Write Before Winter. . . Before Winter or Never! (Prison Pen Pals Service)

• information on the lockdown crisis in prisons
• information on inmates on lockdown who need mail
• information on how to write to these inmates

Everyday more Americans are incarcerated in federal and state maximum security prisons. In the severe isolation of these fortress prisons, doubt assails many prisoners. Deferred hope, the stress of isolation, the bitterness of loss, the despair of prayer inexplicably unanswered, can bring darkness to the mind. Nothing prisoners see or hear suggests to them that there is hope.

Gladly I’d march though the way were drear,

If I could but see the oasis near,

Or out in the wilderness hear,

Crying the voice of one. . .

Often prisoners see nothing but the mirage, hear no sounds of comfort in their concrete and steel wilderness. Torn from home, deprived of standing, liberty and all that most see as the mark of God’s favor, they feel alone and abandoned. No humanity should plumb these depths, and taste this bitter cup alone.

To have a kindred spirit to whom to turn in perplexity and doubt is a rare privilege and a blessing.

In this web site, you will find some of the thoughts and ideas of some of these prisoners, as well as ads for prisoners looking for pen pals.

But write before winter. . . before winter or never! There are some things which will never be done unless they are done “before winter.” The winter will come and the winter will pass, and flowers of the springtime will deck the breast of the earth and the graves of some of our opportunities, perhaps the grave of a despairing prisoner. There are golden gates wide open on this autumn day, but next October they will be forever shut. There are tides of opportunity running now at flood, but next October they will be at ebb. There are voices of prisoners speaking today which a year from today will be silent.

Write before winter or never!

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