits are intense. The letter writing, the phone calls — it can be an intense relationship that's affected deeply by the separation, because of the separation that incarceration creates."

According to Muller it also makes sense that some young singles like Brie Morris might find a match in jail, in part because the pool of young minority males is so tied to the prison population. The national nonprofit The Sentencing Project cites statistics that 60 percent of the more than 2 million inmates in the United States are ethnic minorities. That includes 1 in 10 black males in their 30s.

And Muller says it makes sense that Pérez would be a good catch, despite his situation. "I think someone like José, definitely, at a very young phase in life, has gone deep. I've watched him over the years really become a transformed person. He's gotten in touch with his intellectual ability. He's become quite a poet."