Tulsa Nonprofit Connects Women Prisoners To Volunteers For Restorative Writing Course

A nonprofit called Poetic Justice is getting ready to start another writing course designed for women in prison.

In just a few days, about 75 women serving time in Oklahoma prisons will be receiving some mail. Inside the envelopes: an outline of coursework for the next 16 weeks.

Women at Mabel Basset Correctional Center and Eddie Warrior Correctional Center, along with their writing partner on the outside, are given the same prompt. Then they share their answers with each other.

"The point of it isn't literacy or to teach the craft of writing, it's just to connect with a human being,” Poetic Justice Executive Director, Ellen Stackable said.

As those letters are sent out, so are envelopes marking the end of the last course, which started in the fall.

Each woman will get a graduation certificate and a book, with many of the poems they just wrote.

Stackable said the women in prison see changes within themselves, and that leads to changes in the prison.

"Our participants often become leaders in the facilities,” she said. “They go on to get their GED. They go on to college. They go onto helping teach other women."

Hannah Covington has been writing to a woman in prison for the last two and a half years.

"We've written over 20 poems at this point and just dozens and dozens of letters,” Covington said.

The two of them are about to start their sixth course together; and they've never met.

Covington said Jeri gave permission to share her name for this story.

"I think we are all more than the worst moments of our lives,” Covington said.

Now she knows the person behind that name, in a way that wouldn't have been possible without Poetic Justice.

"Jeri is more than my writing partner; she's more than my pen pal; she's my friend,” Covington said.

Stackable said Poetic Justice is always looking for new volunteers for the writing program, and to make visits in person. For more information, click here.