(AP) Inmates at the state prison in Dallas, although they are paid only an average of 19 cents an hour for prison work, raised more than $1,700 to help some of the neediest victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The inmates said they wanted to show that prison life has not extinguished their humanity — or their patriotism. "We wanted to show we were human," said Michael Moore, who is serving 19 years to life on a second-degree murder conviction for his part in a robbery that turned deadly. "We wanted to show we still care." With some giving as little as 50. cents and one giving $100, some 950 inmates, roughly half of the prison’s population, donated funds that totaled $1,743 for the attack victims during the holiday season. Moore, the president of a prison group called the L.I.F.E. Association, started organizing the effort in September with the help of prison spokesman Kenneth Burnett. Inmates logged the amount of their donations and the prison administration deducted it from their prison accounts. The money was given to the Hands of Hope Ministries, a Wilkes-Barre based group. Moore said. Stan Hamilton, the director of the Hands ministry, said the funds won't go to "typical" families, but will go to those left in limbo because they might not have records, birth certificates or marriage licenses of the dead. "They were poor before 9-11," Hamilton said. "Their suffering will be tenfold.” Moore said he sought Hamilton’s ministry, which is helping 17 families that include 51 children, because he knew Hamilton would get the donations to families who truly needed them. Some of the families are illegal aliens, and many are widows who don’t work because they are raising young children. Hamilton said he found the families by going to New York after the attacks and scanning victims’ background informatiOn.