Fran Thompson is a prisoner in Missouri who has been sentenced to life.
Before going to prison, Fran was a dedicated animal rights and environmental activist. After a man who was stalking her threatened to kill her and then broke into her house, Fran shot and killed him. Fran had taken on the prosecutor during her activism, and he used this as an opportunity to remove a threat to his power.
Fran has a very specific request. She is unable to get a certain type of typewriter ribbon at her prison. Please take a moment and call the prison. PLEASE DO NOT USE HER NAME. A script of what to say and the phone number are below:
SCRIPT:
Hello. I am calling to make a request about the commissary. Can you transfer me to someone that can answer my questions?
[transfer]
Hello. I am calling to make a request about the commissary. I would like to request that they start ordering the Brother 1030 ribbon and the
Brother 3010 correction tape for typewriters. These are required for the typewriters that the prison sold to inmates in the past and not
stocking them has made use of the typewriters incredibly difficult and cost prohibitive. Would it be possible for the prison to start stocking these again?
[if yes]
excellent. how soon do you think that could happen?… thank you. i’ll call back then to double check. [make sure they have the tape numbers]
[if no]
why not? [they will probably keep giving you reasons why this is not possible. keep pressing them… maybe ask them if you can send the tape to the prisoner yourself (they will most definitely say no to this, but it certainly makes their position look absurd, doesn’t it?). remind them that they decided to stop selling these supplies without input from the people who need them.]
REMEMBER:
Do NOT use any prisoner’s name in any of your communications with prison staff about this issue. If you are on the phone with a higher-up within the prison, feel free to say whatever you want, however you want. Please just be mindful that sometimes the folks answering the phones are inmates – and they certainly don’t deserve your wrath.
The numbers are:
WERDCC (the prison)
573-594-6686
George Lombardi (director of MO dept of corrections)
573-751-2389
Hi there,
I recently learned of Fran’s story and am interested in helping her; has there been any word on whether the typewriter ribbons have been restocked? I would hate to potentially give the game away by making this request if so.