My name is Brian Page, and I started this fundraiser to help raise money for my non-profit organization, Page Paralegal Services. All donations will be used to provide federal inmates with legal research, document preparation, educational materials, re-entry tools, and community resources. Thousands of inmates across the country have died during the COVID-19 era due to poor prison conditions, over-population, and staff members who simply do not know how to deal with the pandemic properly.
I have first-hand knowledge of what goes on inside our prisons. In 2015 I pled guilty to a drug-related offense and was subsequently sentenced to a term of imprisonment. While incarcerated, I quickly realized our prison system is broken by design. The system is not a "correctional system" by any means. It is not meant to rehabilitate. It is not designed to help incarcerated individuals better themselves, nor does the system prepare people with the tools, training, and education they will need once released. Instead, the system is designed for one purpose and one purpose only—to make a profit!! The prison system (and crime) is a big business. It's worth questioning—why does America, which has 5% of the world's population, have 25% of the world's prisoners??? There are approximately 12,000,000 people incarcerated in the world. Almost 3,000,000 of those people are incarcerated in America. An additional 5-6,000,000 Americans are on parole, probation, or some other type of supervision. Why is that? Is it because Americans are such terrible, law-breaking people? Or perhaps it's something else. The prison system and every job tied to it, i.e., judges, lawyers, police officers, probation officers, prison staff, etc., depend on prosecutions, and ultimately, convictions. Tens of thousands of new laws get passed every year in our country; no one ever knows, and hardly anyone even votes them into law. Today, millions of people are locked in confinement—many for non-violent, victimless crimes—living in a death-by-COVID situation. They have no way to protect themselves from the virus; they cannot self-quarantine, and social distancing is impossible.
During my journey behind bars, I learned that I would receive no help from the "correctional facility" where I was serving my sentence. (Fort Dix, New Jersey). There were no college programs. The few vocational training courses that were available had 2-year waiting lists, and self-educational books and materials were scarce. So, by my own initiative, and at my own expense, I enrolled in a paralegal correspondence course and became a paralegal while I was incarcerated. I became somewhat of a "jailhouse lawyer" and helped numerous indigent inmates prepare and file court documents. COVID-19 seriously affected the "normal" day-to-day operations in all prisons across America. It was bad before, and it's even worse now.
I've helped many people over the past few years. Most of the time, I performed the legal research and typing for free. Sometimes inmates would give me a few stamps or food as a nice gesture, but for the most part, all of my work was pro bono. Helping people became my mission and H.O.P.E. became my motto (Help One Person Everyday). I made a promise to them (inmates at Fort Dix) and to myself to continue being a voice for good people who are in a bad situation like confinement in close quarters in a prison where COVID-19 is running wild. I've kept true to my promise as best as possible, but the COVID-19 pandemic has seriously affected the way I run my business. I receive hardly any donations, and I recently had to take on a 3rd shift job 5 nights a week to make ends meet.
Any donations received through this gofundme fundraiser -- #SmallBusinessRelief -- will be used to create public awareness and to continue fighting for the good guys on the inside. I've seen first-hand what goes on inside of our prison system, and it's not pretty. Something has to be done, and changes need to be made, or else the made-to-be-broken-system, will remain broken.
Thank you in advance for your monetary support.
#SmallBusinessRelief
I have first-hand knowledge of what goes on inside our prisons. In 2015 I pled guilty to a drug-related offense and was subsequently sentenced to a term of imprisonment. While incarcerated, I quickly realized our prison system is broken by design. The system is not a "correctional system" by any means. It is not meant to rehabilitate. It is not designed to help incarcerated individuals better themselves, nor does the system prepare people with the tools, training, and education they will need once released. Instead, the system is designed for one purpose and one purpose only—to make a profit!! The prison system (and crime) is a big business. It's worth questioning—why does America, which has 5% of the world's population, have 25% of the world's prisoners??? There are approximately 12,000,000 people incarcerated in the world. Almost 3,000,000 of those people are incarcerated in America. An additional 5-6,000,000 Americans are on parole, probation, or some other type of supervision. Why is that? Is it because Americans are such terrible, law-breaking people? Or perhaps it's something else. The prison system and every job tied to it, i.e., judges, lawyers, police officers, probation officers, prison staff, etc., depend on prosecutions, and ultimately, convictions. Tens of thousands of new laws get passed every year in our country; no one ever knows, and hardly anyone even votes them into law. Today, millions of people are locked in confinement—many for non-violent, victimless crimes—living in a death-by-COVID situation. They have no way to protect themselves from the virus; they cannot self-quarantine, and social distancing is impossible.
During my journey behind bars, I learned that I would receive no help from the "correctional facility" where I was serving my sentence. (Fort Dix, New Jersey). There were no college programs. The few vocational training courses that were available had 2-year waiting lists, and self-educational books and materials were scarce. So, by my own initiative, and at my own expense, I enrolled in a paralegal correspondence course and became a paralegal while I was incarcerated. I became somewhat of a "jailhouse lawyer" and helped numerous indigent inmates prepare and file court documents. COVID-19 seriously affected the "normal" day-to-day operations in all prisons across America. It was bad before, and it's even worse now.
I've helped many people over the past few years. Most of the time, I performed the legal research and typing for free. Sometimes inmates would give me a few stamps or food as a nice gesture, but for the most part, all of my work was pro bono. Helping people became my mission and H.O.P.E. became my motto (Help One Person Everyday). I made a promise to them (inmates at Fort Dix) and to myself to continue being a voice for good people who are in a bad situation like confinement in close quarters in a prison where COVID-19 is running wild. I've kept true to my promise as best as possible, but the COVID-19 pandemic has seriously affected the way I run my business. I receive hardly any donations, and I recently had to take on a 3rd shift job 5 nights a week to make ends meet.
Any donations received through this gofundme fundraiser -- #SmallBusinessRelief -- will be used to create public awareness and to continue fighting for the good guys on the inside. I've seen first-hand what goes on inside of our prison system, and it's not pretty. Something has to be done, and changes need to be made, or else the made-to-be-broken-system, will remain broken.
Thank you in advance for your monetary support.
#SmallBusinessRelief