FAQ

Yes! We are receiving new requests from community members on the inside for penpals everyday, so we are always looking for more penpals. We’re also always looking for more folks to volunteer more with the collective, such as with running orientations or helping maintain some of our backend systems. You can learn more about that on our Working Groups page.

You must be at least 18 years old and share our commitment to being in solidarity with people on the inside.

The first step to becoming a volunteer is filling out our volunteer interest form. From there, you should automatically receive a follow up email that includes details on how to join a New Penpal Volunteer Orientation, which we strive to host at least once a month. If those times do not work for you, you can email us at abolitionapostles@gmail.com and we can find an alternative arrangement.

At the orientation, we go over basics of the organization and the logistics of being a penpal and answer any questions folks have. From there, you’ll be able to be matched with your penpal(s)!

There are many ways to volunteer other than being a penpal. You can learn more on the Working Groups page.

Yes! There are several ways folks who live abroad can get involved. Many outside penpals who live abroad choose to use digital mail (ex. JPay or Securus) to connect with their penpals online, but you can also explore other options with a penpal, such as buying international stamps or pairing up with someone in the US who can receive your physical mail for you.

If you are interested but have questions on specifics, feel free to send us an email!

Great question! The best way to find an upcoming orientation is to check out our Calendar page. If you check the Calendar and still have questions, please send us an email at abolitionapostles@gmail.com.

We previously used a regional PO box address system. However, to be more fully aligned with our values and to increase the sustainability of that program, we are phasing out that service and instead encourage folks to use their personal address for the return address. If that is not possible, we recommend that you consider opening up a PO Box, connecting to others on Slack to see if you might be able to use someone else’s PO Box, and/or using a digital service like JPay.

Each facility will have slightly different requirements – your penpal will be your best resource with this! But you often have to send them the book directly from the publisher or services like Amazon or Barnes and Noble though, depending on the facility, you might be able to support local and/or Black-owned book stores by ordering on a place like Bookshop.org. You’ll generally need to be sure to include all of the same information you would provide when mailing a letter, including your penpal’s name, DOC number, facility name and address. Make sure to ask your penpal if there are any particular limitations or guidance for the facility they are in!

Wonderful! Many penpals are able to deepen their relationship with one another through phone calls, so we’re excited you’re interested in this option. The process will look different for each facility and state. Your inside penpal will be your best resource in figuring out what the process looks like. Feel free to connect on our Slack to ask people for more experiences around this!

While we don’t have any big leads on this, we started creating a compilation of an emerging online publications guide here.

No! You can type and print your letters if that works better for you. You can also use a service like Ameelio (ameelio.org) that allows you to type your letter online and they will print and mail it for you. Many facilities also have access to digital messaging (such as through JPay or Securus), which you can ask your penpal about. These messaging services often come with some fees.

The easiest way to confirm someone’s address on the inside in a state facility is to search on Google for “[state name they are in] inmate locator search,” using just their DOC number. VineLink.com is one website that might be helpful. For people in federal custody, you’ll want to use the BOP Inmate Locator.

For people in immigration detention, to find out if or in what facility an immigrant is detained, you can use the ICE’s Online Detainee Locator. The easiest way to use it is to input their A-number (the 9-digit file number used by ICE and the immigration court to keep track of someone’s case) and country of origin into the fields. You can also use the person’s full name, date of birth, and country of origin if you don’t have their A-number. When you do so, you will have to answer a simple math equation for verification. You can do this at any time, but it’s especially helpful if you don’t receive a response from your pen-pal after two months or so.

Another way to check on an ICE detainee (or formerly detained person) if they aren’t showing up in ICE’s ODLis the EOIR Automated Case Information Hotline. Unlike the ODL, the ACI only requires that you enter the person’s A-number. Using it, you can find out the person’s next court date (if they have one). If their court date suddenly changes to a date over a year from now, then it’s likely they’ve moved from the detained to the non-detained docket and thus have been released. If it says “No case found for this alien” or if it shows that they were ordered deported several months or years ago, then unfortunately it is likely that your pen-pal will be removed from the US if they haven’t been removed already, because ICE can use a prior removal order to deport someone without giving them the opportunity to see a judge beforehand. The ACI works better when you enter the A-number with dashes (i.e. XXX-XXX-XXX) instead of without (i.e. XXXXXXXXX), while the ODL works better without the dashes. You may have to refresh the ACI page several times before it shows the details of someone’s case as it is glitchy.

We encourage folks to start with one or two penpals, to make sure that you have capacity to devote to the relationship. If you discover after several months that you’d like another penpal, you can email us at abolitionapostles@gmail.com.

Many prisons have digital messaging options available. Instead of sending physical letters back and forth with your penpal, you can send digital messages. This allows for much faster communication and is preferred by many penpals on the inside. There are many different companies that offer e-messaging; your penpal will be your best resource in determining which service their facility uses.

While often referred to as email, there are important differences, which is described in this Prison Policy Initiative brief. It is important to recognize that the companies that run these messaging services are exploitative and profiting off of the prison industrial complex. We know that we sometimes elect to still use these services, however problematic, because our penpals have asked us to.

There are a few different e-messaging services that most facilities use. One of the most common is JPay.

Setting Up a JPay Account

1. Go to JPay.com
2. On the left-hand side of the screen, there is a sign up search (pictured on the right). On JPay, you create an account by first entering your penpal’s information. Enter your penpal’s state and DOC number.
3. If your penpal’s name  comes up, click on your penpal’s name.
4. Enter your email address and create a password, agree to the terms of service, and register for your account
5. Consider downloading the JPay app to your phone so that you can more quickly receive notifications for new messages and send messages from your phone
6. You will need to fill out some of your profile information – including payment information, so that you can pay for “stamps.”

Sending Message on the JPay App

1. Open the app on your phone
2. Click on the “Email” icon
3. Click “Inbox”
4. On the bottom right hand corner, click on the icon of a square and pencil in order to compose a new message
5. Click the “+” icon on the “To” line in order to select the recipient for the letter. Note that you must have already added them to your account in order to send an email to them
6. Click the “+” icon on the Attachments line if there are pictures or other items you’d like to attach to the message
7. Select “Pre-paid?” if you would like to cover the cost of the return “stamp” that your penpal on the inside would otherwise have to pay in order to respond to your message
8. Compose your message
9. Click send!

There are a few other companies that also do e-messaging that your penpal’s facility might use instead. They are the best resource in figuring out what service their facility uses. There will be a similar sign up process for each of these. Each one might be a bit different and there can often be unexpected challenges, glitches, etc. Don’t give up! If it’s repeatedly not working, consider using a different browser, using the app, or checking a different day.

Tips:

• Make sure you let your penpal know how often you’ll be able to send messages since this is faster than letter writing
• Sending messages costs money check to see if your penpal has credits or funds for messages, if not you can consider sending funds (either by pre-paying for replies or sending money to a pen pal’s commissary account)

Here are some of the other websites that might be helpful:

• Securus: SecurusTech.net
• Connect Network/Viapath https://web.connectnetwork.com/

All of the money that we bring in is through Open Collective (registered under our former name of Abolition Apostles). We’ve created a financial transparency page to help share more information on where our donations go. The money we receive goes towards logistical needs, including:

• Maintaining our website domain & hosting site
• Helping pay for response letters to inside penpals who write us interested in receiving a penpal
• Maintaining an Airtable database, which includes our pen pal wait list