More than 600.000 men and women leave prisons every year. In making the transition back to the community, many will turn to their families for some kind of assistance. These family members become the “front line” of reentry, providing former inmates with critical material and emotional support including shelter, food, clothing, leads for jobs, and guidance in staying sober or avoiding criminal behavior.

Prisoners are up to six times less likely to re-offend if they maintain strong family ties while in prison. Even though more and more jurisdiction are experimenting with family-focused programming, the problems of the millions of families affected by the incarceration are not yet part of a comprehensive social policy agenda and the visitors are still stigmatized by the society at large.

The laws can change but if we can’t touch the hearts and minds of people, the juridical changes would be superficial and short-lived.

So The Visitors need to work with YOU to create the real change:

- Faith communities, universities, organizations that deal with criminal justice issues (to humanize the face of inmates’ families and to inspire a transformation of consciousness that will also encourage people to take action and advocate for these marginalized communities. )

- Prison towns (to spark some public concern mainly in Upstate NY communities where main prison legislation takes place and lead to a questioning about “policies”  in prison by exposing the barriers to visiting and the ways the families manage this process. )

- Prisons (to create awareness among men in prison about the trials and tribulations that their loved ones go through year after year thus giving them strength and hope to continue to do what’s right.)

- Communities affected by incarceration (to provide emotional and logistic support to those who suffer the loss of a loved one in prison. )

These special screenings include post-screening discussions and access to resources and information.

for more information please contact
melisbirder@yahoo.com