Bent Bars

Last weekend's Northern Queer Film Festival gave all the money it raised to Bent Bars. After showing the film 'Cruel and Unusual' members of the collective gave a talk about the project.

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Bent bars is a pen-pal project to connect lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and gender non-conforming people currently on the outside with people on the inside of prison walls. It was set up in spring 2009. The project recognises that systematic discrimination of minorities leads to exclusion from society, increased criminalisation and imprisonment. Although many overtly homophobic and transphobic laws have been recently overturned in Britain, the criminal (in)justice system continues to target and criminalize queer, trans and gender non-conforming people, particularly those from poor backgrounds and communities of colour. LGBTQ people are subject to increased isolation, harassment, and assault when in prison.

Initially Bent Bars contacted people through a small notice in  'Inside Time' magazine, sent to everyone inside. They were inundated with replies!  It took some time to deal with the number of responses to the advert and, through word of mouth, the project has spread. It now has 70 ongoing pen-pals and with 50 people or more on the inside who are looking for pen-pals.  Writing to someone inside provides vital emotional support and helps people inside to be less vulnerable to violence.  The six member collective, as well as linking people together, is creating resources for LGBTQ prisoners such as newsletters of prisoners' writings and a list of priosoner-led support groups for LGBTQ people. There are more people inside looking for pen-pals and the collective are always looking for outside pen-pals.

C, who spoke at the festival, became involved in Bent Bars by going to a letter writing workshop in London and met some of the other collective members.  The workshop gives people an opportunity to be matched with a penpal, space to write their letters to prisoners and  to unburden some more difficult letters. It is easy to become involved without going to London though! The project sends out a detailed questionnaire by email to match people and will try to cater to specific requests that people may have. All the information is available to download at the website. The project also attends outreach events like the Queer Film Festival in Leeds. The collective is always keen to hear from people with any questions they have. If you have an event where you can promote the project they would also love to hear from you.

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Bent Bars