My name is Heather Pirtle, and I never imagined that I would one day become the founder and president of FIRST-Network, a nonprofit that supports federally incarcerated individuals and their families.
This journey began because of my husband, Don V. Pirtle.
When someone you love enters the federal prison system, your entire family enters a world you never expected to be part of. Suddenly, you are trying to understand BOP policies, facility rules, visitation, CorrLinks, medical care, First Step Act time credits, halfway house placement, home confinement, release planning—and an overwhelming number of acronyms nobody ever explains.
You search online for answers, but the information is often outdated, incomplete, or different from one federal prison facility to another. Calls may go unanswered. Emails may receive no response. Even worse, asking the same question in three different places can result in three completely different answers.
Meanwhile, the person you love is counting on you to help figure it all out from the outside.
I know that feeling because I lived it.
From a Federal Prison Wife to an Advocate
Being a federal prison wife changed me. It opened my eyes to a system most people know very little about until they suddenly have to navigate it themselves.
Throughout Don’s journey, I saw incarcerated individuals and their families struggle to find accurate information, get others to take their concerns seriously, and understand what should happen next. I also witnessed racial disparities firsthand through our experience as a biracial family. Once I saw these realities, I could not simply look away.
But I also began to see something else: our family was not alone.
Across the country, people were asking the same questions and experiencing many of the same problems. Families were reporting concerns involving federal prison medical care, food quality, housing conditions, lockdowns, staff conduct, visitation, First Step Act credits, halfway house placement, home confinement, and preparation for release.
Too often, people treated each experience like an isolated incident.
That is when I began to understand that individual stories needed to become something more.
Why I Created FIRST-Network
In 2023, I founded FIRST-Network—Federal Inmates Requesting Sanctioned Treatment Network.
I created FIRST-Network to give federally incarcerated individuals and their loved ones a place to find information, connect with resources, report concerns, and know that someone is documenting their experiences.
We do more than share posts or discuss what is happening. Through FIRST-REPORT, we collect real-time reports from inside and outside Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities across the country. Those reports help us identify recurring problems, compare experiences across facilities, and document patterns that may otherwise remain invisible.
Officials may dismiss one report as an isolated incident. When similar reports begin coming from multiple people or multiple federal prisons, a pattern starts to emerge.
That is the foundation of our work:
Reality → Documentation → Data → Evidence → Action → Change
FIRST-Network Is Not “Us Versus the BOP”
At FIRST-Network, we do not believe every person working within the Federal Bureau of Prisons is bad or that nothing positive ever happens inside a BOP facility.
We believe in recognizing the positive, giving credit where credit is due, and sharing examples of facilities and staff members doing things well. Those examples matter because they show what is possible.
At the same time, meaningful change requires honesty. When incarcerated people and their families repeatedly experience problems with medical treatment, living conditions, communication, earned time credits, or release preparation, those concerns should not disappear simply because no one knows where to report them.
Accountability and cooperation can exist together. Our goal is to help identify problems, encourage solutions, and support improvements that benefit incarcerated individuals, their families, BOP employees, and our communities.
You Do Not Have to Navigate This Alone
If you are new to the federal prison system, I want you to know something I desperately needed to hear at the beginning:
You are not the only one who feels confused, frustrated, scared, or completely overwhelmed.
No one expects you to understand every policy or acronym today. Most importantly, you should never feel embarrassed for asking questions. And you should never feel embarrassed for asking questions.
FIRST-Network exists because families need information, but they also need to know someone understands what this journey feels like.
Whether you are currently incarcerated, love someone in federal prison, have already made it through this experience, work in reentry or advocacy, or simply believe the system can do better—you have a place here.
Read our resources. Share your experiences. Submit a FIRST-Report. Participate in the conversation. Tell another family about us.
None of us will solve this alone. But together, we can turn individual experiences into a collective voice—and that voice can help create real change.
Heather Pirtle
Founder and President, FIRST-Network
#BeTheirVoice
See a concern like this?
Document a facility issue in two minutes. Anonymous options available.
