Get Involved
Become a Volunteer
Volunteers are a very important part of the functioning of the Coalition for Civil Freedoms. Volunteering will allow you to give of yourself and at the same time contribute your skills and talents to further a struggle for justice.
When you decide to volunteer, there are a number of possibilities to choose from depending on your interests. In the past, volunteers have assisted the legal team in a variety of ways. Volunteers have organized educational events where CCF team members then provide the speakers. Volunteers have written to prisoners, and volunteers have attended trials and hearings to show support. Volunteers have contacted their representatives in Washington, by writing, calling or visiting in person to lobby for justice. In addition, volunteers have raised money for CCF in a variety of ways.
If you would like to volunteer, please click here
Write a Prisoner
Become a Penpal
Support our incarcerated loved ones by joining CCF’s Pen Pal Program!
Supporting prisoners takes many forms, but arguably one of the most important forms of support is a meaningful, dependable social connection. For that reason, we created a program to foster those connections for the prisoners we work with. CCF has managed to facilitate dozens of meaningful pen pal relationships through its program.
To get started, watch our PenPal Program Orientation. The orientation answers most frequently asked questions about the program and aims to instill comfort and confidence in joining pen pals. The orientation covers: the significance of writing to prisoners, your responsibilities as a pen pals, and what you can expect from the program. After viewing the orientation, if you are interested in becoming a pen pal, please submit a request to join the program!
Contact us if you would like us to host a live orientation over Zoom for your group/organization. for people interested in joining the program.
Testimonies from prisoners:
“I really appreciate your efforts with this program. I can't tell you how many times I tell people that correspondence in this place can be in a sense more essential than agriculture.”
“Every time you write a letter, and that letter passes through all those barriers, walls, and bars, and it finally slips itself under a prisoner’s door… Do you know what that does? It reminds him or her that they still exist… That they still matter… That they have occupied a place in someone else’s mind beyond the walls and the barbed wire… It reignites the dying light of hope and it helps them go on for just a little longer…”
Sponsor a Prisoner
Incarceration creates a significant financial burden on prisoners and their families. With most services and operations being outsourced to predatory for-profit companies, prisoners are charged outrageous prices to make phone calls, send emails, and purchase basic essentials like hygiene products and supplemental food. Companies providing prison telephone services enjoy a state-sponsored monopoly with no incentive to make prices affordable to the consumers, since prisoners and their loved ones can’t choose which phone service they use to communicate with. In addition, prisoners are prevented from having financial independence by being subjected to slave labor. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, federal prisoners are required to work if they are medically able to. They are then paid between 12¢ and 40¢ per hour for jobs serving the prison, or 23¢ and $1.15 per hour for jobs in Federal Prison Industries (UNICOR) factories, where 50% of their pay can be forcibly taken and put towards outstanding fines/fees that the prisoner may owe. Therefore, the financial burden often falls on the family members of prisoners, most of whom come from vulnerable and economically disadvantaged communities. The financial impacts of incarceration on prisoners and loved ones run so deep and are so vast that this explanation does not even begin to scratch the surface.
Some prisoners are fortunate enough to have families on the outside who have the ability to provide their loved ones with needed funds. However, many are not. To help address the economic burden of incarceration, CCF will be starting two financial aid programs to support prisoners:
The Prisoner Sponsorship Program to help prisoners in financial need.
Through this program, CCF will provide financial aid to prisoners on a monthly basis to help cover needed expenses. Prisoners already on CCF’s list who are in need of sponsorship should send us a letter describing their situation, along with their commissary account information., to our Legal Director Kathy Manley, 26 Dinmore Road, Selkirk, NY 12158.
The Post Release Support Grant
Aimed at supporting former prisoners in getting on their feet after their incarceration, this program will allow prisoners to request a $500 grant upon their release. This will help with basic essentials needed upon release. Prisoners already on CCF’s list who need this grant should contact us 4-8 weeks prior to their release date.
Make a one time donation:
Commit to a monthly donation:
If you know of someone who you believe has been a victim of preemptive prosecution, please contact us to see if they qualify for CCF’s prisoner support.
Lobby for the “EGO” Bill
The Coalition for Civil Freedoms has long pushed for desperately needed criminal justice reform; for example, we supported the campaign for the First Step Act which was signed into law in 2018.. We also are working for reforms in areas that are particularly relevant to the prisoners for whom we advocate. One big problem in terrorism-related cases is entrapment, which is a common tactic that leads to long prison terms for people who had no intention of committing terrorism. Currently there is no good defense against entrapment. To rectify this situation, our Legal Director Kathy Manley has drafted a bill called The Entrapment and Governmental Overreach (EGO) Relief Act. Our campaign to have this bill introduced in Congress has included letter-writing, educational events, and word of mouth. Also, affected family members and friends have visited their congressional representatives to advocate for reform. If you would like to help, please contact us.