Writing one letter could make a difference in someone’s life. A simple solution. One sheet of paper, one envelope, a stamp, and a few minutes of your time. Are you writing yet?
Women represent the fastest growing segment of incarcerated people in the United States. Over a million women are incarcerated or under supervision of the criminal justice system. Within that group minorities are over represented.
African American women makeup 13% of the female population and account for 30% of the prison population. Hispanic woman account for 11% of the female population and 16% of the prison population.
According to the ACLU, only 18% of those women are incarcerated for violent offenses.
Many women become trapped in the revolving door of the criminal justice system due to their involvement in the sex trade.
As reported by Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP):
“Prostitution is one of the few crimes where women are arrested more frequently than men, but prostitution alone does not explain the growing numbers of Black, Latino, and trans-women behind bars.”
SWOP is a non-profit run by current and retired sex workers, and their allies. Their mission is to uphold human rights for those involved in the sex trade, as well as ending violence and stigma against sex workers. They also run the website SWOP Behind Bars, which focuses on providing support to incarcerated sex workers.
Their website states:
“Women do time, but never receive the resources, social, economic and, psychological support that would enable them to leave the industry if they choose.”
SWOP Behind Bars has published a list, 10 Ways To Help Incarcerated Sex Workers. Within that list, perhaps the most touching is the pen pal program. SWOP Behind Bars is pairing volunteers with incarcerated sex workers in order to provide the inmates with pen pals.
Volunteers can send a one time letter, or they can choose to become long term pen pals. This program is incredibly important because prisoners do not have access to the internet. They are in many ways isolated from life outside of prison. Receiving mail gives them both a sense of being cared for, and a connection to the world they will have to reintegrate into.
Katherine Koster the Communication Director for SWOP mentioned that many of the pen pals have some experience with overcoming hardship. Koster said:
“The goal isn’t to “reform” or “save” people. It’s all about whatever their goals are. What’s interesting is that most of the folks who want pen pals want some kind of mentor-ship into mainstream education and work.”
Katherine Koster said that many of the incarcerated women are working on literacy, achieving a GED or cosmetology license, planning reentry, or combating substance dependency. Koster said:
“Most of the prisons that we work with literally have a 40 hour or 100 hour intensive class in the last 1-2 months, and all research indicates that people need to start this well in advance.”
While we often hear of the downfalls of the criminal justice system, we don’t often hear about tangible solutions, especially not solutions we can all take part in. SWOP Behind Bars has provided a great way to get involved by piloting this program.
All inmates in the program have requested pen pals. If you would like to be a pen pal please sign up here. Your letter can make a difference!
Featured image is a screen grab from YouTube video.
Editor’s Note: All quotes above that are not linked to a source were obtained via a private message interview on Twitter between the writer and Katherine Koster of SWOP. Images were also obtained during this online interview process. Verification is available.
