The C.P.R has been publishing their Newsletter for
34 years. In June 2009 they mailed the announcement below to
their 9,100 subscribers ... almost all of whom are
prisoners. The Real Cost of Prisons believes in the
work of the C.P.R. To reach out to families, friends,
allies of prisoners, we will post the C.P.R.
Newsletters in PDF format beginning with July, 2009. The
Newsletter is now 2 pages. We encourage you to download
the newsletter and send it to prisoners so that they
will continue to receive this important source of
information and inspiration for organizing that the
Newsletter provides.
From the June 2009 Newsletter (Vol. 34, No.6)
A DIFFICULT BUT NECESSARY C.P.R. CHANGE
We need to let our readers know of the biggest, and hardest, change that the Coalition for Prisoners’ Rights has ever undergone. With this issue, we are suspending publication of our free, monthly, national eight page newsletter, begun in the fall of 1976. We do this with a great deal of regret, but acknowledgment of its necessity. Over the last 11 years, we have accumulated debt close to the size of our annual budget: $ 25,000. We need to begin to pay it off and not continue to owe more money.
We regret this necessity enormously. We believe in doing what we say we will do and therefore we take great care with what we say we will do. We will continue to send resources and information on request. We will include a one page, updated monthly, abbreviated C.P.R. Newsletter with each such response. And, above all, we will do our best to maintain the accuracy of our mailing list. PLEASE CONTINUE TO SEND US YOUR CHANGES OF ADDRESS. Regretfully we will be unable to add new names to our mailing list, but will keep all such requests on file for the future. You will hear from us as much as we can possibly manage.
Our chances of resuming publication of our full Newsletter will increase if our readers can financially support our debt reduction and fundraising efforts. Stamps, as well as financial contributions, continue to be most welcome.
We are an all volunteer group of approximately two dozen people at any one time. Some of us have been imprisoned,some are family members of those who are, all are deeply concerned about the sad state of human rights in our country. We have existed all this time (34 years) by the thinnest of financial threads and a great deal of determination.
Our May 2009 mailing was 9,142. From the over 500 letters a month we respond to (and will continue to answer), we believe we have a monthly readership of 50,000 or so. We have supported our work with individual donations (both in-kind and cash), contributions from faith communities, and a few grants from progressive foundations. As our work has grown, sources of money for the work have shrunk. This is a part of the changes in our country over the last 30 years in which, consistently, the poor have gotten poorer and the rich have gotten richer. The current world financial crisis has only made this situation worse..
We continue to believe that the U.S. prison system and its subsidiaries make our communities less, rather than more, safe. We will do all we can to continue to work to change this. Please join us!
In Solidarity,
The Coalition for Prisoners’ Rights
June 2009
