What’s in a Name? How Inmate Create got it’s name.

When we were first kicking around what to call this concept of “an online sales platform for incarcerated artists”, we had a whole bunch of crazy ideas. I ran across a scrap of paper the other day listing what we started with and it made me smile thinking about what goes into picking a name…

“T-SHIRT WEBSITE IDEAS”

CellBlockThreads

ByTheBlock

ConvictCreative

DesignInside

InmateCreate

CellBlockSwag

CreatedBy

InvisibleInk

InsideArt

It’s fun to remember where we started. Some ideas are better than others, but ultimately the decision came down to something my aunt said: What’s the most obvious description for what you’re doing?

Umm, well… Helping INMATES who are CREATING stuff, so… Inmate Create! Sometimes, simple is best. (Thanks, aunty!)

Seeing this list makes me think about all the different terms used by society to refer to “prisoners”:

• “Inmate” is probably the most common in colloquial usage. That’s why we chose “InmateCreate.com”, because it’s direct and basic.

• “Incarcerated Person” comes from a movement in recent years among advocates and academics to use “personning” language. The intent is to counteract the dehumanizing aspect of incarceration that labels people as “prisoners” and makes it easier to abuse them. I applaud the idea behind this movement even though the trendy terms are a bit clunky to say and write!

• “Convict” is what we [ people in prison ; ) ] call ourselves. In our world there is a lot of loaded meaning behind the words “Inmate”, ” Prisoner”, “Jailbird”… etc. To most men behind bars, a CONVICT is a person who stands tall and lives up to a code that demands respect. To me it means that I face the reality that I was convicted of a crime (whether justly or not) and that I have the power to choose how I respond.

My CONVICTION to shine light out of darkness is what inspired the formation of Inmate Create.

What do you stand for?