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 group 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]
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 of Washington. This includes state correctional institutions and programs for people supervised in the community. Its headquarters are in Tumwater, Washington.
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 slaves 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.
A conjugal visit is a scheduled period in which an inmate of a prison or jail is permitted to spend several hours or days in private with a visitor. The visitor is usually their legal spouse. The generally recognized basis for permitting such visits in modern times is to preserve family bonds and increase the chances of success for a prisoner's eventual return to ordinary life after release from prison. They also provide an incentive for inmates to comply with the various day-to-day rules and regulations of the prison.
CoreCivic, formerly the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), is a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers and operates others on a concession basis. Co-founded in 1983 in Nashville, Tennessee by Thomas W. Beasley, Robert Crants, and T. Don Hutto, it received investments from the Tennessee Valley Authority, Vanderbilt University, and Jack C. Massey, the founder of Hospital Corporation of America.
The Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) is the government agency responsible for community corrections and operating prisons and correctional facilities in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The agency is fully accredited by the American Correctional Association and is one of the oldest functioning correctional agencies in the United States. Its headquarters is located in the state capital of Richmond.
The GEO Group, Inc. (GEO) is a publicly traded C corporation that invests in private prisons and mental health facilities in North America, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, the company's facilities include illegal immigration detention centers, minimum security detention centers, and mental-health and residential-treatment facilities. It also operates government-owned facilities pursuant to management contracts. As of December 31, 2021, the company managed and/or owned 86,000 beds at 106 facilities. In 2019, agencies of the federal government of the United States generated 53% of the company's revenues. Up until 2021 the company was designated as a real estate investment trust, at which time the board of directors elected to reclassify as a C corporation under the stated goal of reducing the company's debt.
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 Missouri State Penitentiary was a prison in Jefferson City, Missouri, that operated from 1836 to 2004. Part of the Missouri Department of Corrections, it served as the state of Missouri's primary maximum security institution. Before it closed, it was the oldest operating penal facility west of the Mississippi River. It was replaced by the Jefferson City Correctional Center, which opened on September 15, 2004.
Management & Training Corporation or MTC is a contractor that manages private prisons and United States Job Corps centers, based in Centerville, Utah. MTC's core businesses are corrections, education and training, MTC medical, and economic & social development. MTC operates 21 correctional facilities in eight states. MTC also operates or partners in operating 22 of the 119 Job Corps centers across the country. They also operate in Great Britain, under the name MTCNovo.
Corizon Health, Inc., formed by a 2011 merger of Correctional Medical Services, Inc. (CMS) and Prison Health Services, Inc. (PHS) and currently operating under the names YesCare and Tehum, is a privately held prison healthcare contractor in the United States. The company provides healthcare and pharmacy services (PharmaCorr) to approximately 28 clients in 15 U.S. states, including 139 state prisons, municipal jails, and other facilities. Serving over 115,000 inmates, Corizon Health offers dental, mental health, optometry services, and substance abuse treatment as well as general healthcare. The company is headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee.
Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women is a prison operated by the Virginia Department of Corrections. It has a Troy postal address, and is in unincorporated Fluvanna County, about 55 miles (89 km) northwest of Richmond. The security level 3 facility housed 1,199 female inmates as of June 2008, including formerly housing the women's death row for the Commonwealth of Virginia.
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.
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.
Rivers Correctional Institution is a privately owned prison in unincorporated Hertford County, North Carolina, operated by GEO Group under contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons since its construction in 2001. The prison, on 257 acres (104 ha) of land, was specially built to house prisoners from the District of Columbia. It is about 1 mile (1.6 km) from the town of Winton and about 200 miles (320 km) from Washington, DC.
Dooly State Prison (DSP) is a medium security facility located in Unadilla, Georgia, United States. The complex began its construction in 1993 and opened in 1994. It houses male inmates who are not suitable for a county prison due to their offense or physical limitations, primarily sex offenders. It can house up to 1702 prisoners in dorms that are triple bunks, double bunks, with some single beds. There is a separate unit for incorrigible inmates.
Marshall County Correctional Center (MCCF) is a prison in Holly Springs, Marshall County, Mississippi, operated by the Mississippi Department of Corrections. It was formerly a for-profit prison managed by Management and Training Corporation (MTC) on behalf of MDOC.
Chicago Books to Women in Prison (CBWP) is an all volunteer based non-profit organization that provides used books to educate incarcerated women. CBWP is a Chicago based organization currently working in the basement of Ravenswood Fellowship United Methodist Church. The basement of this church holds a collection of over 8,000 books dedicated to be sent to women in correctional institutions in over 40 states.