The Inmates Correspondence program is an effective way of doing Dawah to people who are in prison. It is also very useful in keeping Muslims in prison in touch with the community, and providing them with moral support.

1. 877-Why-Islam has an inmates correspondence program where letters received from prisons are scanned and emailed to assigned volunteers. These volunteers then reply to these letters and support the inmate with any Islamic literature that may be beneficial.
   To enroll in this program,email us at info@whyislam.org

2. As a volunteer in this program, you will be directly corresponding with the inmate, providing moral support and/or any help in terms of giving Islamic literature, prayer rugs, etc.

3. You will not be disclosing your mailing address. All correspondence will occur with ICNA-NJ PO Box address.

4. 4. The inmate will respond to the PO Box with the name of the individual who interacted with him/her. The 877-Why-Islam volunteer in NJ will get the letter from the PO Box, have it scanned and emailed to the person for whom the letter is intended. This way, the inmate does not know the address of the person who is corresponding with him, but the correspondence proceeds smoothly.

5. Program ensures that brothers correspond with brothers, and sisters with sisters.

6. Usually the mall will get back to you indicating their approval of the community table. If you do not hear from them in a couple of weeks, follow up with the marketing person or the person you have established contact with. It’s possible that the mall has simply misplaced your application.

7. 6. The brothers and sisters involved in the project are encouraged to help the person they are corresponding with, by sending Islamic literature, or as requested by the inmate. Please do not send any hardbound books. Prison rules do not allow inmates to receive hardbound books by mail.

8. 7. We ensure that the individuals assigned to correspond with inmates have a firm grounding in the basics of Islam. They should stay away from controversial issues in their correspondence and encourage the inmates to do the same.

9. 8. The focus of the correspondence should be to encourage the inmate, if he is a non-Muslim, to study Islam and embrace it as a way of life. If the inmate is already a Muslim there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. The inmate should be encouraged to lead a truly righteous life, and should feel that the community will accept him if he truly turns around his life.