Books to Prisoners is an umbrella term for organizations that mail free reading material to prison inmates.
Books to Prisoners is an umbrella term for organizations that mail free reading material to prison inmates.
The first Books to Prisoners projects were founded in the early 1970s. These included Seattle's Books to Prisoners, Boston's Prison Book Program, and the Prison Library Project which was founded in Durham, North Carolina but relocated to Claremont, California in 1986. Since then, dozens of prison book programs have been established, although many have had short life-spans. Currently there are more than fifty similar projects in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. [1] The groups communicate about common issues and solutions through a listserv created in 2006 [2] and have held national and regional conferences, including a 2003 conference in Philadelphia, PA, a 2007 conference in Urbana-Champaign, IL, and a 2019 conference in Boston, MA. [3] In keeping with the anarchist cultural roots of the concept, each group is autonomous though they frequently collaborate on common challenges, especially prison book restrictions and book bans.
Books to Prisoners programs have a diverse range of political affiliations. Many groups identify as anarchist or abolitionist. Others are nonpolitical and simply promote education and literacy. Some are religious. Some groups serve specific populations and focus on gender, sexuality, or race. [4]
Books to prisoners programs generally accept donations of books from publishers, bookstores, and individuals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when processing donated books was impractical, many groups launched wish lists at independent bookstores where supporters could buy in-demand books which were later sent to prisoners. Each project solicits book requests from incarcerated people, usually by genre or by naming a preferred author. Often-requested materials include dictionaries, how-to books, educational books, and historical works, especially those focusing on African-American, Latino, and Native American history. [5] Project volunteers or workers fill the requests by sending a few books taken from the project's library. There is no cost to book recipients.
Generally, volunteers answer letters, mail packages, and complete administrative work. Many of the projects are affiliated with a local independent bookstore in their home city, which provides a drop-off location for donations and sometimes a small supply of books as well.
Prison book groups continuously struggle to fulfill their mission in the face of prison book bans, which constitute the largest area of book censorship in the United States. [6] In 2018, Mississippi-based prison book group Big House Books sued the Mississippi Department of Corrections over an all-encompassing ban on non-religious books; the lawsuit was dropped after the Department of Corrections agreed to allow Big House Books to continue sending free books to Mississippi prisons. [7] Also in 2018, the state of New York issued Directive 4911A in an attempt to restrict the books available to prisoners at three of its prisons; after public outcry and media attention, garnered in part through the efforts of New York City-based prison book group Books Through Bars, the directive was rescinded. [8] In 2019, the Washington Department of Corrections banned the shipment of used books directly to prisoners. After facing public criticism and pushback from Seattle Books to Prisoners, the Washington DOC partially backed down and allowed shipments from four BTP programs to continue. [9]
There are dozens of Books to Prisoners organizations in the US, Canada, and the UK. [10]
Great Falls Books Through Bars, Greenfield, MA
Prison Book Program, Quincy, MA
Books Behind Bars, Wildwood, NJ
Books Beyond Bars, New York, NY
Buffalo Books Through Bars, Buffalo, NY
NYC Books Through Bars, New York, NY
Prison Books Project, Beacon, NY
Saxapahaw Prison Books, Brooklyn, NY
Pittsburgh Prison Book Project, Pittsburgh, PA
Books Through Bars, Philadelphia, PA
Providence Books Through Bars, Providence, RI
Books to Prisons, Birmingham, AL
DC Books to Prisons Project, Washington, DC
Gainesville Books to Prisoners, Gainesville, FL
Open Books Prison Book Project, Pensacola, FL
X Books, Atlanta, GA
Louisville Books to Prisoners, Louisville, KY
Louisiana Books 2 Prisoners, New Orleans, LA
Big House Books, Jackson, MS
Asheville Prison Books Program, Asheville, NC
NC Women's Prison Book Project, Durham, NC
Prison Books Collective Publishing and Distribution, Carrboro, NC
Tranzmission Prison Project, Asheville, NC
OK Prison Books Collective, Tulsa, OK
Tennessee Prison Books Project, Nashville, TN
Inside Books, Austin, TX
Books Behind Bars, Charlottesville, VA
Virginia Tech Prison Book Program, Blacksburg, VA
Appalachian Prison Book Project, Morgantown, WV
Chicago Books to Women in Prison, Chicago, IL
Liberation Library, Chicago, IL
Midwest Books to Prisoners, Chicago, IL
Reading Reduces Recidivism, Carbondale, IL
Urbana-Champaign Books to Prisoners Project, Urbana, IL
Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project, Bloomington, IN
Unitarian Universalist Ann Arbor Prison Books, Ann Arbor, MI
Women's Prison Book Project, Minneapolis, MN
Liberation Lit, Kansas City, MO
Missouri Prison Books, St. Louis, MO
Lincoln Prison Book Project, Lincoln, NE
Antioch College's Prison Justice Library, Yellow Springs, OH
Athens Books to Prisoners, Athens, OH
Redbird Books to Prisoners, Columbus, OH
LGBT Books to Prisoners, Madison, WI
Wisconsin Books to Prisoners, Madison, WI
Read Between The Bars, Tucson, AZ
Books for Prisoners at UCSD, San Diego, CA
Pages and Time, Los Angeles, CA
Prison Library Project, Claremont, CA
Prisoners Literature Project, San Francisco, CA
US Davis Books to Prisoners, Sacramento, CA
Pages for Prisons, Boulder, CO
Portland Books to Prisoners, Portland, OR
Rogue Liberation Library, Ashland, OR
Books to Prisoners, Seattle, WA
Books to Prisoners Olympia, Olympia, WA
Books to prisoners Spokane, Spokane, WA
Lopez Island Books to Prisoners, Lopez Island, WA
US Virgin Is/ St Croix Prison Library Project, Christiansted, VI
Books 2 Prisoners, Vancouver, BC
Books Beyond Bars, Halifax, NS
Books 2 Prisoners Ottawa, Ottawa, ON
Open Door Books, Montreal, PQ
Prisoner Correspondence Project, Montreal, PQ
Haven Distribution Books to Prisoners, London
Urbana is a city in and the county seat of Champaign County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, Urbana had a population of 38,336. It is a principal city of the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, which had 236,000 residents in 2020.
The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) is a state agency of Mississippi that operates prisons. It has its headquarters in Jackson. As of 2020 Burl Cain is the commissioner.
The Washington State Department of Corrections (WADOC) is a department of the government of the State of Washington. WADOC is responsible for administering adult corrections programs operated by the state. This includes state correctional institutions and programs for people supervised in the community. Its headquarters are in Tumwater, Washington.
Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum-security prison for men operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the village of Ossining, New York, United States. It is about 30 miles (48 km) north of Midtown Manhattan on the east bank of the Hudson River. It holds about 1,700 inmates as of 2007, and housed the execution chamber for the State of New York for a period, with the final execution there occurring in 1963; instead Green Haven Correctional Facility had the execution chamber by the late 20th Century. The total abolition of capital punishment in New York occurred in 2007.
Justin Winsor was an American writer, librarian, and historian. His historical work had strong bibliographical and cartographical elements. He was an authority on the early history of North America and was elected the first president of the American Library Association as well as the third president of the American Historical Association.
The Louisiana State Penitentiary is a maximum-security prison farm in Louisiana operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is named "Angola" after the former slave plantation that occupied this territory. The plantation was named after the country of Angola, from which many enslaved people originated before arriving in Louisiana.
Mississippi State Penitentiary (MSP), also known as Parchman Farm, is a maximum-security prison farm located in the unincorporated community of Parchman in Sunflower County, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region. Occupying about 28 square miles (73 km2) of land, Parchman is the only maximum security prison for men in the state of Mississippi, and is the state's oldest prison.
Marc Bell is a Canadian cartoonist and artist. He was initially known for creating comic strips, but Bell has also created several exhibitions of his mixed media work and watercoloured drawings. Hot Potatoe [sic], a monograph of his work, was released in 2009. His comics have appeared in many Canadian weeklies, Vice, and LA Weekly. He has been published in numerous anthologies, such as Kramers Ergot and The Ganzfeld.
The School of Information Sciences, also The iSchool at Illinois, is an undergraduate and graduate school at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign. Its Master of Science in Library and Information Science is currently accredited in full good standing by the American Library Association. The school is a charter member of the iSchool initiative.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails, and private correctional facilities, funding and certain oversight of community supervision, and supervision of offenders released from prison on parole or mandatory supervision. The TDCJ operates the largest prison system in the United States.
The Federal Correctional Institution, Marianna is a medium-security United States federal prison for male inmates in Marianna, Florida. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. The facility also includes an adjacent satellite prison camp for minimum-security female offenders. It lies adjacent to the Marianna Municipal Airport.
The Combat Paper is a project formed to help veterans cope with experiences in the war. It was based out of the Green Door Studio in Burlington, Vermont, in the United States. Their processes include making paper out of their old uniforms to then create art on them as well as many other creative outlets for them to connect to fellow veterans. They have exhibits and workshops available to further expand their knowledge as well as connect on a more national level with others.
Alexander Demitri "Alex" Shimkin was an American war correspondent who was killed in the Vietnam War. He is notable for his investigation of non-combatant casualties in Operation Speedy Express.
Libraries are provided in many prisons. Reading materials are provided in almost all federal and state correctional facilities in the United States. Libraries in federal prisons are controlled by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Department of Justice. State prison libraries are controlled by each state's own department of corrections. Many local jails also provide library services through partnerships with local public libraries and community organizations. These resources may be limited, mostly provided through government sources.
The Mortenson Center for International Library Programs was created in 1991 with a gift from C. Walter and Gerda B. Mortenson to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Center promotes international peace through library training programs.
In most jurisdictions, prison inmates are forbidden from possessing mobile phones due to their ability to communicate with the outside world and other security issues. Mobile phones are one of the most smuggled items into prisons. They provide inmates the ability to make and receive unauthorized phone calls, send email and text messages, use social media, and follow news pertaining to their case, among other forbidden uses.
The Stamps Family Charitable Foundation offers merit scholarships to 44 partner colleges and universities in the United States. The foundation and scholarships are named for their benefactors, E. Roe Stamps IV and Penelope W. Stamps. In general, in the scholarship programs focus on the support of outstanding undergraduate students, without regard to need or program of study.
The Women's Prison Book Project (WPBP) is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization that provides free books to women, trans, and nonbinary people who are incarcerated in state and federal prisons across the United States. The organization is based in Minneapolis, MN.