Our Mission

Letters for Liberation is a volunteer-run penpaling collective with this mission:

To spark & support meaningful connections between people inside and outside prison in a way that transforms us all, rooted in our abolitionist belief that no one is disposable.

Our approach to solidarity focuses on writing to pen pals and building relationships, as well as material support and advocacy. Material support can include adding money to commissary accounts, sending gifts such as books, and searching for needed resources on the internet. Advocacy on behalf of our pen pals can include writing letters or making phone calls to parole boards and other decision-makers and participating in local abolitionist organizing to struggle against the prison industrial complex in our respective communities. We also believe that the work of abolition is inseparable from Black liberation and anti-capitalism. We understand all of this work to be rooted in relationships and community, and pen pal relationships help us imagine and move toward our goal of abolition.

The name and mission above are the result of an extended process of collective work following the departure of former leaders–see Our Transition for more information.