The following is information on prison book projects. Email me if you have any other information on book projects or if any of these are no longer in existance and I will change it.

http://www.angelfire.com/ms3/rememberme/books.html

Have any of you ever been involved in prison book/library projects? It sounds like something I would be interested in.

Monica,
This was a great link

Thanks!

Besides sending a copy of this list to my husband, I took a list to the local county jail so that the inmates serving their sentences there could also order books.

great list, thanks! this'll make a lotta people happy!

THANKS A LOT!!

SHERRI

You know, as I was reading about the book project, I was wondering if there was something that we could do to help prisoners like that. It could be anything from where we could provide stationary or stamps to prisoners who can't afford it, we could all take turns sending some when a request comes in...... I don't know. I think it would just be nice to be able to help someone else while just sitting here. You know, it is said that when you help someone else, it helps your healing.

Just thinking.......................

Joy

I would like to do something along these lines. I've been in touch with the county jail, because they seem more willing to work with me than the prison and it's also a lot closer. I am going to write a proposal for donating books to inmates or starting some sort of library. As it stands now, there's no law library access, even to state inmates.

The stationary and stamps is an excellent idea.

When you get the proposal done, send a copy here. I would like to see how you did it.

Joy

Iam interested in this too! let me know what you guys do..Joy I think your idea is terrific I am into doing this..keep me posted

It seems like the things that most inmates, from what I have read, only ask for help with stationary and stamps. I have been told that we cannot send stamps, only money orders for stamps. My question is, how much does the prison's charge for these stamps? Do they charge exactly what the stamps costs, or do they make money off of this too. Do each prisons have their own rules? or are the rules about the stamps across the board. My thoughts are racing on this and I am going to do something about it to help...I just need to get some research in. Can each one of you find out for sure the rules and regs about sending stamps or how much they cost from the commisary? I will go from their then.

I still would like a copy of how you wrote the proposal....

Also, any ideas...send forth please!!:)

Joy

great idea! I'm not sure, but I think that the prison only charges the correct amount of money for the stamps. But every prison has another rule. In some prisons you can send in seperate stamps, in others you have to send a book of stamps, another prison asks to send an envelop with address and stamps on, and other prisons just don't allow you to send in stamps. I'll ask around and post here what I find out. You can always write the prison to ask about their rules too,.

Excellent idea. I was hoping someone would do this. Let me know when you get a prison that will co-operate and I will donate books, stationary, pens, and stamps.

If Joy will make out a "model" proposal so people like me who are not good at versing projects can copy it. We can send it to our prisons of choice.

The is a box outside the visitation area where I visits for donations of books and magazine. Do they not have a box like this there?

no we do not have a box for that kind of stuff. Texas prisons are really strick and do not allow us to do stuff like that..

I WOULD BE INTERESTED IN THIS ALSO--KEEP ME IN THE LOOP

SHERRI

Hi,

I work with the prison book project called Books To Prisoners. I noticed that it appears in your list but it says that we require a $2 payment if books must be mailed first class. This is NOT true actually. We will send books to anyone who requests them (as long as the prison allows books to be sent in.)

If the inmate can send us stamps or a donation, that's great, but it's definitely not required.

Please feel free to send this address to any inmate you know of. We're sometimes behind in answering letters (up to 3 months occasionally) but we respond to every letter we receive. Ask the inmate to include their name, ID number, address, any restrictions (such as paperback only) and the type/subject of book they'd like to receive.

Thanks!
Gray

Books to Prisoners
c/o Left Bank Books
92 Pike Street, Box A
Seattle, WA 98101
Request by subject, no religious materials.

Thanks and the information has been updated. Could you please give more information on starting a project like yours and donating to your project (i.e. stamps, money, books)?

Thanks Gray!!

Hey!

To donate books, money, or volunteer support (if you're in the Seattle area), check out our website at http://btp.tao.ca.
The details are listed there along with other prison activist information.

Since most prisons accept only paperback books, we ask for donations of paperback books only. They can be either new or used. Our primary need is for dictionaries, Mexican/Hispanic history, Black/African-American history, and other non-fiction books, such as philosophy, psychology, general history, GED materials, math, science, vocational, etc.

Our program has been around since the early 1970s (we're an all-volunteer collective) so I can't give you specific details on how we started. However, I can recommend that you send mail to bookstoprisoners@cs.com or call (206) 622-0195 and leave a message asking your questions, and one of the long-standing members of the group should be able to answer them.

We have a couple off-shoots of Books To Prisoners in Olympic, WA and Portland, OR, so it is possible to start new programs.

Also, you might check with Books Through Bars at www.booksthroughbars.org. They're a prison books program in Pennsylvania.

Thanks and best of luck!

Gray

Thanks for sharing the information with us Gray.
I want to do this in my area. TEXAS

Any of you Texas PTO people have any free time? LOL
Want to give me some help and ideas? Does anyone already have a PO box set up?

I'm calling my pastor to see if my church will help me get this off the ground. (funds for postage to start off)

I have a 'ga-zillion' or so books I can get started with. LOL

Hey!

Best of luck starting your book program! Books To Prisoners receives books requests from all of the United States, but over half of our requests are from inmates in Texas.
There is a great need there from both the public and private prisons.

If you can hook up with a book store or book distributor, that will help a lot in starting your program. Many prisons only allow books from book distributors or bookstores, so if you can get a store to be a co-sponsor (or even if they let you use their address) that will get you a long way.

Also, if you can use your church or find another group to sponsor you as a non-profit (or if you get independent non-profit status yourself), it's much easier to get donations, funding, etc.

You can run a bare bones program on $8,000-$10,000 per year (if you can find a rent-free location to work out of). And note that Books To Prisoners receive 600-800 letters per month as a long-standing program. You probably won't receive quite as many when you start-up, but you'll be amazed and how many requests you will get once the word gets around.

Good luck!

Gray

Thanks again for the valuable information, but mostly thanks for your tireless efforts of providing books to inmates.

Here's a link for prisons that will accept book donations directly to their libraries. It's got some good information.

http://prisonpenpals.net/booksbehindbars.html

Excellent Link. It gave me some ideas that I have been working on with stamps and stationary for inmates. (yes, I am still working on that, but the prisons are so stubborn!!)

Anyway, I noticed there was one prison listen in Louisiana, St. Martinville. Juan was there for a while. He was just transfered out of there a couple of weeks ago. This prison is one of the places that INS contracts with and is a "long term" holding facility for INS detainees. That is why they are requesting books in Spanish. There are a lot of Cubans there.

what if you contact the library and ask if you can send them old books? would they accept/

Thats a good link I just found out the other day that they had libraries in prisons.

What a great website, Danielle!

I've got over 7 boxes of books that I've read just sitting in my garage! I noticed that there is The Xena Society here in California. I will contact them to see what the criteria is for sending books. I'll post the info when I get it.

Thanks again for the URL Danielle :)