Students correspond with inmates through GSEX program
Last spring, GSEX offered for the first time a class called “Open Minds,” which invites students to write with inmates at the Richmond City Jail. Many of the students who were involved with that class are now continuing their correspondents with people who they met in the jail through the Jail Mail workshop.
Samantha McCartney
Staff Writer
Writing letters to prisoners is often not the first thought students have on a Monday afternoon, but the VCU Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies (GSEX) department has started a program called “Jail Mail,” which does just that.
Last spring, GSEX offered for the first time a class called “Open Minds,” which invites students to write with inmates at the Richmond City Jail. Many of the students who were involved with that class are now continuing their correspondents with people who they met in the jail through the Jail Mail workshop.
“I think that those of us who have spent time with the folks doing time realize that it can be an isolating and negative experience,” VCU GSEX professor Liz Canfield said. “There is also something beautiful about physically writing letters and cultivating friendships with pen pals.”
The Jail Mail initiative is open to anyone within the community. Meetings are held in the Crenshaw House on West Franklin on the second and fourth Monday of every month.
The twice-monthly gathering generates zines, sketches and poetry written by students for the inmates.
The first meeting of the spring 2013 semester was held on Monday, and psychology major Krislee Nelson said that she had enjoyed her experience working on letters and zines to send to the inmates. “It has been cool. It’s like a collection of things that we’ve all written, (the) students and the prisoners,” Nelson said.
Sometimes the prisoners will respond with artwork and poetry of their own. Prisoners will often write back about topics like gang violence, inner turmoil and the pain of losing a loved one.
“Most of the letters we send are supportive, dialogic and positive. We keep the letters nonjudgmental,” Canfield said. She stressed the idea that although these people are imprisoned, they still deserve basic rights.
Being a pen pal to a Richmond inmate gives students a chance to do something much different from the norm and work outside their comfort zone, Canfield said.
“What people often come to realize is that our similarities outweigh our differences,” Canfield said. “It’s a way to make connections with other people in meaningful ways.”
Although jails are typically strict about what they allow to come in and leave their facilities, Jail Mail has yet to face any issue with the communication they’ve been having.
Jail Mail is unable to track what actually makes it into the jail, but tries not to send anything which is considered contraband or could get the prisoners in trouble for having.
For students involved in the project, Canfield said, the chance to interact with the inmates is eye-opening.
“This is an important learning moment for VCU students about privilege and power,” she said. “Sometimes, within prisons, the exercise of power can be infuriatingly random, and certainly not just.”
