Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Religion News
The Institute for Death Row Correspondence / Launching May 5

The Institute for Death Row Correspondence / Launching May 5

Last updated on: May 2, 2026 at 8:51 pm by Jeff Hood

0 Comments

The Institute for Death Row Correspondence / Launching May 5 2026-05-02T20:51:41-06:00 Jeff Hood

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Institute for Death Row Correspondence

The Institute for Death Row Correspondence launches May 5, 2026, at 9 PM Eastern / 8 PM Central / 6 PM Pacific. Join us at bit.ly/DeathRowCorrespondence.

___________

Guest post from Dr. Wendy Ramage, Dean of the Institute for Death Row Correspondence

There is a particular kind of loneliness that most people don’t talk about. It belongs to the person who has been faithfully writing someone on death row for years — showing up month after month, carrying another human being’s story, sitting with their grief — and has few people in their life who truly understand why.

I have met so many of these people. They are some of the most faithful, quietly courageous individuals I know. And many often do the work completely alone.

That is what the Institute for Death Row Correspondence is being built to change.

The Institute is a new program of the Execution Intervention Project, rooted in the belief that no human being should be allowed to disappear, and that correspondence sent faithfully and consistently is one of the most powerful acts of spiritual resistance available to ordinary people. I serve as Dean, and our launch is May 5, 2026.

We do three things.

We connect. The Institute matches correspondents with people on death row who have asked to be written to, and we provide the training and resources to help those relationships take root and last. Most people who feel called to this practice don’t know how to begin. They don’t know the rules, the rhythms, or the realities of writing into a correctional institution. We do. And we walk alongside them from the first letter forward.

We sustain. We organize support groups for people who are already writing, because this work is easier to carry in community. Correspondents need a place to process what they are experiencing, stay accountable, and keep going when it gets hard. When you are writing someone whose execution date has just been set, good intentions are not enough. You need people who understand from the inside what you are holding.

We advocate. We help correspondents show up for the people they write to, whether that means understanding a legal situation, raising a public voice, or standing with someone as their case reaches its final stages. Writing a letter is where most people begin. It is rarely where they stop.

My own road to this work was not straight. I was told more than once that I was not supposed to still be here. Doctors said the words we dread to hear, and I kept living. That experience shaped the way I move through every correspondence now. It taught me what it means to be vulnerable, to need to be seen, to need someone to insist that you are still part of the human community. I have said before that I just don’t consider anybody else all that different from me. That conviction is the root of my writing practice, and it is the root of this Institute.

My colleague and co-author Jeff Hood, who serves in the broader Execution Intervention Project, said it this way: “I have been doing this work long enough to know that correspondents are some of the most faithful abolitionists in this country and the most invisible. The Institute for Death Row Correspondence changes that. I am thrilled that the Execution Intervention Project is building this home, because the people who write letters deserve the same sustained support they give. This is long overdue, and I believe it will change lives on both sides of the wall.”

Jeff is right. And what we both know is that the death penalty depends on a particular kind of forgetting. It depends on the public being able to move through its days without thinking too carefully about the people in cells. Every letter written across that wall makes the forgetting harder. A correspondent who has been writing for years cannot unknow the person they have been writing. They cannot return to thinking in abstractions. That is its own kind of transformation, and it ripples outward.

This is a spiritual practice as much as it is an act of advocacy. It changes the person who writes as surely as it reaches the person who receives. We call it a discipline because that is what it is: a long, faithful, often quiet commitment that works on you over time, shaping your attention, your compassion, and your understanding of what it means to be human.

If you are already writing to someone on death row, come find us. We want to journey with you.

If you have felt called to begin and haven’t known how, now is the time. We will help you.

If you are curious about what this practice is and what it asks, we would love to have that conversation.

The Institute for Death Row Correspondence launches May 5, 2026, at 9 PM Eastern / 8 PM Central / 6 PM Pacific. Join us at bit.ly/DeathRowCorrespondence.

You can also reach me directly at [email protected].

Writing a letter is where most people begin. It is rarely where they stop.

Come begin.

Dean Ramage

Catholic

Politics and Religion

fresh writings

Thoughts

death row

Death Row Correspondence

executions

The Institute for Death Row Correspondence

The Institute for Death Row Correspondents

Previous Post

April 30, 2026

Federal Judge: Alabama Lied About Nitrogen Execution Data

Next Post

May 2, 2026 The Not Yet Is Coming: The Holy Tension of Is

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"'God’s Sheep on the Sidewalk' is immensely thought-provoking and conscience-stirring. Thanks. "The people out there ..."

Dr.Cajetan Coelho

God’s Sheep: The Ones Who Sleep ..."

"Greetings, Jeff, and bless you for your relentlessly regular fierce posts and your profound commitments ..."

DCF

Between: On the Person and Character ..."

"God as the Between, thoughts:As a child we were taught, in the blue or green ..."

madalyn baumstark

Between: On the Person and Character ..."

"Sometimes we make it harder than it is. Not saying things don't bring us to ..."

Patrick Dennis

Get Behind Me, Satan: A Death ..."

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Danny & Jeff fresh writings latest poetics north texas fellowship of reconciliation Sermon theology from death row Thoughts Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 July 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 May 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" while dying?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Paul Stephen David Jesus