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Recovery can be brutally lonely, especially behind bars, where mail is rare and visits are rarer. Colorado is countering that isolation with free recovery support that costs nothing to give.
Through the Recovery Card Project, anyone can send a free greeting card with a handwritten message of support to a person recovering from a substance use disorder, and more than 1,800 of those cards have reached incarcerated people across the state since 2019.
The project, run by Colorado’s Behavioral Health Administration as part of its Lift the Label campaign, offers the cards online at no cost.
Agencies that provide recovery services can also order cards in bulk for card-writing events or for pickup at their offices, which keeps the barrier at zero for both senders and recipients.
How a Free Card Ends Up Inside a Colorado Prison
Rocky Mountain PBS visited the peer training academy at Centennial Correctional Facility in Cañon City, Colorado, where the cards land in the hands of people working hard to stay sober.
William Davenport, 50, who is serving life without parole, handed one of his own designs to 23-year-old Sa Soe, who is waiting on a parole board decision.
The card’s cover features a detailed mandala with the word “worthy” in cursive, and the message inside ends with, in all caps, “YOU ARE WORTHY.” A stranger added a handwritten line: “You are worth it.”
Soe, sober for the four years he has been incarcerated, said he receives almost no other mail and rarely gets in-person visits.
Incarcerated Artists Designed the Cards for the First Time
This year marked a first: the Behavioral Health Administration partnered with the Colorado Department of Corrections to accept card designs from incarcerated people, specifically the peer specialists trained by licensed staff to deliver behavioral health services to others inside. Thirty-two peer specialists submitted designs, and eight were selected for print.
Daryl Keener’s design made the cut. A former Marine serving a 1,256-year sentence, Keener drew a dripping blue glass heart with the American flag inside, a tribute to the country’s 250th anniversary and to veterans who, like him, came home dependent on alcohol.
The cover reads, “Change is within us,” and the inside says, “Follow your heart.” Keener, 46, has been sober for 16 years.
Peer Support and Medication Treatment Behind Bars
The cards sit on top of a larger structure. The Department of Corrections launched its Behavioral Health Peer Mentor program in 2023 at Centennial, and it has grown to 11 facilities.
Twelve peer specialists work at Centennial alone, and the teams served about 25,000 incarcerated people last fiscal year, according to program administrator Kyle Jones.
Colorado is also one of the only states whose corrections department runs a licensed opioid treatment program that can administer medication-assisted treatment, according to Ryan Mueller, the state opioid treatment authority.
People entering the system meet a peer specialist at intake in Denver, Colorado, who lays out the recovery resources waiting at their facility, from therapeutic community groups to medication support.
Why a Piece of Cardstock Works
Jack Devie was skeptical. Devie works at Milestone Community Wellness, a nonprofit in northeast Colorado that keeps recovery cards at its offices for people to send free of charge. He is eight years sober, farms in Sedgwick, Colorado, and remembers dismissing the idea at first.
Then he received a card on the anniversary of his sobriety, and started writing them himself. In a rural town where the only social space is the bar, he said, rereading that card on a bad day is proof that people care.
Free Recovery Support and Next Steps
Free recovery support will never replace treatment, but it can hold a person steady until treatment, and community, take root. Rehabs.org lists free and low-cost treatment options in Colorado and nationwide for anyone ready to take that next step. Get in contact with a treatment specialist today by calling
800-914-7089
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