We are thrilled to welcome Michael McKee as the Prison Society’s new Helpline manager!
Mike brings valuable leadership to our Helpline, a critical resource for families, handling hundreds of calls, emails, and letters each month. In 2024 alone, the Helpline responded to over 14,000 requests for help.
As Helpline Manager, Mike will play a key role in enhancing our services to better support families and incarcerated people across Pennsylvania. Over the past decade, Mike has led efforts to create programming through his work with Broad Street Love (formerly Broad Street Ministry), the Alliance for Global Justice, the Chelsea Manning Support Network, and Aid & Abet Media.
When the pandemic started, Mike, who was then at Broad Street Love, worked tirelessly with the City of Philadelphia's Office of Reentry Partnerships, to create a Welcome Home Hotline to provide critical resources and support for people returning home from prison during the COVID lockdown. He now applies that experience to expanding and improving our helpline.
“Approximately 64,000 Pennsylvanians are confined in 85 facilities across the commonwealth. This creates an enormous web of differing policies and procedures for incarcerated people and their loved ones to navigate. Mike's experience navigating complex systems and his dogged commitment to the well-being of his neighbors makes him the ideal addition to our team,” says Kirstin Cornnell, Family & Community Supports Director.
Please join us in welcoming Mike to the team!
Meet Mike
“I actually get a charge from working on the behind-the-scenes systems that make programs like the Helpline operate and track data. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, and it might not be glamorous, but I genuinely enjoy it.”
Prison Society: Tell us about your background and what makes you suited for this work.
Mike: One of my early experiences learning more about the realities of life in custody was as a volunteer and later a collective member with Books Through Bars. In addition to book drives, fulfilling orders, and responding to correspondence, I also enjoyed organizing all-ages concerts to raise money for the organization–although in hindsight I can't imagine it covered much beyond postage, considering the volume of requests they receive.
Later in life, I had the privilege of volunteering with Decarcerate PA and the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund. After working for an organization supporting conscientious objectors, I served as one of the national organizers of a campaign supporting a prominent military whistleblower who later received a nearly full commutation from President Barack Obama. In 2017, I established an innovative reentry program through Broad Street Love (formerly Broad Street Ministry), which I managed until 2022. Within that same time period, I was elected to serve as a member-at-large of the Philadelphia Reentry Coalition's steering committee.
Prison Society: What attracted you to the Helpline manager role at the Prison Society?
Mike: I'd already had the opportunity to collaborate closely with the Prison Society through their partnership with Broad Street Love, so I was somewhat familiar with the organization's work. We were also lucky enough to host Prison Society mentoring coordinator Joe Robinson and his monthly Hope Alive meetings at our daytime engagement center. With the input of two formerly incarcerated consultants, Joe and I updated some of the curriculum for the Prison Society’s mentoring classes at SCI Chester.
When Covid struck, and most governmental and social service agencies shifted to virtual access, I launched the Welcome Home Hotline in collaboration with the City of Philadelphia's Office of Reentry Partnerships. This hotline provided resources, information, and support for people coming home in the middle of an unprecedented and confusing time. So, when I saw the Prison Society was looking for someone to help manage and expand their well-established Helpline, I jumped at the chance.
Prison Society: What are you most excited about in your new role?
I actually get a charge from working on the behind-the-scenes systems that make programs like the Helpline operate and track data. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, and it might not be glamorous, but I genuinely enjoy it. I'm excited about the potential of our current structures and look forward to helping the team navigate its continual increase in calls as well as the new demand sure to follow the Prison Society's imminent expansion in Western Pennsylvania.
I also enjoy supporting "the next generation" of people working towards social change and direct service. Managing the Helpline gives me the opportunity to learn from and support the extraordinary associates who respond to the dozens of incoming inquiries we receive each day.
Prison Society: As someone new to the organization, is there anything you've observed about the Prison Society or Pennsylvania prisons and jails that you think everyone should know?
Mike: Prisons are inherently opaque. While they are quite literally “walled off” from the outside world, they magnify the alienation that incarceration entails. More often than not, whatever picture someone may have in their mind, the reality is sadly worse. As long as prisons exist as we know them today, it's critical that people on the outside at the very least refuse to fall into the denialism of "out of sight, out of mind."