UCLA Law

Since the start of the pandemic, Mt. Tamalpais College (MTC) has received more than 2000 letters from people incarcerated in California prison – people who have spent the last year locked in their cells or dorms with no visits, no programming, and little or no support as they cope with fear of COVID infection. Many of the letters describe the experience of being locked down during COVID. Many other letters ask for help of various kinds. MTC reached out to UCLA and Law Students for Decarceration for helping reading, coding, and sorting. We’re looking for volunteers to help us do this work. The process involves reading letters and, for each letter, filling out an online form that catalogs information about the letter writer and the content of the letter. By organizing and sorting the letters, we can prepare responses and forward the correspondence to attorneys and organizations in California who might be able to provide help or use the letters as documentary evidence in ongoing litigation. Additionally, for some letters, we are hoping to archive them with the Prison Pandemic project, which is striving to document the experiences of incarcerated Californians during the pandemic and share stories that might contribute to positive reform. The opportunity requires that participants watch a brief training video and read through a step-by-step guide for properly coding letters. Participants who can read and code letters in Spanish are in high demand!

Letters can be assigned in batches that will correspond to about two hours of reading and coding, or participants can sign up for smaller, weekly assignments to be completed over several weeks. To specify your preference, please fill out this Google form: https://forms.gle/dKKPkimFBhNwmWJ48, in addition to signing up on Track It Forward. People who have already done one batch of letters are always invited to request additional batches.

For questions about this volunteer opportunity, please contact Sarah Pfander, Student at UCLA Law School at pfander2022@lawnet.ucla.edu