Graterfriends

Public sentiment favors restorative justice and, again, national policy is trending towards providing incarcerated students with the knowledge and skills that can lead to restoration. Is Pennsylvania bucking the trend? While the reinstatement of the federal Pell Grant I poised to change the current landscape of education behind the walls, the State of Pennsylvania continues to deny incarcerated students from receiving state financial aid.

The notion that food should be part of the punishment of being in prison is deeply ingrained in our culture. Hollywood depictions of chow halls typically feature gray mystery meat, pale vegetables, and lumpy gruel. These portrayals are not an exaggeration of the reality in many prisons. The food served in prisons and jails in much of the United States is not only unappetizing, it often fails to meet the basic nutritional needs of incarcerated people. The Prison Society’s recent evaluation of food service in Pennsylvania state prisons shows that the commonwealth is no exception.

In 2021, the Prison Society began researching food service in Pennsylvania prisons during the pandemic after receiving your complaints. Nearly 400 Graterfriends readers responded to our survey about meal service in PA SCIs. Your responses pointed to a decline in food quality once the DOC closed dining halls and began in-cell service, a practice that continues in most of the SCIs long after pandemic restrictions have been lifted. After our first survey, we wanted to dig deeper. We began working with a registered dietician with expertise in prison food to analyze DOC menus and conduct additional research in the SCIs, including another survey of incarcerated people. This second survey told a very similar story – a food crisis remains in Pennsylvania state facilities. We look forward to sharing the full findings with our readings in the next issue.

After four long years, the Prison Society finally launched the partial resumption of our transportation program. Many of you may remember that prior to the pandemic, the Prison Society and our partner organization Wesley Family Services ran buses to most of the SCIs each month for families to visit their loved ones. The program was in operation for almost twenty years but has not resumed since visiting was originally suspended in 2020. Though visiting restarted in 2021, new policy changes, including the introduction of the Inmate Visiting System (IVS), made it near impossible to continue providing family transportation.

Dear Friends, Thanks to your support, buses to help families visit their loved ones in state prisons will start running again in the new year! The program was in operation for close to twenty years, but has not resumed service since visiting was suspended during the pandemic. After much advocacy, we are happy to announce that starting in January, we will begin offering monthly buses from Philadelphia to two SCIs, Greene and Mahanoy.

It is almost 0300 hours, a time when my mind is not running crazy and this environment is not bouncing me around like a rubber ball or my fears of rejection keeping me from feeling strong. I feel inadequate. The more we work through our situations it feels like we are even further apart from our loved ones and society as a whole. Yet, we continue on doing the best we can, right? Or have we given up? What have we given up on? Have we given up on ourselves or the dreams and hope of a brighter future? I ask, why is it so difficult to see that we have made it through the difficulties of yesterday to be in our today?

Soggy pizza soaked in beet juice. Sour milk and rotten apples. Room-temperature Salisbury steak. These were a few of the items on the menu in Pennsylvania state prisons in the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to incarcerated people who filled out our survey on prison food.

In the spirit of our cover story, I want to remind everyone that by writing, you are shaping your legacy. We feel privileged to be apart of helping you shape this.

Our cover story focuses on the barriers of celebrating Eid while incarcerated. Secretary Little's Fellowship Meal is an "unacceptable innovation and must be opposed by all Muslims affected by it."

It’s a time of year that is still winter, but after the bright spot of many people’s holiday celebrations. We saw this tone while compiling this issue and have included some thought-provoking pieces in this issue.

Turning to our first issue of 2023, you will see a strong sense of both readiness to fight and an aura of hope in our authors... In terms of advocacy, two large-scale issues set the stage for changes our readers want to see this year: commissary prices and the new religious meal policy.

As 2022 comes to a close, our final Graterfriends issue mirrors our first: celebrating the life of a recently passed writer. Rest in Peace Bradford Gamble, a Lifer and long time writer of Graterfriends. In this issue, we are reminded of how Death By Incarceration affects those inside.

Our annual literary issue discusses life after the pandemic—navigating a new normal and hoping for a better future.

As seasons change, we reflect on the the past, acknowledge the present, and look ahead at the rest of the year in front of us.

July marks the midpoint of 2022 and the beginning of the Prison Society’s fiscal year, and an opportunity to pause, reflect, and set priorities for both the near and not-so-near future.

The pandemic continues to linger and affect the lives of people both inside and outside of prison. We were thrilled to see the resumption of family visits earlier this year, but we know that many barriers exist when trying to connect with loved ones.

More than 429 of Graterfriends subscribers responded to our survey about in-unit meal service during COVID-19. THANK YOU for making your voices heard and for helping us do our work. Your responses drove our policy recommendations, and we are working to make sure you are heard.

We are excited and humbled to embark upon another year with you, one in which we hope we will be able to spend much more time together in person.

Twenty months into the global pandemic, few things are totally back to normal. While post-pandemic life in prison looks more restrictive and isolating than ever, together we can write a different future.

It’s hard to believe that we are approaching the end of 2021. This has been a year where all of our expectations and hopes have been repeatedly challenged, as well as a year where we have come together to come up with new solutions and ways of being.

The amount of isolation you have faced over the last year has been enormous, and I am sure unbearable at times. With the slow resumption of visiting, I hope many of you are reconnecting with loved ones, and we are looking forward to seeing many of you in person again soon.

As I am writing this, nearly 15 months have passed since the start of the pandemic. So much has changed during that time and so many have lost so much. But we remain here for you and here for each other.

March marked one year since the start of the pandemic, and though there is still a long road ahead of us, there are also small victories and signs of progress worth celebrating.

Though we have entered a new year, many of the same challenges from 2020 have remained with us.

These last many weeks have been trying for everyone. In light of recent events, we want to say that it is central to our mission to be public witnesses and to ensure that all people are to be treated with dignity and humanity —regardless of race, color, or national origin.

Throughout Pennsylvania, officials are taking measures to help keep people who are confined in prisons and who work in prisons healthy - and to de-escalate growing anxiety and tension behind prison walls. But these next few weeks are the calm before the storm. There is much, much more to be done.