⚠️ Trigger warning: this video discusses suicide, self-harm, and deaths in custody.

Anwar. Shannon. Sean. Jordan. Four names, four families still asking why. Natasha White, our VA Director of Community Engagement, shares their stories — and why solitary confinement keeps costing lives in Virginia's prisons. A new Senate bill is coming next session. We need Virginians ready to say yes.

If this topic affects you personally, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text 988) is available 24/7.

"Receiving mail from them meant the world to me… it was proof that people in the free world were hearing my voice without judgment. It became an outlet during times of seclusion, sadness, and loneliness." - Y, PenPal Correspondent & Inmate

Y spent more than a decade incarcerated. During that time, letters from outside kept him connected to the world.

What Y describes does not happen on its own.

Someone has to coordinate the pen pal matches, train the volunteers, and manage the correspondence. And when a letter reveals an urgent issue, follow up with prison officials.

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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.