Before I put the group Givesendgo campaign up I need to get a vote so I don't have to make a decision that might not please everyone.

We have prisoners of two types: Those who have a Givesendgo of their own and those who don't. A brief glance will reveal that the ones with their own Givesendgo have collected a fair amount. I don't know exactly how much has been donated to the ones that don't have a Givesendgo of their own and only get money via the gov site but it probably is not much, other than from their immediate families.

The group Givesendgo campaign can go equally to all prisoners, or just to the ones that don't have a Givesendgo of their own. If we go the latter route then we would advertise all the Givesendgos.

I don't feel comfortable with either choice, so I'll create a poll (finally, a use for democracy!).

I would probably make a FOIA request if I thought that one section of government was collaborating with, or inciting, another section of the government to harass me or infringing on my rights.

Similarly, if one of the parties was an NGO and the other a section of the government, I would lodge a FOIA request with the section of the government.

The parties might include CT, prison service, CAA, HnH. You get the idea, It could be a goldmine.

The request could, for example, request all communications between the bodies regarding my case (if I were to have a case).

I believe that such requests are free if it involves one's own criminal case.

https://www.gov.uk/make-a-freedom-of-information-request

^^^ I dream of publishing such findings in a scandal sheet like Justice Report.

Ash's latest letter argues his case, and he asked that it be published. OK - would anyone be willing to type it? It is about four pages. I can do it but I would like to test the waters to see who is willing.

In addition to arguing his case, Ash's letter contained the following housekeeping type of information:

The letter took eight days to get to me.

He said that outgoing letters are FREE, which is welcome news. So don't worry about prisoners' postage costs, at least for Ash and James - both of their envelopes had the same kind of blue franking pre-printed on the envelope.

Ash also said that he has enough books, that he either brought with him or that friends have sent. [Nevertheless, he probably has "Chess Behind Bars" by now. And I imagine that he might eventually run out of reading material, so I'll ask again in a few months.]

Two of us visited Ash yesterday and he was allowed extra visiting time so we had two hours with him.
He is in good spirits and shape, he is hitting the gym hard and it shows too.
He is grateful for the letters received and really appreciates them.
I'm keeping him supplied with books and A4 paper which has to go via Waterstones (which is a shame as I dislike that company) and take about a week to reach him.

I would like to see more innovation in motivation strategies for the e-right, to convert them into irl-right.

We have had a surfeit of "point and gasp." Indeed, entire careers of grift have been built on that approach.

I gather that point-and-gasp is supposedly intended to get people angry. I suspect that getting angry is mainly an end in itself, a cathartic discharge and excuse to vent that gives a squirt of reward hormones. If that is the case then it is actually counter-productive of action.

I appreciate that emotions must be involved in motivation. For example, what gets one up in the morning? It might be anger (a la Kate), it might be love, it might be fear, or it might be hate. The way I see it, these emotions have temperatures (hot, warm, cold, cold) and durations (brief, long, brief, long), just like physical phenomena.

Our would-be leaders press the anger button over and over but for most experiencers it becomes an end in itself. Similarly for love, Fear makes them run away. Like Pandora's box, that leaves perhaps one item after the others have flown, if we're only concerned with spontaneous emotions.

However, "Fake it until you make it" can work. You can do one thing while motivated by another, doing whatever internal logic works for you. People will praise you as courageous and loving while you know you're nothing special in those things.

Whatever works. But point-and-gasp is a spent force.

It is likely that most prospective supporters don't understand how powerful this project is. I am utterly convinced of its importance and so it is not going away. Eventually we will have a team and then it will continue regardless of whether I am taken out of the picture.

There seems to be a deliberate policy of mistreatment of prisoners like ours and such a policy might be intended to increase the chance of suicide, Every other day I tell myself that, nah, it's just incompetence and spite on the part of officials. I'm still not sure, but the net effect is that it might as well be a deliberate policy. Neglect and harassment can kill people, captives, unless they have a will of steel or a vicious streak - or a community of supporters.

The cultivation of a community with them stops that attack, if it is indeed a plan.

If you are here for amusement then you are in the wrong place, but if you are here to create a better world for our people then you are in the right place (not the only right place, but one of a small number).

I would like to remind people to have a look at the text file and could you please let us know of any leads you might know of to get the contact details of the people mentioned in the appendix.

I have written a stern lette, recorded mail, to a prison governor demanding the release of books I sent to a prisoner. If it works then I'll put it up as a template. If it doesn't work I'll try something else. In general. I would like to see a repository of such proven templates. Has anyone managed to pry co-operation from unwilling officials, that you might share with us?

Invoking the law seems to be key. In my letter I mention that the courts have established that receiving books is a right of prisoners and not a "privilege." No need to cite the actual decisions: the governor surely knows that what you're saying is correct. You just have to let him know that you know.

Every prison has a webpage, and the governor is mentioned by name. Addressing the letter to the guy in charge makes more sense to me than addressing it "To Whom It May Concern."

^^^ The "something else" that comes to mind is either writing to the Prisons Ombudsman, or getting one's solicitor to write a stern letter. That latter approach worked for me a couple of times when chasing debts; then again, it didn't work a couple of times and I had to go to small claims court. Getting one's solicitor to write a letter might cost, at a guess, £50 nowadays.

An e-mail I've sent to the four prisoners other than Vincent (who has his own blog):

Hi [name]!

I hope you're doing well.

I'd like to ask a quick yes/no question if that's OK:

Would you like us to create and manage a blog for you on Telegram?

We have a volunteer to type and put up anything that you ask to be published. the blog would have an associated chat group where readers might comment and ask questions. It could be printed out after, say, a week, and mailed to you.

When new material is added to your blog, a link would be posted in our main channel to draw attention to it.

The chat would be moderated to follow the obvious rules of not asking about other specific prisoners (we know that's not allowed), avoiding "racist" language, and saying anything that could be construed as incitement, given that it would be read by prison censors.

Alternatively, instead of a blog, we could simply publish what you ask to be published in the main prisoners penpals channel. Not everyone would want to have a blog!

My ideas for UK versions of Operation White Christmas (i.e., a Christmas gift drive for prisoners', and more generally, indigenous, families), and the Justice Report (online newspaper) are excellent.. except for one missing pre-requisite: both of the US examples are closely associated with a large organization, the NJP, so they have a pre-existing pool of supporters. Talking about UK versions of such things puts the cart before the horse, to be blunt about it. No such group exists.

^^^ If you don;t believe me, just do the thought experiment, of the town council rant above, the Christmas drive, or the scandal sheet, with your putative group, and see if it seems plausible.

Vincent recently received three books, only two of which were sent by me. Neither of us knows who sent the third book (in French). He says thank you. If you would like to confirm it was from you then you can let us know here.

"Justice delayed is justice denied" would be a great chorus line in a song.

A song can be engineered to be addictive.

A crowd can be enchanted (a process also called rapport) with an addictive song.

Examples of crowd rapport:

Google "Coldplay Fix You"

Google "Bareilles Yellow Brick Road"