Books to Prisoners is an umbrella term for several projects and organizations that mail free reading material to prison inmates. The first Books to Prisoners project was founded in Seattle, Washington, USA in 1973. There are approximately twenty similar projects in the United States and Canada. In keeping with the anarchist cultural roots of the project there is no centralized organization, and each group runs autonomously.
These projects accept donations of books from bookstores and individuals. Each project solicits letters from prisoners requesting books, usually by genre or by naming a preferred author. Project volunteers read the letters, and reply with a few books taken from the project's collection. There is no cost to prisoners.
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 place for donations, and sometimes a small supply of books as well. Postage for mailing the books is a major expense that must be met through donations.
Often-requested materials include dictionaries, how-to books, educational books, and historical works, especially those focusing on African-American, Latino, and Native American history.
Famous quotes containing the words books and/or prisoners:
“All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse, and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was. If you can get so that you can give that to people, then you are a writer.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“We are all conceived in close prison; in our mothers’ wombs, we are close prisoners all; when we are born, we are born but to the liberty of the house; prisoners still, though within larger walls; and then all our life is but a going out to the place of execution, to death.”
—John Donne (c. 1572–1631)