They don’t like the practice, Nancy says, because it strips those incarcerated of their names and individuality, but it offers a reminder “that there are people there that need me.”

The Everetts are adamant that “Everybody in prison is a human being and has a story,” according to Nancy. For decades, the couple have made it their life’s work to hear those stories and to be the inmates’ voices outside the prison walls.

Through volunteer visitation programs like the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Walter, a retired Methodist pastor, and Nancy, a retired juvenile prison counselor, make regular visits to nearby prisons and exchange correspondence with incarcerated individuals across the country. They’re also advocates against the death penalty who led a successful campaign to abolish the punishment in Rhode Island.

“A lot of people say I could never visit somebody in prison, to which I say, it’s not hard,” Walter says. “All you have to do is actively listen. They need somebody who cares enough to listen.”

It’s work they embarked on after their lives were touched by the criminal justice system in the most intimate way.