unchained letters
A few months ago, a friend and I started a project called Unchained Letters: Fort Collins Prisoner Support. Jen came up with the name Unchained Letters after I spent many days unable to think of a good name. It is basically a prisoner support, via pen-pal correspondence, project. We have both a zine, which outlines our goals and activities and includes tips for writing to prisoners, and now a blog. I just put it online yesterday; it’s very basic and will hopefully be expanded upon. You can visit it at: www.fortcollinsprisonersupport.blogspot.com
A few days ago, I got my first letter back from an individual imprisoned here in Colorado. I had written to him after finding his name and address at an online political prisoner website. It felt really good to read the letter and listen to what he had to say. I was unsure how supportive just writing letters would be but, through his letter, he told me that he was very excited to correspond for several reasons. He said it was good just getting a letter, it helped to keep him in touch with the outside world and ongoing struggles there, and helped him to grow through discourse. I wrote him back yesterday and I really enjoyed writing the letter. It was much different than when writing to someone you already know—we have a lot of questions for each other and are interested in what the other thinks about, what inspires each other, and things like that. I am already very happy and excited to be involved in this project. And I’m looking forward to reading the next letter!
A few days ago, I got my first letter back from an individual imprisoned here in Colorado. I had written to him after finding his name and address at an online political prisoner website. It felt really good to read the letter and listen to what he had to say. I was unsure how supportive just writing letters would be but, through his letter, he told me that he was very excited to correspond for several reasons. He said it was good just getting a letter, it helped to keep him in touch with the outside world and ongoing struggles there, and helped him to grow through discourse. I wrote him back yesterday and I really enjoyed writing the letter. It was much different than when writing to someone you already know—we have a lot of questions for each other and are interested in what the other thinks about, what inspires each other, and things like that. I am already very happy and excited to be involved in this project. And I’m looking forward to reading the next letter!
posted by matt iv at 10:35 AM
4 Comments:
Careful about what kind of personal information you give an offender while writing to them. Not that you *will*, just saying. While your particular offender pen-pal might be harmless (no pun intended), there are those on the inside who could, say, steal your pen pal's letter and use your address/any kind of personal information for ill gain.
If you have any questions about sending mail to inmates, though, I'm a wealth of knowledge! ;-)
Oh, and PS: I think it's a great thing that you're doing. Letters and phone calls are about the only link that offenders have to the outside world. They have TV, too, but that's not "real" human contact.
Ben,
Thanks a bunch for the tips and advice. I'm glad you mentioned to remember that other people in the prison may read the letter that you write--that's a good thing to remember. We do have a "neutral" address in the form of a p.o. box; that's one of the steps we've taken for safety concerns.
Do you know of any people imprisoned in the prison you work at that are considered by some to be political prisoners (people in prison for ecological/political actions)? I'm curious if that sort of designation or information is very widely known and if there happens to be anyone there like that.
Thanks again, Ben!
I will have to check to see about any political prisoners. There's usually not a whole lot of political activity that goes on here, but I'm sure I could dig something up.
I'll let you know one way or the other, though.
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