Poking A Hole in the Prison Wall – Writing to the Incarcerated in NJ

Part of the challenge we face in building an effective decarceration movement that can make effective demands and prevail and actually win some freedom and win some improvements for those locked down is to build convergence and then unity between advocates for decarceration, families of the incarcerated and those who are currently and formerly incarcerated or potentially to be incarcerated.

The prison walls that confine also serve as a dividing line effectively interfering with the kind of unity we need to advance forward our struggle.  Those on the inside are largely unaware that we have begun to stir on the outside for changes in NJ.  We on the outside are largely unaware of just how miserable and oppressive are the conditions on the other side of the walls.  The system commits many crimes of abuse, neglect and worse totally shielded from public knowledge and sight.

What can we do to attempt to break a hole through the dividing wall?  It is an important question and the answer is part of what we need to figure out to move our efforts to a new level.  I want to invite every reader of this article to join me in beginning to test if the dividing wall is penetrable.

I am suggesting a writing campaign – not so much to become prisoner pen pals – though that is part of the tactic – but to open a collective dialogue between proponents of our fight directly with the incarcerated.  The idea is this – participating decarceration proponents reach out to 1 – 5 (or more) incarcerated persons via a letter.  You can take the example below for starters and modify it to your liking, send it as is or write your own letter from scratch.

In the letter we introduce ourselves as members of Decarcerate the Garden State.  We talk a little bit about what the organization does and what are our aims.  We can also add a little about our own personal philosophy or opinions about mass incarceration and solutions.  We can ask the incarcerated person to write back, let us know what they think of our efforts.  We can suggest that if they have friends and family on the outside that are supportive of them that they contact them and ask that they get in contact with our organization.  We can also suggest that they let other incarcerated persons know about our efforts and encourage them to invite their outside supporters to also contact us.  We can also invite them to contact us if they know of issues going on inside the facility of abuse, neglect, systemic violence, etc.  Let them know that if there is a way for us to act in support of improvements that we will try to figure out a way to do that.  Also we can let them know that if there is information that they want to make public – we can help to facilitate that – while using discretion and protecting our sources about such information.

If you have a Post Office Box or you can use your own return address for the correspondence – that works – or you can use the following return address: PO Box 25331, Newark, NJ 07101. 

Let us know who you are writing to – send the information to Decarc@DecarcerateNJ.org and we can let you know if you get a response.   Letting us know also tells us if we are having any success in encouraging this action step.

So you are probably wondering – who should I write to?  That is up to you.  If you have relatives, friends, acquaintances that you know are on the inside you can write to them.   You also can search the prisoner database – look up incarcerated persons – and pick one or more that you want to write to.  The address format is the incarcerated man or woman’s name followed by their prison ID number and then the address for the facility they are incarcerated in.  For example, if sending to Southwoods incarcerated:

Prisoner Name, 999999A
South Woods State Prison
215 Burlington Rd. South
Bridgeton, NJ 08302

(Where 999999A is the prison ID that you can obtain from the prisoner search website)

Here is the search site: https://www6.state.nj.us/DOC_Inmate/inmatefinder?i=I .  You can enter a couple of letters – into the last name or a common last name.  You can select a particular facility if you want to focus on a facility.  Women organizers can consider focusing on Edna Mahan facility.

The addresses of each facility can be found at the NJ Department of Corrections website:
http://www.state.nj.us/corrections/pages/index.shtml

Unlike a simple prison pen pal project, this is an organizing effort.   Ideally, we should coordinate if we find incarcerated persons that are interested in getting involved and if there are those that want to share information with the public, we should determine the best way to productively share the information.  If we are approached for assistance in advocating to resolve an issue – we can share ideas about how to best go about providing support and take action accordingly.

Summarizing the goals of the effort:

1.       To communicate to the incarcerated about the efforts of Decarcerate the Garden State and give a little hopefulness that the idea of such external support might engender.

2.       To invite the incarcerated to share information about how to connect with our organization to their loved ones or any support networks they might have outside.

3.       To give a voice to the incarcerated by offering to facilitate their communications if they are interested to the outside.

4.       Should any issues be identified, to offer support and possibly action from the outside to pressure for improvements.

Here is a sample letter – feel free to copy and use as is, modify to your liking or write your own letters in your own words:

Dear <Incarecerated Person’s Name>,

I am writing to you as a member of a statewide organization called Decarcerate the Garden State.  Our goals are to fight for changes in NJ laws to bring about large scale reductions of the number of incarcerated prisoners in the state of NJ and to provide community projects that help former prisoners achieve success, jobs and other support for NJ’s impoverished communities.  We also want improved conditions for those that are incarcerated.

To achieve our goals we need greater unity particularly with those that are incarcerated and their families.  We are reaching out to incarcerated men and women, like yourself to let you know about our efforts and to find out if you are interested in becoming part of the efforts.

A key way those that are incarcerated behind NJ’s prison walls can help is, if you have any family or support on the outside, if you can contact them and let them know about our group and ask them to contact us.  They can reach us through e-mail address Decarc@DecarcerateNJ.org or search for us on the internet: Decarcerate the Garden State, and they will find out website, blog, facebook group, etc.

You can also let other incarcerated men and women know about what we are doing and encourage them also to reach out to their loved ones.

We also want to offer support – if there are issues that are going on inside the prison that people on the outside should know about, if there are harmful conditions that should be improved, you can communicate with us and if you request it, we can keep your name out of it.  You can also encourage your family members to let us know about any such conditions.

If you have any suggestions and advice as to how to better advocate toward our goals of an end to mass incarceration in NJ, please feel free to share those. 

If interested, please be encourage to write back to me at:

<Your Name>
PO Box 25331
Newark, NJ 07101

Sincerely,

<Your Name>

Related topics:

Communicating Through the Walls:
http://decarceratenj.blogspot.com/2015/01/communicating-through-walls-adding-6th.html

Interview with Free Alabama Movement:
http://decarceratenj.blogspot.com/2015/02/interviewing-free-alabama-movement-fam.html

Challenging Prison Policies Preventing Direct Communication to Visitors 
http://decarceratenj.blogspot.com/2015/03/decarcerate-garden-state-to-challenge.html