Adopt an Inmate Launches New Website

EUGENE, Ore. - March 15, 2017 - PRLog -- Adopt an Inmate was founded by a reluctant insider of the criminal justice system and his family, during an unexpected year-and-a-half stay in a Texas county jail. What began by delivering messages from inmates to their families who could not afford the cost of prison phone calls, grew into a larger effort to "adopt" indigent and forgotten inmates who had no support.

AI launched its original website in July of 2015. By December of 2015 a thousand inmates had written in, and by the end of 2016, well over 5,000 were on the list.

After funding fell through for a new website, inmates in Washington State banded together to help raise the needed funds for the project. AI issued a challenge to supporters to match the donations from these inmates making, on average, $35 a month at their prison jobs. The effort was a huge success, and the new site is now a reality, full of resources for inmates and their advocates, including the only state by state listing of correspondence and visitation rules. The site features art and writing from prisoners all over the country - giving voice to thousands of forgotten human beings locked away with no agency.

With no budget, no salaries, no dedicated office space, and a small army of angel volunteers, AI processes up to 300+ letters every week from male and female prisoners of every age, color, and creed, from every state in the nation. Their mission is to remind the world and those caught in the grip of the justice system that both accused and adjudicated are human, to provide relief, comfort, and hope to those facing judgement, and to help those sentenced emerge from prison whole, knowing they are part of a larger family that loves and cares for them. Ultimately, Adopt an Inmate seeks to change prison itself from an arbitrary system of cruelty and punishment to one which internally recognizes the humanity of its charges and treats them accordingly, such that recidivism is rare, rather than a feature of our current system's design.

What began as one family's story has grown into a dedicated community of angels on both sides of the prison walls, with a shared mission. https://adoptaninmate.org/