Fair Shake Reentry Resource Center
MFP granted $2,000 to the Fair Shake Reentry Resource Center. Fair Shake is dedicated to increasing reentry success through personal and community focused ownership and engagement opportunities for currently and formerly incarcerated individuals in connection with families, employers, property managers, corrections, and communities.
About Fair Shake
Fair Shake is focused on the most important resource for reentry success: the person coming home.
To this end, we provide free resources and information to incarcerated people, formerly incarcerated people, their friends and families and other vital reentry stakeholders.
Prisons focus on safety and security. They do not offer lists of current resources and rely on outside organizations to provide this information. Many prisons allow private organizations (e.g. schools, religious organizations, and entrepreneurship programs) to come in and reach their target audiences via a variety of structured programming. But programming does not provide the freedom of self-directed exploration, and it does not reach everyone.
Incarcerated people are no different from the rest of us; all adults want to search, review, and decide for ourselves which resources will be the most beneficial for the trajectory that we would like our lives to take. We want to see how things connect to prioritize our goals. And we want the freedom to look around – without being subject to someone else’s agenda – so we can reflect, weigh our values, commitments and options, and own our decisions.
By providing resources, curated websites, educational manuals and interactive tools Fair Shake provides our incarcerated and formerly incarcerated neighbors with access to the resources and information they need to carve out their own unique path to successful re-entry. We actively maintain these ever-changing resources and give them to state and federal prisons free of charge. For the past 10 years, more than 200 state and federal prisons have been sharing Fair Shake’s information on their websites and with those incarcerated in their institutions. In fact, many institutions have one or more copies of our 200-page “Reentry Ownership Manual,” our guide to supportive re-entry resources, in the prison library.
Quotes from Incarcerated Fair Shake Newsletter Subscribers
DAVID: I look forward to the newsletter and learning new ways of self-improvement so that I can receive a fair shake, and others can too. I, too, am a donor…and together we make a difference.
MEQUAN: Fair Shake's approach, and those who give support to the newsletter are contributing to a ripple effect of progress and success. Thank You for supporting Sue's vision.
JAMES: Prison can be a dehumanizing experience. I've come to find out that being an inmate means being wrong. I committed a crime, so that makes me, in the eyes of staff, less competent, less trustworthy, less human, than them. This is a simple fact of prison life. Trudging through each day with my head down, I sometimes forget that I am someone worthy of love and respect.
MARIO: You're pretty dang incredible, Sue. You inspire me!
RON: I am in 22 years and I can get emotional about the very few things that are good about my life right now. I've experienced several losses, family and friends. These last 3 in less than a year did hit me harder. I've been able to ' say it out loud ' to Sue. She did not give me a generic “it will be OK.” She sent caring thoughts and messages. She cares about PEOPLE. If there is as much care and support in the website as there is in the woman who set it up, I know my reentry will be very successful. Sue not only wants me to use the site, she has offered to help me to understand and get the most of it. I know Sue will always be there.
Fair Shake reminds me. The messages of encouragement remind me that I am more than the worst thing I've ever done. That I have a purpose. That there are people in the world who will be able to see past my crime. That I can be better than I am now.
Fair Shake gives me hope.
ROGER: It's the pieces of humanity you put into your messages and newsletters that mean so much. When I have time to sift through things in my mind, I sit and ponder random parts of your newsletter.
“What you have undertaken is huge, Sue. I mean it’s really, really, really a big deal. I am grateful for YOU”
ROMOANO: I wish I could liquify an ounce of your heart and drop it in the water supply! how great would we be in this nation if we cared about our fellow Americans?
DAREN: Fair Shake is the only place that I know of who really cares about our reentry. Fair Shake donors are a blessing to many people.
ROGER: I have been incarcerated for the majority of my 45 yrs of life. I have been doing a lot of soul searching and spent countless hours pondering my life and reading self-help books to help evolve my limited thinking. I think I got more perspective on things from “Ubuntu Sue” in these emails than anyone else. And unlike most other places she takes the time to answer my queries. I know if she is taking the time to do that for me, then she is also doing that for others as well... My gratitude is limitless for this newsletter. I didn't know what to expect when I signed up for this newsletter. I often find myself quoting "Ubuntu Sue."
VICTOR: I love getting the newsletter. It gives me something to think about, and makes me wonder about the life I am living. Keep up the good work. The donors should be proud.
TOUSSAINT: I've read emails from you that caused me to instantly get up & commence putting together a poem, essay or something conducive to inspire others or to simply broaden my understanding about whatever! I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH!
ANDREW: It was really refreshing to read you email newsletter this morning. It’s like you were reading my mind. I need help and you answered my request. Thank you. Keep up the good job; you are truly helping people.
TRAVEON: You just don't know how much you help me with all the enlightening Info you share. I love the quotes I share them with people and then we break down what they mean to us. I do this to stimulate not only my mind but the individual I am talking to also.
CHRISTOPHER: Fair Shake has given me the confidence to know after 19 years there is a way for me to make it out there. The information I get from Fair shake has forever changed the past of my life. Knowing someone cares this much about me makes me want to do more. When I leave this hopeless box, I will be able to rise up to meet whatever the masses throw at me. Fair Shake has lit a fire in me that no one will be able to put out.
JIM: Words that come to mind when I think about Fair Shake are: compassionate, caring, gracious, and dedicated. But the word that pops to the front of my mind - and means more than any of the others - is LOVE, because I believe that is truly what drives Fair Shake.
GARY (non-incarcerated): Appreciate you and YOUR work. I’m building a list of reentry resources and yours is the most valuable I’ve found! (emphasis in original text)
DEBRA: What you have and are doing on Reentry is a great thing. WI DOC cut reentry classes 7 years ago. Lack of information had a lot to do with me coming back to prison. Please keep up your great work!
JAKE, Employer: I've been frustrated with the incarceration rate and misguided strategy toward rehabilitation in our state for some time, but to see that the commodification of human life stretches even past the prison walls shows a level of systemic sickness that challenges my temper. I hope to help in however small a way to make this senselessness apathy and dehumanization uncomfortable for those who would actively inhibit a person they are in a position to help. Thank you again and for this small kindness, but more importantly for the important work you are doing every day to help our neighbors.
DAVID: I have been utilizing Fair Shake resources as well as subscribing to the Fair Shake weekly newsletter since 2019. Fair Shake has made a tremendous difference during my incarceration. I have been directed to resources and information that I would have never known about. Fair Shake looks beyond labels and convictions to the person, getting ready for release. State and Federal prisons are not conducive to healing, learning, or rehabilitation. They often leave the offender
...with the key underlying issues which caused the criminal behavior untouched.
DEMETRIUS: Fair Shake has allowed me to challenge myself through thought provoking questions and helpful information Investing in Fair Shake, and in us, is a powerful declaration to know that you are helping others achieve the things that seem impossible!
RON: You have been the one voice I hear when it comes to being a Vet. Thanks for that small voice that spoke so loud for me this morning...
SCOTT: everyone here was super impressed with your presentations. They all said that your sincerity and dedication were obvious and that you left a lasting impression on one and all.
REGINALD: I really appreciate your commitment.
JACK: I share your newsletters with other inmates.
DAVID: Thank you very much for the list. Been trying to help some of the guys with resources. Here on pre-trial at USP Leavenworth, we don't have access to much.
JAMES (no longer incarcerated): Hello! I’ve been meaning to reach back to you to let you know that I am doing well. Thanks again for all that you do. I still refer to the OM. Keep making a difference!
STEVEN: its not often that someone would be there to help men/women in the situation... so the help you offer is a real lite in this dark place we call prison. THANK YOU Your emails are very enlightening...helpful... you are a blessing to many.
JOSHUA: I absolutely love getting your emails, it always warms my heart. In every newsletter I receive from you, there always seems to be something I need to hear at that moment. It's just nice to hear some positivity come through every now and then, because sometimes all we hear in here is negativity. You are a beacon of light in a dark place and I just thought I should let you know that you have brightened my day. Thank you!
JEVON: Thank You for all the hard work you put into supplying endless streams of Light throughout these gothic halls of darkness. In a world where it is the norm to keep Us blind & buried, your Effort, your Vision, your remarkable Heart plucks us up above the soil so that we may breathe and choose to lean into the sun.