Nestled between a display of books and magazines, a chattering crowd sits hip to hip, chattering and comparing the birthday cards they are writing: cards addressed to imprisoned people they have never met. The Abolitionist Mail Project (AMP) hosted a public letter-writing event on Friday, Oct. 10, at the Brookline Booksmith as part of their movement to eliminate jail. The AMP was founded in 2024, working to establish relationships between people inside and outside prison walls as a step toward its ultimate goal of abolishing prisons.
Community members came together to write personalized cards, which included jokes, doodles, music recommendations and birthday wishes. The AMP was not only able to foster compassion and unity but also create an environment where participants could discuss the realities of incarceration.
The AMP and Brookline Booksmith organizers set up tables covered with unique cards, colored pens and packets with information about incarcerated people from across Massachusetts who wished to receive mail or have a pen pal. The packets included the incarcerated persons’ names, birthdays, ages and their written autobiographies. Continuing these interactions between people within and outside prisons, the AMP believes, will “help us break down walls and build a new world,” according to their website.
Alec Schaffner, the Brookline Booksmith Community Engagement Coordinator, said that recognizing the similarities between different people is crucial.
“It’s important for people, living their day-to-day lives, to understand that there is no meaningful difference between people who are incarcerated and people who aren’t,” Schaffner said. “Oftentimes it’s just a roll of the dice and biases that lead people to be trapped in that situation, for sometimes impossibly long periods of time.”
Kaylee Tada, a Brookline Booksmith bookseller, has volunteered with the AMP in the past and originally had the idea to donate cards from the bookstore to the AMP. Eventually, the idea snowballed, and the Booksmith not only donated cards but provided a platform for the project, according to Tada.
“We all really want to push the limits of what we can do for our community and find ways to support people in ways that we can here,” Tada said. “It’s important to everyone in the Booksmith.”
According to Tada, people did not always understand the significance of mail for incarcerated persons. They said the discussions at the letter-writing event provided an opportunity for community members to consider the role of the community and the prison system as a whole.
“What could our world look like with fewer prisons?” Tada said. “To get people to connect with people on the inside [gets them] thinking about [whether] our country could be better if we didn’t have over 2 million people isolated from all of us.”
For over two hours, community members sat side by side, crafting their cards; a single incarcerated person could be receiving a dozen birthday wishes in the mail this year.
Stephanie Martinez Fernandez was one of many participants writing cards. Fernandez said her own brother had been in and out of incarceration, so she tried to write lighthearted messages to best convey hope and joy to an incarcerated person receiving the card.
“I just thought about what kind of card I would want my brother to receive,” Martinez Fernandez said. “I know there are a lot of unfair circumstances, and sometimes people have to take things in stride.”
Schaffner said that the Booksmith is more than just a bookstore; it also serves as a community resource and gathering place to share ideas.
“It’s important that anyone who’s comfortably walking through our bookstore understands that the circumstances are different for you, but [everyone is human],” Schaffner said. “The community you see around you extends to the people you are not allowed to see.”
