Welcome to the third and final post of the Death Row Inmates series. As previously noted, Death Row Inmates has been a good friend to me and the cause of prison education. As such, I have decided to post three blogs for them, introducing you to their vast efforts at criminal justice reform. This post is the final in the series.
Of all of Death Row Inmates’ projects, their National Inmate Donor Registry project might be the most intriguing. It is controversial but does abide by sound logic and a need to make amends to pay restitution by any means possible.
What follows is Death Row Inmates’ document on their “National Inmate Donor Registry” project:
“For whatever reason – be it apathy or oversight, a complete lack of programs and national protocol for the willing prisoner to donate living vital organs and tissues to those under their sentence of death seems to be the accepted ‘norm.’ In rare cases, doing so for an immediate family member may be possible. Still, the bureaucratic impediments are so substantial that people have died while awaiting necessary approval.
Ironically, an entire segment of the nation’s population is excluded from the role of the willing. After all, what is justice if it isn’t the act of making something good come from something bad? Doesn’t the government have an absolute duty to protect its citizenry?
Isn’t the rationale for imprisonment derived from the responsibility to repay societal debt, rehabilitation, restitution, and punishment for transgression? If this is indeed the case, then why, with a population that exceeds two million men and women imprisoned in this country, are dying people out in the ‘free world’ deprived willing donors?
These states take life, labor, income, and time from the imprisoned, ask us to ‘rehabilitate’ ourselves, yet deny us the opportunity to make the ultimate restitution – literally, the gift of life, the only act that can transcend all others.
Suppose you are willing to unselfishly bridge the gap between life and death for a perfect stranger who might otherwise die without your living transplant (or an organ upon your death). In that case, we encourage you to join hands and help us breathe life into this most deserving effort.
If you feel that state and federal prisoners should be able and permitted to donate living vital organs and tissues, we urge you to ‘weigh in’ and vote in our online poll. If you’re an inmate and wish to become listed on the growing inmate donor registry, please drop us a kite and let us know. We’ll kindly add your name and contact information to our national list of potential donors. With any luck, we’ll accumulate enough prisoner interest in this initiative to bring it to the voters.
Should you elect to read up on some of the other projects we’re currently engaged in, things you might be able to assist us with, mail a request for information with a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) to”:
The DRI Project/PMB #154
3298 North Glassford Hill Road #104
Prescott Valley, AZ 86315
You can also contact them at [email protected], their website at DeathRowInmate.org, or you can even write the in-prison correspondents directly at:
Michael Flinner
P.O. Box V-30064
San Quentin, CA 94964
Spencer Brasure
P.O. Box P-10000
San Quentin, CA 94964
Published Jul 25, 2011 by Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA | Last Updated by Christopher Zoukis, JD, MBA on Feb 17, 2024 at 1:19 pm
