|
Buddhist Peace Fellowship Prison Project
Guidelines for Answering Prison Correspondence
Mission Statement
The Prison Project of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship is committed
to responding to letters from prisoners, providing them with
Buddhist reading material, support, and pen pal correspondents
when they wish, and referring them to other sources of support
when known.
General Procedures:
This is an opportunity for mindful practice for ourselves,
in reading, and responding to the correspondence. We ask that
you make every effort to respond to letters in a timely fashion.
Many prisoners who write us are not dharma practitioners or
interested in being Buddhists, but are simply seeking some
peace during their time inside, or are lonely and wanting
contact. We are open to anyone who wants to read what we provide.
We have made it a part of our practice to draw clear boundaries
about what we do and do not provide, in a skillful and compassionate
way. Our experience is that writing a respectful and kind
"no" has always been well-received. Most prisoners
are used to receiving no response at all. So please work with
any reluctance to say "no" as part of your own practice.
Pen Pal Correspondence with Prisoners:
- We ask people not to use home addresses or phone numbers
for safety and security reasons; rather, we ask people to
use the BPF PO Box address (unknown for Sonoma at this time),
or another PO Box address. Pen pal correspondents involved
in this program are asked to call in to the Pen pal coordinator
weekly to find out whether any letters have arrived for
them (if you are using the centralized PO Box). If they
have, you are invited to come in to pick them up from the
office. Please note: we are unable to mail prisoners' letters
out to you.
- If you are planning to use the BPF Sonoma PO Box to receive
prisoner correspondence, you must alert the coordinator
so that a folder can be created for you. Otherwise, there
is a risk that your letters may get lost.
- We ask that people make a commitment to continue the correspondence
for a minimum of 6 months with any given prisoner (if the
prisoner wants to).
- We recommend reading the guidelines provided by Bo Lozoff
(from the Prison Ashram Project), to help with questions
that arise about relating to prisoners, and the way we respond
to prisoners'letters.
Info Packets:
We have put together an info packet, from an old Turning
Wheel issue (from 1992) that focused on prisons and prisoners,
as well as various other writings. We often send these out
to prisoners who write asking just for some introductory information.
Book Requests:
Sometimes prisoners request books. We have no fund for books
at this time. We do receive or request some "hurt"
books periodically from Parallax Press (Thich Nhat Han's publisher),
Dharma Publications, and at times individuals mail us books.
We also have copies of Bo Lozoff's books - We’re
All Doing Time, Just Another Spiritual Book, and
Deep and Simple. Their address to order free books
for prisoners is: Human Kindness Foundation, PO Box 61619,
Durham, NC 27715. Phone number is 919-304-2220. If you happen
to find another source of free (slightly damaged is fine)
dharma books, we would appreciate your telling us, so we could
provide more books for prisoners. Prisons usually require
that books must be sent with a return address either from
the publisher, BPF (as it;s a religious organization), a bookstore,
or another similar organization.
Please note: Most prisons do not accept hardback books. Also
most prisons do not accept any used books with writing or
underlining in them. Some prisons will not accept any used
books at all.
Letter Templates:
Because we receive so much mail, and want to respond to each
letter, even if it to say no we cannot provide what the prisoner
is requesting, we have a large list of letter templates (form
letters) which are organized by subject. When we send these
out, we always add a short hand written sentence of encouragement
at the bottom, to make sure we personally reach out to the
person we are writing to.
Resource Lists*:
BPF Prison Project has compiled a Resource List for prisoners,
as well as people on the streets (us). It is divided into
four categories, so that we can send the relevant list(s)
to whoever needs them. These are:
- Buddhist resources for prisoners
- Legal Aid services
- Newsletters that focus on prisoners' rights and criminal
justice issues
- Post-release resources
*Please note that we can always use help in updating this
resource list.
Mailing Procedures:
- Each prison/jail may have different rules, and these rules
often change without warning.
- Send letters and packages out in new envelopes (with glue
closures -- no metal clasps), with the BPF stamp or label
or other PO Box address used as the return address.
- Please write the return address on the front of the envelope,
in the top left corner.
- Do not use staples or paper clips on letters, as metal
is virtually never accepted by prisons.
- Sending letters 1st class increases the chances of their
being accepted by the prison. You can ask your prisoner
correspondent what the rules are at his or her particular
institution. Book rate for packages is cheaper if the particular
prison accepts "Book rate" mail.
Two situations to know about:
- Don't be surprised if prisoners move without warning.
This happens frequently, and hopefully the prisoner will
have had time to alert you to the new address. Mail is seldom
forwarded to prisoners once they move; if that is the case,
you will need to wait until the prisoner contacts you.
- Don't be surprised if the prison rejects your letter
or package at some time. If this happens, read the reason
why on the envelope, and try to remedy the situation. Sometimes
it's for a reason as petty as having put the return address
on the wrong side of the envelope!
Please note: In the past we sent out free subscriptions
to prisoners who wanted to read Turning Wheel. Unfortunately
we do not have the budget to be able to do this anymore.
We are therefore suggesting sending out individual copies
of Turning Wheel to people who write you. If you tell us
how many you want to buy before we go to press for our quarterly
issue, BPF Prison Project will try to make them available
at cost.
|
