When Alec McGail’s younger brother was sentenced to 24 years to life in prison, he didn’t know it’d spark a unique business idea: magazines customized to inmates’ individual interests, delivered monthly to each subscriber.
“Since my brother Patrick first went to jail in 2014, our parents have been constantly printing and sending him resources from the internet. They’d find and mail him full books that were available for free, articles about finance, definitions of words, puzzles, lyrics to songs, guitar tabs and anything else they could find,” McGail writes on his website. “You can imagine that this has been very helpful to him.”
McGail collaborated with his brother, whom he calls his “man on the inside,” to create CheckIt Publications.
“He was the one who told me there was this demand,” McGail told the Recorder, explaining the limits inmates face when trying to keep up with the outside world.
Subscriptions start around $10 per month, and McGail said there’s a variety of content available. New subscribers receive a 150-question survey to gauge their interests, so each issue of the magazine can be individually tailored.
McGail said he’s currently limited by copyright laws, but he’s able to offer Wikipedia articles, flashcards, puzzles, literature that’s in the public domain, photos from Flickr and more. Puzzles and flashcards are available in different levels of difficulty, and many of the components are available in languages besides English. As the company grows, McGail plans to use revenue to acquire rights to more content that can be published in the magazines.
McGail said so far, the inmates who are receiving the magazines have responded positively, but he is still working to get the word out. Inmates can’t subscribe themselves — someone on the outside has to sign them up — McGail said, which has slowed subscriptions. In fact, he said enough money has been donated to fund a couple dozen free trials, but he hasn’t been able to match those trials to interested inmates yet.
Family members and friends can subscribe their incarcerated loved ones at checkitpublications.com, and anyone who wants to contribute but doesn’t have a specific inmate in mind can donate funds toward subscriptions.
