We are currently working toward starting this project.

Raúl Esparza, Jr. has been working with Kari and various other timebank members to extend our timebank to one of the most marginalized segments of our society: people locked up in our prisons. Even after his release, Raúl has struggled with wanting to return to his cell, feeling like he had nobody on the outside supporting him. We are starting Human Kind United to be that bridge. It will be the first effort to use timebanking to connect people who live on both inside and outside of the prison system.

Human Kind United consists of six components:

1) a print newsletter sent to inmates, which Raúl is busy developing

2) timebank pen pal pairs on the inside and outside who co-create narratives and art that speak to societal inequities

3) a website that shares these and other creative works beyond the prison walls

4) inmates who participate in advocacy efforts to reform the prison system

5) inmates’ family members who join the timebank and utilize the time credits earned by their loved ones behind bars

6) meaningful employment for former inmates.

Human Kind United is a pen pal program which will aim to:

•  Build community among those who experience incarceration and those who have no personal connection with the correctional system
•  Raise awareness of those on the outside of incarceration’s injustices at the societal, system, family, and individual levels
•  Encourage those on the inside that they are not forgotten and that we can work toward change together