Since the CFSY’s founding, our community on the inside has driven our mission as an organization seeking to end life without parole and other extreme sentences for children. Every day we receive letters from people incarcerated across the country, and we have opened thousands of letters written from behind prison walls. Today, with permission from the authors, we are honored to share a small selection of the letters we received in response to an invitation to address our supporters.

In “Letters from the Inside,” you’ll find just a small sample of the messages we receive and respond to daily from people sent to prison as children. Every day, people write to us sharing the painful reality of prison – of injustice at court, of losing family members, and of feeling hopeless in the face of a system that offers no chance at redemption and individual growth. Many write to us seeking help with cases where they’ve faced innumerable barriers to success, where they’ve been labeled irredeemable or worthless. Sending and receiving mail is often a challenge in and of itself, as prisons increasingly find ways to further dehumanize our incarcerated community by denying access to written mail. Every day, we are reminded of the work that remains to end injustice.

Even so, many letters tenaciously commit to hope, to faith that this organization and this community will never give up the fight for their freedom. So many letters have communicated how this community’s support drives them to believe in themselves, and that they are worthy of freedom even as the criminal legal system tells them otherwise. That no child is born bad. As many talk of remorse and the pain of regret, they also talk about striving to give back to their communities and addressing harm they caused when they’re free – of their hopes, their achievements, and their goals. As we work to respond to each and every letter and determine pathways to support, the aspirations of those behind bars drive our advocacy.

The reality is, we wouldn’t be able to connect the authors of these letters to the resources they need without the support of this community. So many Incarcerated Children’s Advocacy Network (ICAN) members first came into contact with us through letters written from behind prison walls, and many more writing to us from prison today will one day join ICAN upon their release. But as we pay our respects to those we’ve lost, we also must bear in mind that many letters we receive come from people who may never return home. It is our solemn duty to uplift them in whatever way we can, to recognize their humanity, and affirm their words. 

We hope you read these letters with sensitivity and compassion for those in our community who remain behind bars. This movement depends on all of us never forgetting those who cannot be in the room with us. We hope you will find proximity to their lives, to their humanity, and to their fight for freedom in these letters.