The ELLA Foundation is pleased to announce that we are turning over our blog to the inmates, inmates’ families, and victims of violent crime that we serve. A large part of what we do at ELLA is two-fold: we strive to educate the public on the horrible and often inhumane experiences of those in prison and to help those who have been affected by violent crime to find their voice and to use it to create good in the world again. What better way to achieve either goal than to let those ELLA embraces use our blog?

The first entry is by my son, Paris Lee Bennett, whom most of you know has been incarcerated since the age of 13, for the offense of Capital Murder. He is six years into a 40-year sentence for murdering his little sister Ella in 2007. Paris was first held five and a half years by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department and has now been in what I call “big boy prison”, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, for a year. In his first essay he touches upon the issue of First Amendment rights as they pertain to prisoners, guard intimidation, and the reality of his life in danger because of what he did to his sister.

We have lots more essays ready to be published addressing topics such as prison health care, the effects of long-term solitary confinement, and what it feels like to watch your children grow up through bulletproof glass. Many of these essays are very hard to read.

When ELLA posts a new essay, we will send a copy to the author with all comments and feedback from readers (at least those that are constructive-if you have something mean to say, go elsewhere because we at ELLA are not supportive of hate), so please be sure to comment after you have finished reading. So many of the authors want, need, more interaction with those of us in the “free”.

If you’d like to tell your story, or you are in contact with someone incarcerated who would like to tell theirs, please mail them to the following address:

The ELLA Foundation
222 Furr Dr.
San Antonio, TX 78201

Make sure to include a return address so we can mail the post and comments back to whoever authored the piece. You can write about whatever you want as long as it concerns the issue of incarceration and/or violent crime and your message does not contradict ELLA’s stance of using Empathy, Love, Lessons, & Action to make the world a better place.

I hope everyone enjoys our new blog format! I look forward to giving you new stories and to hearing new stories from you.

Much love & many hugs to all of you!

Charity Lee
Founder & Executive Director
The ELLA Foundation