Lifers at State Correctional Institution at Dallas raised $1,743 to aid victims of Sept. 11 terror attacks. JACKSON TWP. — The bars caging Michael Moore in his prison cell couldn’t hold him from extending a helping hand to suffering people. The towering 6-foot-7-inch Philadelphia man has served 19 years of a life sentence on a second-degree murder conviction for his role in a robbery that turned deadly. But once the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks hit, he and about 950 other inmates felt the urge to help — and show they still have a heart despite the acts that landed them in jail. "We wanted to show we were human," Moore said Saturday in the visiting room at the State Correctional Institution at Dallas. "We wanted to show we still care." On Wednesday, Moore and the other members of the prison’s L.I.F.E. Association Board presented a check for $1,743 donated to Stan Hamilton, director of the Wilkes-Barre-based Hands of Hope Ministeries. The inmates logged the amount of their donations and prison administration deducted it from their accounts. The inmates average 19 cents an hour for their work at the prison, equalling about $30 per month, Moore said. The funds won't go to "typical" families, Hamilton said. His ministry will help families left in limbo because they might not have records, birth certificates or marriage licenses of the dead. Some of the families are illegal aliens. Many are widows who don't work because they are raising young children. "They were poor before 9-11," Hamilton said. "Their suffering will be tenfold." Moore, president of the L.I.F.E. Association, began the fund-raiser in late September after learning inmates at the Waymart state prison collected about $500 for attack victims. Moore had the association's public relations officers petition 1,900 inmates at the prison. About half of them kicked in. Some gave 50 cents. Others 5 or 10 bucks. And one inmate donated $100. "Just because they're locked up doens't mean they lost their patriotism," said prison spokesman Kenneth Burnett, who worked with the campagin. "So, they were wondering what they could do." The money will aid three families, including Angela Fields. The 35-year-old widow is pregnant, and already as four children, ages 3 to 11, to support. Her husband, Samuel, was working as a security guard on the second floor of one of the towers when the attacks hit. He got out safely, only to run back into the burning building to help others. He never made it back out. His body was found about two weeks ago, Hamilton said. The donations will help keep Fields on her feet in the short term, like providing day care and grocery funds, and for future expenses, like her children's education. Hamilton also hopes the money will help her move out of her dirty, drug-riddled Harlem neighborhood. Hamilton found the families by going to New York after the attacks. There, he scanned victims' background information. He looked to help the families of porters and dishwasters - not firefighters or police officers, whom he figured would get plenty of help from other organizations. "We took the bizarre cases that are going to have trouble." Hamilton said. "We were dealing with what no one else wants to deal with." Moore said he sought Hamilton's ministry, which is helping 17 families that include 51 children, because he knew Hamilton would ge the donations to families who truly needed them. The inmates' efforts showed a side of them many people fail to see - that they are humans and feel the victims' agony, Hamilton said. "I don't know what they did," Hamilton said. "I'm not the judge. Whatever they did, now they're paying for it. But they eeked out enough dignity." Moore agreed. He was jailed after someone else stabbed and killed the victim of a robery he was involved in. He described most lifers as "good guys who made a mistake." "We accept responsibility for our past," Moore said. "We need to show society we are compassionate."