Writing to prisoners

Receiving letters from the outside helps to stop prisoners feeling isolated and other prisoners are always amazed at the amount of mail animal rights prisoners receive.

When you first start up correspondence with a prisoner, try not to ask specific questions, so prisoners don’t feel under pressure to give a response. Please don’t feel offended if you don’t get a reply, or if a reply is a long time coming, as animal rights prisoners often receive large amounts of mail. They also frequently have ongoing legal matters to deal with, which can be a lengthy process. Consideration must be given to the fact that prisoners may not have time or that they may not feel like writing.

Keep letters positive and avoid angry rants. Talk about what is going on in your daily life or just send a bright card with a short note or a favourite quote. You can buy small packets of card from many stationers and card shops which are really useful for keeping in touch with the prisoners.

Write to UK animal rights prisoners via email

Did you know that it is possible to write to many prisoners in the UK via the “emailaprisoner” service for just 25p per letter, cheaper,
quicker and more convenient than conventional mail. Most UK prisons are either part of the scheme or are set to join in the near future.

You pay in advance and register with an email address and password. See below how it works, It works really well, usually the prisoner gets the letter the same day or the next day, they can’t reply via email, but this is being planned they say, as is the possibility to send pictures.

It’s a really great way to keep our comrades in touch with the outside world. For example, if you see some news online or in an email, you can just copy and paste it into an email and send it directly to the prisoner, with some news of your own perhaps. Or why not put a few stories and some news together, as you get 2,500 characters per email.

These prisoners can currently already receive emails:
Dan Amos (HMP Guys Marsh)
Natasha Avery (HMP Send)
Nicole Vosper (HMP Bronzefield)
Kerry Whitburn (HMP Lowdham Grange)
Sarah Whitehead (HMP Bronzefield)
Heather Nicholson (HMP Foston Hall)

These will be able to soon
Dean Cain (HMP Preston from 9th November)
Dan Wadham (HMP Camp Hill, will be available “soon”)

Soon it should be possible to write to them all. On the website there’s a list of prisons you can write to to urge them to introduce the scheme
as well.

For more details see
http://www.emailaprisoner.com