Email a Prisoner

[saramcgrail]

I just wanted to let everyone know of a service that can help people stay in touch with loved ones on the Inside.

Email A Prisoner is a service whereby you can send a 2000 character (about 4 or 5 hundred words) email to one of a number of prisons across the UK. The email is printed at the prison and then put in an envelope and delivered to the prisoner within 24 hours (though this depends on the prisons mail sorting system). Its a lot quicker than the post and costs 25p per message (which you pay via paypal or on a  debit/credit card, postal orders, cheques and if you have a paypal account you can even pay through the account.|

The service was set up a guy called Derek Jones who'd been inside and runs emailaprisoner as a not-for-profit. 10% or its turnover (not profit, but turnover) goes to two family support charities. Its available in 24 prisons and is expanding all the time. Currently the prisons its available in are:

Ashfield, Blantyre House, Bronzefield, Canterbury, Channings Wood, Chelmsford, East Sutton Park, Erlestoke, Full Sutton, Guys Marsh, Leeds, Leyhill, Liverpool, Maidstone, New Hall, Portland, Reading, Rochester, The Verne, Wealstun, Winchester, Wolds, Woodhill. Other prisons are being added all the time and Derek suggests that prisoners at places that don't have it should speak to their personal officer about accessing it.

www.emailaprisoner.com

Please pass this on to anyone you think it might help

[bp]

This is such a good idea. Having, quite some time ago, spent a few spells at Her Majesty's Pleasure, I cannot tell you how important letters are to people in prison, and there are so many people who receive no letters at all; it's tragic! So many prisoners have no contact with family or friends, often because they haven't got anybody on 'the outside'. Letters and visits are some of the very few things which inmates can look forward to in prison so I would urge you to make an effort to email a prisoner; it really can make a difference.

B

BTW, I am going to forward this to the N.U.N. forum, I'm sure some of its members will be interested.