Please accept our deep gratitude for agreeing to provide instruction via correspondence for prisoners in Massachusetts. In response to federal mandates linking literacy programs with correctional matching funds, all Massachusetts prisons have literacy programs and most have GED programs. However, overall educational opportunities for prisoners have been consistently eroded over the past decade. Since the 1/10 of 1% of Pell grants that went to incarcerated citizens were cut by President Clinton in 1996 many prisoners no longer have higher educational opportunities. Or as Correction's Commissioner Maloney stated in May 1999, "I'm not opposed to education, just higher education." RAIL, Life After Framingham and you have responded to this need with the prison correspondence school.

We expect that a large proportion of prisoners interested in correspondence courses will be those held in disciplinary isolation units. Although under DOC regulations prisoners held in these conditions have a right to continue their education if enrolled at the time of their transfers, both they and their teachers are usually unaware of this. The second population that we believe will be likely to respond are prisoners held in lower security facilities which typically have extremely limited education and library services.

This is RAIL/LAF's first foray into a completely different type of project. Although we have spent many hours gathering information and in debate, and have formulated a tentative plan which we believe will work for all parties, we also accept that there will be circumstances that we have not anticipated. Because you have chosen to join with us on this initial course offering your feedback and comments will be carefully considered and very much appreciated.

Prisons are not reasonable places and what passes as reason here in the outside world may be unreasonable to prison authorities. Prisoners in state facilities are limited to 10 books and the books must come directly from the publisher. Each county's House of Correction's rules are set by their county's sheriff. Certain prisons do not allow hardcover books. Some prisons only allow hardcover books in certain areas of the prison. Prisoners in disciplinary isolation are not allowed hard cover books in either state or county facilities. Due to the financial restraints of incarceration privately owned books are rare. For these reasons RAIL/LAF suggests that all course material be supplied to the prisoner as photocopies.

Furthermore, prisoners in disciplinary lockups are allowed to have written materials as a "privilege" which may be revoked at any time for any reason or no reason at all. Prisoners in general lock up are subjected to random searches during which any item in their possession may be seized or ruined. The intention of the correspondence course is to provide education to prisoners who lack access and not add to the stress of incarceration or cause prisoners to become more vulnerable to abuse. We therefore ask that you divide course materials into 2-week packets.

We also expect a fairly high proportion of inmates to be unable to complete the courses. Some may voluntarily quit, others may find the course material too challenging, uninteresting, become ill, be transferred or released. Again, providing coursework in 2-week packets and requiring the student to respond before sending the next packet will allow RAIL/LAF to use our slender resources wisely. You may wish to submit your course packets to RAIL/LAF all at once. You should evaluate the students work, then submit the evaluation to RAIL/LAF. We will enclose the evaluation with the next packet and mail them together to the student. We believe that 6 packets, each containing 2 weeks of material, will be sufficient for a semester's work.

People who haven't been inside don't understand how long it takes to accomplish even the simplest task inside prison. It can literally take five days for a letter to reach an outside post office from the day that it is mailed inside prison. Furthermore, prison mail rooms are a source of extra staff for the prison authorities. This means that the mailroom may not be regularly staffed during vacation time, flu season, lockdowns, medical emergencies, etc. So we ask for 12 weeks of material and believe that it will be completed in 16 weeks. This will also prevent your semester's work from lengthening.

In regards to logistics: RAIL/LAF will handle all mailings using our address and forward student work to you. We understand that you may not have had contact with prisoners previously and want you to feel secure. Furthermore, the courses will be advertised via the RAIL and LAF mailing lists. Our people already know us and our addresses. The student will be asked to fund the mailing of their course work to RAIL/LAF although we may offer scholarships awarded on a case by case basis. Although we will be able to fund the initial course offering via our regular mailings, we ask you to pay for the mailing of the actual course materials by providing the course materials in pre-stamped manila envelopes. If you need assistance with making photocopies and assembling the packets volunteers from RAIL/LAF are prepared to assist you.

One final word. Both RAIL and LAF have ongoing prison projects.

The Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist League is led by the Maoist International Movement. We help distribute a newspaper called "MIM Notes," in both English and Spanish editions to prisoners nationwide. The newspaper serves not only to inform the prison population of national and prison issues from a Maoist perspective but is also a forum in which prisoners share their views. RAIL facilitates the Prisoners' Legal Clinic in which inmate law clerks and professional lawyers provide legal assistance to the imprisoned particularly in civil litigation and habeas corpus relief. Additionally RAIL provides political education via the free "Books for Prisoners" program. For the outside community RAIL offers educational seminars, events, films and outreach to heighten the average citizen's awareness of prison issues. RAIL will continue to provide revolutionary materials requested by students enrolled in your course.

Life After Framingham was formed by and for the current and former prisoners of MCI-Framingham. LAF publicly advocates for women in prison to the state legislature, other advocacy groups and the general public. Ongoing projects include a newsletter, individual legal advise, a cooperative painting crew and limited housing assistance. LAF is an active participant in the Mothers in Prison/Children in Crisis conference held on Mother's Day weekend in 1999 and 2000. Future goals include a volunteer tutoring program with the women of Wellesley College, economic empowerment of ex-incarcerated women via cooperatively owned businesses, and a residence.

In Summary:

RAIL/LAF's obligation to the student:

• Advertise your course in our regular mailings. We will give a brief description of the course and list what skill levels are required to benefit from the course materials.
• Assemble a list of potential students. We believe that there will be very few incarcerated students per course.
• Be available to assist you in the photocopying and assembly of the coursework packets.
• Handle all incoming/outgoing and forwarded mail.
• Continue to seek funding and expand the correspondence program.
• Out long term goal is become a credit granting institution.

Your obligation to the student:

• You will provide course materials in photocopied form. RAIL/LAF volunteer are available to help you do this but you are expected to pick up the costs of the photocopies.
• You will divide the photocopied course materials into 6 packets. Each packet should contain approximately 2 weeks worth of work. It is also suggested that you include several blank sheets of headed paper as part of the packet for the student to work on (paper can sometimes be difficult to obtain in prison).Each packet should either be stamped or contain enough stamps to cover postage.
• You may submit the packets to RAIL/LAF at the start of the semester.
• You should examine the student's coursework, which RAIL/LAF will forward to you, prepare a written evaluation, then forward these to RAIL/LAF. We will enclose your evaluation with the next packet of coursework and mail them to the student. You should expect to hear from your incarcerated student about once every three weeks.