June 10 2026 PenPal Program Volunteer Orientation

Posted by June 08, 2026 5:14 PM

June 10 2026 PenPal Program Volunteer Orientation

Do You Enjoy Writing? Do You Like to Meet New People?

Join Interfaith Action’s Pen Pal Project

When prisoners lose connection to their family and community, they are more likely to commit crimes after they are released. Men and women convicted of a federal crime or a DC code violation serve their sentences in a federal prison. 

They are incarcerated in 122 prisons around the United States, from California to Florida to upstate New York. They feel very isolated since they are often incarcerated so far from home. 

To address their isolation, in November 2017, lAHR kicked off a campaign to identify volunteers who will write to at least one person in prison once a month for a year. As of May 2026, over 300  people have volunteered to be pen pals with a person incarcerated in a federal prison or a Virginia State Prison. Yet we still have over 150 people in prison who have requested a pen pal, with new requests coming in every week. We need more pen pals on the outside to meet the need on the inside.

Here is an excerpt of a letter from one of our pen pals:

"I've been writing to penpals for nearly seven years, and find it a very meaningful, one-on-one way to make the world a little more kind and a little more hopeful. I'm a former teacher, and when I correspond with incarcerated individuals, it feels like I can again offer guidance and help someone imagine a future. My penpals and I have reflected on the education programs available at their prisons, how to envision their lives once released, how they get along with both friends and difficult folks they live among, how we each make exercise part ofour daily routines, and more. And I sometimes get advice from my penpals, too, about my children and grandchildren. And often, I enjoy how astute and politically sensitive my penpals are."

A formerly incarcerated person wrote this about the Pen Pal Project:

"My name is Yusuf, and I was incarcerated for a little over a decade. During that time, I joined a Writing and Literacy Book Club called Free Minds Book Club, where I had the opportunity to write poetry and receive feedback from people in the community. Receiving mail from them meant the world to me—it was proof that people in the “free world” were hearing my voice without judgment. This kind of mail was important not just for me, but for others who had been incarcerated, because it allowed us to interact with people who were completely unbiased. It became an outlet during times of seclusion, sadness, and loneliness.

To become a Pen Pal, you must attend an hour-long Zoom Orientation. The next orientation will be on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, at 7:30 pm EDT. You can register for the June 10 orientation by clicking here.

For more information, contact our Pen Pal Coordinator by clicking here.

You can make a difference!