Receive their stories.
Carry their humanity.
Thank you: The Letters from San Quentin Mail Club is a monthly mail subscription I created after spending years sitting with incarcerated writers and artists across the country. Every month, a physical envelope arrives at your door, postmarked from San Quentin Village, California. Inside, you will find original artwork, writing, and recipes from real contributors, along with a personal letter from me, Diane Kahn, founder of Humans of San Quentin, about the people who made them. You read it. You keep it. Every piece comes from someone serving a sentence. Every piece reminds you they are so much more than that.
Postmarked San Quentin Village CA 94964 · $25/month
Subscribe by the end of any month, and your first envelope arrives the next month.
And we want to share it with you." From inside San Quentin
They know what it means
to open a letter.
Now you will too.
Mail call is the most human moment of any day inside San Quentin. Laughter. Tears. The feeling that someone on the outside thought of you. Every month, they put that into an envelope and send it to your door.
Start Your SubscriptionWhat arrives at your door
One envelope. Eight ways to meet the people the world stopped looking at.
A Letter From Prison
One person. One page. No filter. Someone living behind bars tells you, in their own words, what a life counted in days really feels like. Not a headline. Not a statistic. A human being, writing to you.
A Letter From Diane
Every month, Diane shares what she has unlearned, what she got wrong, and who she met along the way. Honest, never the same twice, and the kind of letter you read slowly.
A Poem From Prison
Raw feeling, written where silence is loud and every word has to earn its place. No polish. No performance. Just what it sounds like when the truth has nowhere else to go.
A Recipe From Prison
No kitchen. No fresh market. Sometimes just a microwave, a commissary shelf, and a memory of home. Proof that you can make something warm out of almost nothing.
An Artwork From Prison
No studio. No proper brushes. No art supply store. Just stubborn imagination and whatever could be found, turned into something beautiful enough to keep.
A Seeds of Change Card
We planted the first seeds years ago. Now it is your turn. Press this plantable card into the soil, water it, and watch something grow from these words.
A Birthday Surprise
Tell us your birthday when you sign up, and something a little extra finds its way to your mailbox that month. Just because someone thought of you.
A Postmark That Means Something
San Quentin Village, CA 94964. Before you open a single page, the envelope has already told you where it came from. The postmark is the first line of the story.
Seeds of Change
Watch them grow.
From inside these walls,
change takes root.
Each issue includes a plantable seed paper card embedded with wildflower seeds. Read it, then put it in the ground.
Choose your plan
Every plan gets the same letter. Choose what plan works for you. And gift to someone you love.
Cancel anytime. A new letter arrives every month, postmarked from San Quentin Village.
Give a subscription to someone else. Select Gift at checkout and enter their mailing address.
One month free. Lock in a full year of letters and support the project long-term.
All subscriptions ship anywhere in the world. Subscribe by the end of any month, and your first envelope arrives the next month.
Your $25 funds one month of storytelling from inside.
Watch us compile an issue
From inside the walls to your mailbox. Every step, every hand that touches it.
"Mail call in San Quentin Village is one of the most human moments of any day inside. The laughter. The tears. The gratitude carried in a single envelope. The people inside know what it means to hold something real from someone who thought of them. Since 2017 I have sat with over 4,500 incarcerated people across the US and around the world. Letters from San Quentin is their chance to send that feeling to you."
Diane Kahn is the founder of Humans of San Quentin (HoSQ), a 501(c)3 nonprofit. Since February 2017 she has interviewed more than 4,500 incarcerated people in prisons across the US and around the world: Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, the Philippines, Norway, and beyond. Letters from San Quentin is her way of putting those voices directly into your hands, one letter at a time.
Letters from San Quentin is a project of Humans of San Quentin, a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit (EIN 85-2636174). Your subscription is not tax-deductible, but your support funds this work directly.
Questions
When will my first letter arrive?
Issue 1 mailed August 7, 2026. Subscribe by the end of any month and your first letter arrives the following month.
Where is it mailed from?
Every envelope is postmarked from San Quentin Village CA 94964. That postmark is real and it matters.
Can I give this as a gift?
Yes. At checkout, select the Gift option and enter your recipient's mailing address. $25/month ships directly to their door.
Can I cancel?
Monthly subscribers can cancel anytime. Yearly subscribers are billed for the full year upfront. If something comes up, reach out to Diane directly.
Is this tax-deductible?
Your subscription is a purchase, not a donation. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to Humans of San Quentin, head back to our homepage. The Donate button is in the top right corner.
Receive their stories.
Carry their humanity.
$25/month. Postmarked San Quentin Village CA 94964. Subscribe by the end of any month, and your first envelope arrives the next month.
Subscribe Now
501(c)3 · EIN 85-2636174 · Founded August 2020
©2026 Humans of San Quentin. All rights reserved.
