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There
are four important ways you can contribute to the
support of the arrestees:
Letters
Nervous
about your first letter? Don't be! Prisoners often
say how much they enjoy hearing about someone's day-to-day
activities and interests. This is often the easiest
and most important thing you can do to support people
in prison. Many say they also enjoy receiving news
articles (photocopied or printed from the web). The
most important thing is to just get the letter in
the mail. Once you send that first letter, each one
that follows will be easier to write. Send a postcard,
artwork, talk about your day, just please remember
a few things:
- All
letters must have a return address on the envelope.
- Please
also put a return address on the letter itself,
as prisoners are almost never given the envelopes.
- Please
do not mention other nicknames you might know
them by.
- Do
not discuss their cases or anything related to
illegal activities. Keep in mind that all mail
is read by authorities.
- Pictures
are allowed, but must be 4x6 size or smaller.
No Polaroids.
- Most
facilities will NOT accept stamps or envelopes
mailed to prisoners. Please check with the institution
prior to doing so.
- Avoid
using white-out, stickers, tape, colored ink or
glitter.
- Written
correspondence and drawings may be in pencil,
standard ink pen, typewritten, or computer generated.
No felt pens, markers, crayon, or colored pencil,
etc.
- All
personal artwork must be in black & white,
copied pages can be in color.
- PLAIN
cards are allowed. However, you must write something
inside of the card, as blank ones will be returned.
- Most
facilities do not allow torn pages from books,
magazine or newspaper clippings. Photocopies,
however, are accepted
- Please
always remember that, even if unsolicited, mail
can still result in sanctions against a prisoner.
Care Packages
Despite all of the mail regulations above, there are
still plenty of things you can send to a prisoner
to brighten their day! In fact, with a little effort,
you can send prisoners at even the most stringent
facilities care packages. Print-outs, color copies
and pictures leave a lot of options.
Here are just a few ideas for materials that you can
include in an envelope to send to a prisoner as a
care package (keeping in mind the above mail regulations):
- Yoga Postures- many prisoners are confined to
their cells for up to 22 hours a day and have
very little access to exercise facilities. Yoga
can be practiced in a very small area and is both
relaxing and beneficial to their health. There
are many online websites that offer step-by-step
guides for you to send.
- Comics/humorous articles- breaking up the gloom
of prison always helps! Photocopy the best of
the Sunday paper's comics, or do a simple online
search.
- Essays/Writing excerpts- ask someone who their
favorite authors are, or topics they enjoy reading
about. Again, you'd be amazed what you can find
online and this is a simple way to send prisoners
lots of reading materials cheaply.
- Word Search games- and of course, prison is
incredibly boring. Click
here to visit a site that allows you to generate
word search games with words you select!
- Describe a hike- spend the day outside hiking,
take some pictures and then send them to a prisoner
with a story about your hike. Remember that prison
is sensory deprivation to the max, so use a lot
of description (sight, sound, smell, everything...)
- Pictures- send pictures of wild places, ones
that are vivid in color and show a lot of detail.
Remember that Polaroid's are not allowed.
- Photo-copies- photocopy everything: pictures
of beautiful paintings, other artwork, large photos,
newspaper articles, book pages, zines, and anything
else you can think of.
Donating
There
are two ways to contribute to the prisoners' defense
and support funds: You can send donations to the support
groups (please contact the support groups for more
information) or you can put donations directly into
their commissaries. Commissary money is very important
to prisoners, as it allows them to purchase stamps,
envelopes, phone-cards, extra food, as well as other
necessities. Please consider sending a donation! Instructions
for each facility are below.
For
Prisoners at Sacramento County Jail:
Please visit the below link for specific instructions
For
Prisoners at Federal Institutions:
Please visit the below link for specific instructions
that apply to all Federal facilities
Support
Funds:
| Daniel
McGowan:
Lisa McGowan
PO Box 106
New York, NY 10156-106
*Made out to: Lisa McGowan*
Paypal
Link for Donations
Briana
Waters:
Eric Waters
P.O. Box 1689
Old Chelsea Station
New York, NY 10113
*Made out to: Eric Waters*
Rod
Coronado:
PO Box 732
Tucson, Arizona 85702
*Made out to: Rod Coronado*
|
Joyanna
Zacher & Nathan Block:
S.N.J. c/o
Maureen Block
881 Oak Hill Rd.
Swanville, ME 04915
*Made out to: Maureen Block*
Eric McDavid:
Sac Prisoner Support,
PO Box 163126,
Sacramento, CA, 95816
*Made out to:
Sacramento Defense Fund
Paypal
Link for Donations |
SHAC 7:
SHAC 7 c/o
NJARA
PO Box 174
Englishtown, NJ 07726
*Made out to: NJARA*
Jonathan Paul:
Friends of Jonathan Paul
PMB 267
2305 Ashland St., Ste. C
Ashland, OR 97520
*Made out to: Friends of Jonathan Paul
Bill
Rodgers Memorial Fund:
info@catalystinfoshop.org
www.catalystinfoshop.org/bill |
Books
Ordering
books is an easy way to directly support the prisoners.
For book suggestions, please contact the various support
groups. Also, try to let them know which books you
are ordering, so that repeat orders are not made.
For all prisoners, some basic rules apply:
All
books must be new, paperback and come directly
from the publisher or an online distributor,
such as www.amazon.com.
Please have the books sent to the same address that
you would use to mail them letters, making sure to
include their ID number. Remember to keep the topics
of books focused away from subjects that could potentially
cause problems for prisoners, and can actually result
in the books being seized. You can also send them
reading material directly by including up to 10 pages
(photocopied front and back) in an envelope. Some
facilities, although few, will also except used books.
For detailed instructions on sending books to a particular
prisoner, please email their support groups directly.
Green
Scare Defendants Book Wish Lists:
Nathan
Block
Eric
McDavid (is ok on books currently)
Joyanna
Zacher
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