Dear Friends,

Spring has a way of asking us to pay attention to what is still alive.

This month, as I look back at the last several months of IAHR's work, I find myself genuinely moved by the people who make this organization what it is. The volunteers who write letters. The returning citizens who stand up in front of legislators and tell the truth about what isolation does to a person. The families who call us not knowing quite where else to turn. The staff who carry this work with so much care.

We are also in a moment that demands more from us than usual. Maryland prisons are seeing a level of violence that advocates and reporters are now documenting in real time. DC continues to house thousands of residents in federal facilities scattered across the country, far from family, far from faith, far from us. Virginia's legislature has made real progress, but executive opposition has repeatedly blocked reforms from taking effect.

None of this discourages me. If anything, it clarifies why IAHR's particular role matters. We are the connective tissue between people on the inside and the broader community that too often does not know or cannot see what is happening. We carry letters. We show up at hearings. We help people in solitary confinement know that they are not forgotten.

I am asking you to stay close to this work with us. If you can give, please give. If you can volunteer, please reach out. And if you simply keep reading these newsletters and caring about these issues, that too is something. Bearing witness is never nothing.

With gratitude,

Pastor Christopher Zacharias

Executive Director, Interfaith Action for Human Rights