http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/ en Sun, 19 May 2013 03:57:59 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/ http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/2970-welcome-home-kits-what-how-send.html Tue, 04 Sep 2012 21:57:41 GMT Attachment 3473 (http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3473) I wanted to walk you guys through what we put together in a...

I wanted to walk you guys through what we put together in a typical Welcome Home Kit (WriteAPrisoner.com - Welcome Home Kits).We don’t have an exact science down, and we actually do custom tailor these kits in some instances. For example: If we’re sending them to an inmate who’s being released in December and in a state like New York, we may include a pair of gloves, beanie cap, and chapstick. If they’re being released in Florida, we might send sunblock and lip protection. If they don’t have decent footwear, we might send shoes. We send these somewhat often, so we’re always looking for bulk sales. Most Dollar Stores will have some great options if you’re looking just to send one kit. The total cost for these on average is about $25 for us. We’ve gotten them out the door for much less, but that does seem to be about the average.

Okay, so let me rundown how a typical kit gets sent:

1) Make sure the inmate is coming home within a few months and is without a good support base. There is no reason to send this kit to those who don’t need it - if they have good people in their corner already helping them back on their feet. There are plenty of inmates who have no one waiting to help. It just makes more sense to focus on the most needy.

2) Make sure you have a contact at the prison who will accept this kit on behalf of the inmate. Never send this thing blindly into a prison. It will almost certainly be rejected. When sending this in, address it: Attention: Your Prison Contact Goes Here. Be sure to include a personal and encouraging, note to the inmate listing the contents of the kit. If you are willing to go the extra mile, provide an area map along with addresses and phone numbers for police, public transportation, homeless shelters, job agencies, rental properties, emergency healthcare, laundrymats, etc. for the person. Also, send a separate note to your prison contact stating something like:

Dear Contact,

Enclosed, please find a bag full of items (note: include an itemized list of what you are sending) to help with offender Jon Doe’s reintegration into society. I understand that these items will not be given to him until he is leaving custody, and I appreciate you taking the time to make sure that he gets these items intended to help him when he first gets released. I'm enclosing a list of the items I've sent.

Thank you!

Sincerely,
Your Name

You can include contact information in the letter above if you’re comfortable with the prison contacting you if there is an issue. Also, know that some prisons will not accept these kits. This doesn’t mean they’re trying to be the bad guy. In some cases, policies may conflict with your good intentions. Transitional government homes may have more lenient policies with receiving something like this on the inmate’s behalf. If that doesn’t work, it’s possible the inmate may have another contact who will give the kit to them. In most cases, the inmate will provide a contact inside or outside of the prison. It never hurts to check with the prison before sending yourwelcome home kit.

3) Get your kit together! Here’s what we have in the one pictured in this blog:

Item 1) The bag ($7)

Item 2) Toothbrush with built-in cover and toothpaste ($2.50)

Item 3) Water bottle ($1.50)

Item 4) $3 in quarters – If they need and can find a payphone in this world of cellphones. (Can also use for laundrymats,newspapers, etc.)

Item 5) Comb ($1) – Another simple toiletry.

Items 6) Two bags of peanuts and sunflower seeds ($1) We usually buy these in bulk and add a few to every kit. Any healthy snack can help.

Item 7) Q-tips ($1)

Item 8) Shampoo and conditioner combination ($1) – We have male and female toiletries and send what’s gender appropriate.

Item 9) Shower gel ($1)

Item 10) Antiperspirant ($1)

Item 11) Flashlight with batteries ($1) – We usually throw this in every kit. Make sure you buy one with batteries if you decide tosend one.

Item 12) Lint roller ($1) – We send these so they can make themselves presentable for come what may - job interviews, landlord meetings, etc.

Item 13) One roll of toilet paper ($1) – We usually buy the ones that are individually wrapped, unlike what’s pictured today.

Item 14) Burger King $10 gift card – We don’t usually send these, as they drive the cost up quite a bit, but gift cards for food (or cell phone time) are useful.

Total cost for this kit: $33.00

Some of what you don’t see listed here that we would likely include are a shaving kit for men and feminine products for women. It’s really up to you as to what you send. Do make sure you’re never sending the inmate anything which that be considered questionable. Your kit will get rejected if you do, and that would be a real shame. Stay away from pocketknives, medicine, and anything else prison staff would be leery of giving to someone getting out of prison.

Okay, that’s about it! If you decide to send one to your pen-pal before his or her release, please feel free to provide us with yourfeedback. We realize this is quite an undertaking, but you have the ability to really provide a good jumping off point for these men and women. ]]> Webmaster http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/2970-welcome-home-kits-what-how-send.html http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/2732-you-cant-imprison-talent.html Mon, 21 May 2012 07:44:18 GMT My most recent blog entry can be found on The Prison Arts Coalition's website: WriteAPrisoner.com: You Can’t Imprison Talent « The Prison Arts Coalition I was invited to write a guest blog. Hope you enjoy! ]]> Webmaster http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/2732-you-cant-imprison-talent.html http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/314-prison-myths.html Wed, 23 Mar 2011 02:04:11 GMT America is obsessed with "tough on inmate" policies. Elected and appointed officials seem to usually come down on the side of austere conditions and treatment for the incarcerated when given a choice. Blowhard politicians speak from their bully pulpits about how inmates “don’t need better conditions” and “don’t need more rights.” The media routinely use the worst inmate possible to put a face on any issue. After all, it’s about selling stories these days, not telling them. Indeed, even Charles Manson has become the face of cellphones in prison because he has been caught with one. Many Americans are even convinced that “inmates have it better than we do.” because the media and politicos have convincingly sold this lie as a fact to further their own agendas: elections and ratings. Myths of "country club prisons" keep this belief going, but only those who have lived behind prison walls know the truth. Cells are tiny, the toilet right there for all to watch. After all, humiliation is a form of punishment. Medical care and food quality are substandard. Commissary items, like shampoo, cost five times what they cost on the outside. Visiting conditions are often dehumanizing for both the inmate and the visitor. Guards turn a blind eye to prison rape. Loneliness is epidemic. Suicide is common. And false bravado becomes the inmate's persona. Punishment is emphasized over rehabilitation, so new skills learned in prison to help inmates upon release (and more than 90% WILL be released) are more likely to become "how to be a better criminal" rather than "how to read and write" since many prisons make little effort to offer educational programs. Illiteracy is higher in prisons than on the outside. So is mental illiness. But hey, let's lock 'em up and throw away the key!

Let me pose this question: If you knew that providing inmates with more amenities would reduce crime on a national level, would you be for it? If you could be shown actual facts and figures, what would you say? The idea of an inmate even wanting anything more than essentials necessary for survival borders on criminal to some. Well, meet Halden Prison YouTube - World's Nicest Prison: Halden Prison, Norway, Norway’s response to incarceration. It is a humane and ecological prison, the first of its kind. This is a country club prison if there ever was one. Perhaps this is what many Americans are confusing with prisons like San Quentin and Attica here in America? While this prison may seem extreme in a different direction entirely, you cannot deny the fact that Norway’s recidivism rate is much better than our own. Compare their recidivism rate of 20% after two years to that of America at 60%. Now I’m not suggesting movie theaters or ski lifts (climate permitting) in prison, but there is a lesson to be learned here. If we treated current or formerly incarcerated people more like people instead of a different species, perhaps they would be more inclined to act like people. Maybe if we didn’t slam the door in their face at the question “Have you ever been incarcerated?” perhaps they’d be more likely to work for their money instead of take it. I would be willing to wager that many inmates would gladly embrace a second opportunity at life if one were given. Many inmates have, but we are certainly not making it easy on them as a nation. The "lock 'em up and throw away the key" mentality will likely remain alive and well... until it is affecting someone you love. And hey... with the U.S. the most incarcerated nation on the planet (10 of all American men will at some point be locked up), the chance is good that someone you love will someday experience incarceration in a U.S. prison. ]]> Webmaster http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/314-prison-myths.html http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/293-welcome-home-kits.html Thu, 10 Feb 2011 04:10:52 GMT Ok, as I mentioned, we’re upgrading servers, and we’re including some new content upgrades with it. You may see some new links and references that... Ok, as I mentioned, we’re upgrading servers, and we’re including some new content upgrades with it. You may see some new links and references that aren’t quite live, or they may be in beta mode. Please disregard these, as we’re getting the actual sections up as fast as we can.

One new section is Welcome Home Kits. These are kits that we’re donating to ex-offenders on their way home. They’re designed to give these people some basic tools to start anew with – toiletries, bus schedules, duffle bag, etc., and they will be mailed directly to the prisons. While we’re donating these bags ourselves after collecting the information from soon-to-be-released offenders, we will soon provide a way for the public to participate as well. We also include our newest edition in our Self-Help Series, the Welcome Home Kits. We are not sure how many of these we’re going to be able to afford to send each month, and it’s one of the reasons we want the public to be able to participate if they so choose. A lot of inmates come home with a bus ride and $50 in their pocket. These kits will provide some basic essentials and information for their area, etc.

That’s it, I just wanted to touch base with you guys. Again, be prepared to see some cool new categories, but be aware that we do expect to encounter some issues as we upgrade servers again.

As before, I have disabled commenting here for a lack of time on being able to reply personally, but know that I am personally grateful to all who stand with us in our mission to do good work.

Thanks! ]]> Webmaster http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/293-welcome-home-kits.html http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/272-welcome-2011.html Sat, 08 Jan 2011 18:24:46 GMT Well, I've gotten better with Twitter, Facebook and the forum, but I clearly need to do a better job on my own blog! What's going on? WriteAPrisoner.com is upgrading servers again. This should help with any intermittent issues with form submissions or up time that you've been experiencing. We're also upgrading all software on our server, so we can improve the look and functionality of the entire site. We've also been working away on our Self-Help Series (http://www.writeaprisoner.com/self-help/), and we have some new documents in the works. I'm most excited about our Parenting from Prison Self-Help guide. We've been collecting information from our members about it, and we're putting together a very complete guide which should benefit both parents and children of incarcerated parents. And speaking of, we do have our Children Impacted By Crime Scholarship Funds up and running, and we've selected our first batch of recipients. Very exciting! And on that same note, please check our new site for children (no affiliation to WriteAPrisoner.com of course): http://crimefreekids.com It's a work in progress, but so is everything that we do.

We have some really cool changes coming out soon. We've really improved the Back to Work section, and we think it's going to go a long way in helping inmates get back to work. Speaking of that, post a resume for any inmate coming home within the year at no charge here: WriteAPrisoner.com - Submit Inmate Resume Form

We have a lot of new stuff on the site. You'll have to snoop around to find it, but I do promise to spend more time updating you on issues over here. We're a small organization, and most of my time is spent on development, but I will try to do a better job on updating you on those developments. Thank you for your continued support! The best is yet to come!

Happy new year, my friends! ]]> Webmaster http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/272-welcome-2011.html http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/115-audacity-angola.html Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:19:29 GMT I recently had a conference call with Emmy Award-winning film maker Jonathan Stack (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Stack) and some of his... I recently had a conference call with Emmy Award-winning film maker Jonathan Stack and some of his colleagues. While we're still in talks about how we could work together, I was able to secure a free DVD out of the conversation :) His documentary titled "The Farm: 10 Down" is a revisit inside the lives of inmates in Angola prison located in Louisiana. A previous documentary, "The Farm: Angola, USA" was made ten years earlier with the same inmates. Angola is a unique prison in the respect that 95% of its inhabitants will never be coming out. It's also the largest maximum security prison in the United States, and in the 1800s it was a plantation. One in two inmates inside of Angola is in for murder. While there are many interesting facts about Angola prison, I find the warden and his approach to running the prison to be the most fascinating. This documentary takes an inside look at how Warden Burl Cain runs Angola. I was encouraged to see how well he and his staff treat these "worst of the worst". The respect and human decency shown to inmates in Angola pays off. They also have jobs for the inmates, inmate status upgrades that they have to earn and far fewer problems than other prisons their size. If you haven't seen the documentaries, I really encourage you to check them out. They lack the dramatic instrumental music that you'll find in most prison documentaries, which is designed to add an emotional charge, but they more than make up for it with journalistic integrity, and the stories themselves will stir your emotions. So, check them out, and be prepared to learn something and feel something. Who knows, maybe WriteAPrisoner.com will be featured in their next documentary for our collective efforts (yours and ours) on trying to make a positive impact on the lives of inmates who really do want to turn their lives around. It's nice to see a film maker that avoids the usual sensationalism we expect from prison stories. Nice work, Jon. ]]> Webmaster http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/115-audacity-angola.html http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/112-resume-section.html Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:22:24 GMT Thank you to everyone who wrote in about resume section bugs, suggestions and so on. We're working on finishing that section up now, and we'll be sure to mark these types of section as beta in the future when we're redoing or starting them.

The resume section for inmates is completely free, and we have already had some moderate success with it. Hopefully the improvements will get more people using it. We're getting a lot more soon to be released inmates than we are employers at the moment, but we're working on that. ]]> Webmaster http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/112-resume-section.html http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/105-lawsuit.html Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:53:47 GMT A busy blogger is an oxymoron, unless of course, you're getting paid to blog. I started this blog with every intention of keeping you guys better informed as to what we have going on. I will try to do better.

As many of you know, we have recently filed a lawsuit against the Florida Department of Corrections from barring inmates from using our website (and ones like it) to seek pen-pals, legal aid and employment. A date for court has not yet been set, but I will keep you guys posted. I actually had to go to Miami for a press conference on this a few weeks ago, and while I love Miami, it is very nice to be back in my town...with its one horse :)

We have some big changes (yet again) on the way. I will do better at giving you guys a heads up as we implement them.

Hope you're all having a great summer!

Adam ]]> Webmaster http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/105-lawsuit.html http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/18-back-work.html Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:51:49 GMT We are proud to announce a new social networking tool, which allows soon-to-be-released inmates to seek employment through WriteAPrisoner.com. It's called Back to Work, and it is a résumé service for inmates. There is no charge to list inmates or respond to them. It is 100% paid for by WriteAPrisoner.com. If you know an inmate in the United States being released within the year who needs work, please stop by: www.writeaprisoner.com/back-to-work and post a free résumé for them.

One of the reasons the U.S. suffers from such a high recidivism rate is because of the difficulty inmates face in returning to the work force. There are several large corporations in this country making a concerted effort to employ ex-felons. Inmates who are fortunate enough to find employment drastically reduce their likelihood of returning to prison. We want to do our part. You want to do yours. Together we can lower the crime rate (and recidivism) by helping inmates return to the work force after their debt has been
paid to society. ]]> Webmaster http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/18-back-work.html http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/10-writeaprisoner-com-media.html Sun, 29 Jun 2008 20:21:50 GMT I just received an email about a story that came out yesterday in the UK. I don't even remember giving this interview, though I'm sure they didn't make it up: http://www.loughboroughecho.net/view...3871-21069562/

This whole thing with the press has grown very tiresome. Richard Ramirez? C'mon. Yes, there is a very small portion of people who seek out inmates of notoriety for romance. We don't know those people, and they don't know us; however, it seems that we're always sharing the same ink or television time. We tend to focus on the rest of the incarcerated population – the other 99.99999% . Unfortunately, the masses are not as newsworthy.

I do take exception to this statement "He added: "I think it's a bit easier to become involved in correspondence relationships because you have limited interaction. It's someone you care about in small doses." Wow, I seriously doubt that it is context. I believe prison relationships in general are extremely difficult to maintain. Anyone who has ever had someone they love on the inside can tell you that. Outrageous phone bills, hours spent on the road commuting to see the person, loss of human contact. It takes such a toll on both parties. This sounds like the kind of statement I would challenge, not make. Perhaps it was in response to one of those serial killer questions. Either way, I need to be much more careful with what I say to the press. I have always given out interviews like candy at Halloween, and this is a good reminder that anything you say can and will be used against you. I have seen major differences in level of commitment to incarcerated loved ones though. I think this always comes down to the individuals. I have seen a lot of 'in and out of love' instances as a direct result of our website. I also know couples who have been together for seven years who met on our site. Many have come out, gotten married and stayed together. That being said, we're actually promoting friendship, not romance. Romantic relationships are a result of what we do – we connect people. It's simply going to happen, and in many cases, it has turned out to be a wonderful experience.

What harm did this article do? None. In fact, we're receiving a lot of email forwards for inmates on our site today from the UK today as a result of it. I am glad that the media does come to us regardless of their intentions. Without all of the coverage this site has received, it would not be where it is today. The press has been our greatest tool even when their intent is sensationalism. Not every journalist is a Joseph T. Hallinan, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who authored the acclaimed work, Going Up the River: Travels in a Prison Nation. He is one journalist who is truly interested in the common man and the common woman who are behind bars, not the pseudo-celebrities other reports like to write about. We love the press, but are most grateful for the truth-seeking journalists like Hallinan and the late Tim Russert who sought to reveal the greater story, if not the most sensational. ]]> Webmaster http://www.writeaprisoner.com/vbforum/blogs/webmaster/10-writeaprisoner-com-media.html