CST's Pagan Prisoner Committee

Welcome to Church of the Spiral Tree's newest committee. We are dedicated to servicing the religious and spiritual needs of our incarcerated members. We are here to provide information on past and upcoming CST rituals gatherings, events and news, and also provide articles and information. We are also gathering information on prisoner's religious rights and related topics. Any suggestions, comments or questions are greatly appreciated.

List of incarcerated members
List of committee members

Church of the Spiral Tree's (CST) Pagan Prisoner Committee (PPC) is dedicated to serving the religious and spiritual needs of our incarcerated members. Committee members will write to one or more inmate members on a regular basis (be "pen-pals"). This correspondence can be as simple as just exchanging friendly letters, to providing rituals and educational information, to acting as a teacher for an inmate member wishing to learn about paganism. CST will provide the committee members with the names, addresses, and interests of inmate members. The committee members are responsible for initiating contact, and are the ones who decide to what depth their communications with the inmates will go.

Materials we can mail to inmates: In the past, committee members have sent to inmate members information on past and upcoming CST rituals, articles and information from the internet on particular subjects, and rituals that the inmate can perform using no tools (as some prisons don't allow tools). However, CST cannot purchase and mail books, tools, or other supplies to inmates.

CST receives several books from publishers for review, and will mail these to any CST member, including inmate members, who request them, in exchange for a review to be published in "The Journey."

CST runs an egroup on Yahoogroups called "PaganPrisoners." This group serves to coordinate the efforts of CST's Prison Ministry Committee. We prefer that anyone wishing to join be a member of CST, but this is not required.

CST's policy on volunteers: You do not have to be a paid member of CST in order to serve on a committee or volunteer in any way. However, any expenses you incur as part of your service will not be reimbursed unless you are an active CST member. You are required to be a CST member if you are an officer, chairperson, or committee head for any CST office or committee.

Any and all pagan inmates are welcome to join Church of the Spiral Tree (CST). CST offers free membership to pagan inmates who are otherwise unable to pay their membership dues. This free membership is good as long as the inmate is interested and is in prison, plus one year after release from prison, to allow time for the former inmate a chance to settle in, make contacts, and get in shape financially. After this one year period after release, the former inmate may apply for discounted membership to CST if he/she is still unable to pay the full amount for membership.

All pagan inmates who are CST members are eligible to be listed on the web page under "Incarcerated Members Mailing List" at , in the Yahoogroup "PaganPrisoners" database, and in the Contacts section of CST's newsletter, "The Journey." CST's free inmate members receive the same benefits as regular paid members: a subscription to "The Journey" which comes out four times a year, and the right to vote once a year by absentee ballot in CST's board of directors elections, and in any other votes.

Once an inmate has joined CST, his/her name will be placed in the database for the Pagan Prisoner Committee (PPC). Please note that joining CST does not guarantee that an inmate member will get a "pen-pal," but we will make every effort to have each inmate member written to. Also note that in order to be listed on the PPC database for letters, an inmate must become a CST member by filling out the membership form.

Eugene, one of our Pagan Prisoner Committee members, has put together a web site about Pagan prisoners: Pagan Prisoners.