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Title: Books To Prisoners Project Author: Anonymous Date: 1994 Language: en Topics: prisoner support,Books to Prisoners Source: Alternative Press Review, Spring-Summer 1994, vol. 1, no. 3, page 17 Notes: Scanned from original.
As the total number of prisoners in the United States approaches one
million, the demand for literature in prisons is skyrocketing. In
response, the Books To Prisoners Project, an all-volunteer,
collectively-run distribution service, sends books free on request to
incarcerated people in Washington state and across the U.S. But the
project always needs help with its mission.
Books To Prisoners is one of only four groups performing this service
nationwide. (Other programs exist in Philadelphia, Boston and San
Francisco in the U.S., as well as in Vancouver, Canada.) Kris, who has
been involved with the collective for six years, says that when she
started the project received just under 50 letters a month. By December
of last year the mail volume was already up to 500 requests per month
and growing. Since all books distributed and all funds used are donated,
there is clearly an increasing need for more books and monetary
donations in order to provide a good selection of books to all those
requesting them.
The Books To Prisoners collective is always looking for publishers,
distributors and individuals willing to donate books. Any books, new or
used, are accepted, though, according to collective members it's hardest
to get current, up-to-date books. One collective member, Dan,
emphasizes, We get a lot of old books. The only law book we have is from
1975. It's really hard to get recent books." Steve, another collective
member who has been working on the project for five years now,
emphasizes that: "We used to send out three books to everybody who
wrote." Now the project needs to be more frugal with both books and
postage.
The collective is eager to accept donations of zines and magazines as
well. Any publishers with left over magazines or back issues, are
welcome to send them to BTP for distribution. And, of course, the
project is also looking for monetary donations to help offset postage
costs. Even sending the books at the 69 cents per pound library rate,
postage costs alone can easily approach $300 per week.
Book and magazine donations are tax deductible. Occasionally, people
have donated their entire book collections to the BTP project. Publisher
Chaz Bufe and Pressure Drop Press have both donated large numbers of
books. And the project regularly gets extra copies of the newsletter
Prison Legal News.
The actual titles that are sent to prisoners are largely determined by
the requests that are received for subject areas and types of books.
Topping the list of requests, according to collective members, are
dictionaries, books on black history, basic grammar, GED books, native
American books, and books on philosophy, psychology and foreign
languages, as well as anarchism and politics. One of the most requested
single titles is the ACLU's Rights of Prisoners book. And legal books in
general are always in high demand.
Avram, who has been involved with BTP for two years and who is writing a
pamphlet about prison rape, says, "It would be cool to send info out
that deals with sexism...We send out thousands of books to people who
are rapists or who have been raped." And Kris adds, "Yeah, it would be
nice to be able to send more books out to people about issues...rather
than just sending novels."
Unfortunately, some prisons won't allow used books to be sent to
inmates, and some prisons refuse all hardcover books. Another collective
member, Lori, who has been working with BTP for three years, adds that
"A lot of prisons won't let us send in photocopies" either. And, of
course, prison censorship can take many forms. The most censored zine so
far has been the Moorish Science Monitor. Lori adds that, "Especially in
a prison where we can't get any books to individual prisoners, we'll
send them two or three boxes to their library, but we make them pay for
the postage at least."
The project has been operating now for 13 years, since the early '80s.
Like any other all-volunteer project the amount of work that gets done
can vary with the number of people involved and their level of
commitment. But right now, the project has an especially good,
well-functioning collective that meets once a week.
Books to Prisoners Project
Box A, 92 Pike Street
Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 324-8647