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FAQ

Use this website - FAQ

what about if I cannot fill all the information requested

Don’t be afraid to leave it half-empty if you can’t answer all the questions. You, or someone else, can update all the entries at all. We think it’s important to keep a collaborative ways to full fill and share the information.

If you add a new prisoner entry but you cannot find the prison where this person is detained you can leave it empty, finish to fullfill the form and submit it. After you can go to the prisons section, add the missing prison and in the process to fullfill the form you can associate the prisoner(s) inside that. When you did it the prison will be automatically added to the prisoner page you have already created before. Same process is valid in the other direction (if you add a prison but you cannot find the prisoners that are detained there).

Some people want to be called by a name (chosen name) that is different than the one that the state recognizes (legal name). 

We use the chosen name to index the prisoners in the website and also is better to use that inside the letter/postcard you want to send but normally prisons don’t accept and don’t give the letter to the person if there is not the full legal name signed in the mail envelop.

If any, what others sentences have the person to do in prison (how much time and for which reason, if know)

Current trial situation regarding the reason of arrest. not the sentence the person have received.

It is the approximate count of how much time the person still has to spend in prison, all sentences combined

Regimes can have restrictions that are applied at all the prisoners in that specific regime. With restrictions is when this are applied to the specific prisoner but probably not at all the other prisoners in the same prison/section.

Normally all the government have a specific website about the prison system and how it’s work. There you can find contacts, statistics, often a description and the service or other kinds of information. You can search for the name of the prison and look for website from the government.

Write letters to prisoners - FAQ

Do I disturb the people in prison when writing to them?

No, the prisoners have a highly structured and planned dayli routine, a letter is a welcome change. Also it lets them know that the outside world has not forgotten them and pressures prison authorities to reduce repressions. he aim to the prison complex is to isolate people from their social surroundings. This little piece of outside world, that your letters send to prison is helping a lot to struggle against isolation and lonliness.

Important is that you regard writing the letters as a “normal” conversation. So start to slowly get to know each other. Its a good idea to write where you got the address from and how you came to write this first letter. Try not to overwhelm the recipient of your letter with information and openness. Its important to be honest about the frequency of this correspondence, do not nourish false hope.

You can write about everything you would like to talk about. Maybe tell about yourself, your hobbies and maybe your everyday life in general, your dreams and hopes and wishes. You could also write about that last mind blowing festival or your last trip abroad. So when writing about these things you will most likely not hurt the person recieving your letters, with telling her/him* that there is a good life outside. She/He* might have had such a life her/his*self and will have it again. In prison it is a great opportunity to dream about what you do or what one can do when getting out.

Maybe its not such a good idea in the first letter, but when you got to know each other its a good thing for the incarcerated person to write about the prison life. Its a good chance to kill frustration and maybe see some micehole in all the rules and routine. When you have gotten to know each other better you can start projects together. Books or zines, draw comics together, work on newspaper articles, there are no limits for your ceartivity.

It can be, but unfortunally it does not have to be. It makes sense to date all your letters and number them continously. When letters are held back, you can send them per registered mail, so that prison authorities cannot say your letters never reached the prison.
However thats only a real option if you want to sue against the retention of your letters. There are legal terms to mark that the retention of your letters is not your wish as you are still the legal owner of your letters. Prisoners in solitary confinement do not recive letters, however if many letters arrive for them the prison authorities are under pressure and might reduce the repression.

Yes, in most cases letters without sender do not reach! If you do not want to put your name on the letter, use the address of a social center or postbox.

In principle, you can write to anyone who’s in jail. You should search the internet for information. It always helps to read what people are accused of and to write people whose actions you would not immediately condemn. Information about the place of detention and the address of the person you should check again, not everything is always up to date

Most prisoners are happy when you send them stamps, so they do not have to pay the stamps themselves. You can find out about the number and value of stamps you can send on the prison’s website. Also books, zines, papers and so on…

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Contact us by mail at:
prisoners – info AT riseup DOT net

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