Our Story
Our story begins on On Friday July 12, 2013. My family’s world was shattered when my brother was arrested and taken to jail for a crime he did not commit. Like many other families, we were thrown into a very dark and unfamiliar world. Our family was full of questions that urgently needed answers. What happens next? How can we talk to him? What is the cost of the phone calls? Can we see the PCA (probable cause affidavit)? When does he get in front of a judge? He’s in a different state, how do we find an attorney for him? How much will an attorney cost? Where is his car, and how do we get it moved to his home? How long will he be in there? Can we afford bail? How do we keep his bills paid? How does commissary work? Can we send him books?
Even the simplest of tasks seemed designed to be unnecessarily challenging. Each answer only led to another question, and we spent an enormous amount of time, energy and money searching for real solutions – discovering the hard way that this is not a friendly system. It was a very unwelcome and expensive education – and the experience left us battered. In the end my brother was swallowed up by a system we could not save him from. His is not one of the worst stories, relatively speaking … but it was certainly our worst story, as a family. We are taking our cue from him though – he has been extraordinarily strong – and together we will turn it into our best story.
Our Story is not Unique
But this is not just our story – there are many. It was my brother’s idea to start a non-profit that would help people who have little to no support from the outside. After hearing their stories, he saw first-hand that so many were systematically prevented from accessing support and resources, and participating in their own defense. We began very simply, by delivering messages from people who couldn’t afford use the phones (when Rick first started calling from county, a 20-minute call cost $28, or $1.40 per minute), in addition to the cost of minutes on your home or cell phone.
Stories Poured In
in the Spring of 2014 we started matching friends and family members who volunteered to help, and launched our first website the following July. By December of 2015 we had heard from a thousand people in prison. By the end of 2016, well over 5,000 were on our list. With no budget, no salaries, no dedicated office space (I worked from my mom’s kitchen table, and on the phone with Rick), and a handful of angel volunteers, we now process hundreds of letters every month from adult males and females in multiple systems (county, state, and federal), of every age, color, and creed, and every state in the nation.
Nearly every letter we get from someone in prison begins with an expression of gratefulness that someone cares for them. In that way, our story led us to other stories. What we’ve learned is that as troubling as the statistics are, it’s easy to look away from numbers. But it’s not so easy to look away from a real person’s story. My brother was fortunate in that he had support. But many people in prison are either indigent, have no family, or their family simply does not have the needed resources to be advocates for them.
The audio below is part of a phone conversation with my brother, Rick, from prison, after he stayed up all night reading Bryan Stevenson’s book, Just Mercy.
Rick Comes Home
Rick was approved for parole in August of 2018, and finally walked out of those prison gates in May of 2019. Since his homecoming we have established an extended base of volunteers who have helped us complete over 3,000 adoptions to date.
Keep up with Rick here, and here.
