Want to get involved in the Bent Bars Project?

Become a Penpal:

If you are interested in becoming a penpal as part of the Bent Bars Project, we ask you to download and read our penpal guidelines.

You can then complete the our attached questionnaire for outside penpals. Once you send us your questionnaire, we will then match you with an inside penpal.

If you've never written to a prisoner before you might want to check out these tips for writing to prisoners.

We also hold monthly letter writing nights to introduce new people to the project and to provide a supportive social space for people to write to their penpals. Our regular letter writing night is currently held in London, but we are working on setting up regular letter writing nights in Bristol and Leeds and can help you set up a letter writing night wherever you are based.

If you have any questions about being a penpal or want more information, don't hesitate to get in touch.

Help with Inreach / Outreach:

Outreach: We are always trying to find new penpals on the outside to respond to our ongoing requests from folks inside prisons. If you are able to help out with any outreach among outside communities, this is an area we always need help with. Outreach within gay, lesbian, transsexual / transgender, queer communities is especially needed.

Inreach: We also want to spread the word to folks inside prisons.  If you have any contacts with people or organizations that do work on the inside, and would be willing to put us in touch, that would be great. Contacts with people who work within prisons can also be useful.

Help find good Resources for Prisoners:

We are putting together a collection of resources and handouts that we can send to LGBTQ prisoners. If you have good resources to share or want to help find materials, please let us know.  We are especially looking for resources on: coming out in prison contexts; safer sex; HIV/AIDs; safer drug use; harm reduction; self-care in prison; writing by queer/trans prisoners; legal resources for LGBTQ folks; local and regional supports for LGBTQ prisoners upon release.

Donate Money / Help with Fundraising

We are a grassroots collective that has no regular source of funding. At present, all of our costs (for stamps, stationary, printing materials, photocopying, etc) are paid for by collective members, donations or through ad hoc fundraising.  So we are always very grateful for any donations of money, stamps, paper, and photocopying. We are also looking for people to help organize fundraiser events or look into other funding sources.

Join the Bent Bars Collective:

The Bent Bars Project is run by a small, completely volunteer collective.  We respond to requests from prisoners, match inside and outside penpals, coordinate the newsletter, maintain our website, and do all the tasks necessary to keep the project going.  We meet once or twice per month, mostly in London, but also organize by telephone and email. There are lots of different ways to get involved with the collective. We welcome new collective members from any part of the country!

If you want to get involved please get in touch: