➛ Neither the inmate nor Colors On Concrete earn money through this project.
The process is extremely simple:
1. The writer sends CoC stories/articles/poems that he or she would like to have published.
2. CoC will type up and publish their work on this website, free of any charges.
➛ CoC is no typical “find me a pen-pal” website. It is first and foremost about written pieces. Therefore:
– NO PROFILE INFORMATION AND NO ARTICLE OR STORY WILL BE PUBLISHED BEFORE THE COMPLETELY FILLED OUT FORM HAS BEEN RECEIVED.
Any form that has not been filled out completely, will be discarded! No form = No online space.
– NO PROFILE INFORMATION WILL BE PUBLISHED BEFORE CoC HAS ALSO RECEIVED (A) WRITTEN PIECE(S) OF WORK.
The writer is going to send out the form and first piece of work at the same time.
➛ Any inmate who is invited to join this team as a writer is being made aware of very important info, before sending out work.
Please view said info below:
• Give each of your articles/stories or poems a headline.
• Write your name or # on each and every single paper/photo you are sending out.
• Take care of your penmanship. Remind yourself that another human being is going to type up what you wrote by hand.
• Put work and effort into your writings. Be proud of it and yourself when sending it out.
• Only send out writings with which you are satisfied, feel comfortable to share with (potentially) the world.
• Upon your request, any article and/or profile will be deleted whenever you want that to happen.
Please know, though, that anything that once was on the internet, can absolutely be found again, even if deleted.
• PROOFREAD.
• DO NOT send out anything that you need back in the future.
• DO NOT send stamps or pre-stamped envelopes! American stamps unfortunately are useless in German post offices.
• CoC does not publish pornographic material of any kind.
• Small grammar mistakes are corrected, if noticed. However, CoC will not re-write your story to make it sound coherent.
• CoC will not call you on the phone, will not have video visits with you and will not be your future pen-pal.
• CoC does not contact lawyers, advocates, governments or any type of organization on your behalf.
• CoC is not using any form of social media, neither for private use nor for CoC itself.
• CoC does not make copies of photos, documents or of your own articles, to send them back to you.
• CoC does not sell and/or ship out your artwork for you.
• CoC is available to contact on GTL , Corrlinks and Jpay – no other provider! However, CoC is not able to text back online!
• CoC will make sure that you receive feedback at least once, so you know your first piece(s) of work have been received.
• Whenever CoC can find spare time, it will translate your work and it will show up in German as well, beneath your original, English article.
(Poems will not be translated.)
If you can not find your friend’s/loved one’s work and/or profile on this website, chances are that their mail either has not reached CoC yet, or that they missed to agree to any one of the points listed above. A letter from the US to Germany (and the other way around) will be on its way for at least seven full days, most often even longer. Also, the P.O. box is not being checked daily.
Unfortunately, CoC does not have the necessary means to get back to each inmate who failed to send crucial paperwork or missed to understand any of the info listed above. The incoming, incomplete mail simply has to be discarded.
Thank you for understanding.
SUPPORT THIS PROJECT:
This website currently costs me a monthly fee of € 6,00. If you like what I’m doing here and might wish to support the site, make it grow and this way enable more incarcerated people to have their thoughts and stories published, you are able to do that through:
my SHOP . an AMAZON WISHLIST . or a GOFUNDME . Thank you!
„Freedom of speech gives us the right to offend others, whereas freedom of thought gives them the choice as to whether or not to be offended.“ – Mokokoma Mokhonoana