The books to prisoners program provides books to Illinois inmates at no cost. It offers books by mail to all Illinois inmates and operates lending libraries in our the two local county jails. All the books the program sends out are donated by community members, and the program is solely run by volunteers. Books sales and other fundraising events help cover the cost of postage to mail the books off to the prisoners.
Volunteers primarily interact with the inmates by reading their letters, selecting books from a collection of donated materials, writing back to the inmates, and shipping those books directly to the inmates in response to their requests. Responses are left anonymous, meaning you sign "from a volunteer", rather than your real name. Requests range from specific titles or authors, to genres, to subjects or topics. You don't have to be too knowledgeable about books in order to volunteer. Other tasks such as managing volunteers, coordinating book donations and fund raising, entering information into a database, and participating in other education and outreach or technical tasks are needed as well.
I went for the first time last Saturday, and had a great experience. I read the prisoners letters, found some books off the shelf, and wrote back to them. Other clerical tasks like computer work, shelving books, checking parole dates, and shipping off packages are also needed. I wasn't 100% sure that the books I was sending the prisoners were actually what they were looking for, but that didn't seem to matter. All of the letters I responded to were from people who wanted to make the best of their time in prison. They wanted to educate themselves so they would have a future with skills and knowledge to put to use when they were finally released. The books I sent out were on topics such as business, finance, economics, real estate, sociology, and psychology. Others dealt with religion and topics regarding around self help.
A different male volunteer asked me how I got started with this organization and why I wanted to volunteer. I was able to share a little about our SOS goal as a relief society. I asked him the same question, and his response startled me. This particular gentleman used to be a recipient of the books to prisoners program. He wrote to volunteers like me when he was incarcerated and it changed his life. He mentioned that a lot of the prisoners don't receive any letters or correspondence, not even from family members. The fact that someone actually read their letters and responded by hand to them brightened up their day. It proved that someone outside of the jail facility knew who they were and cared enough to respond. This reassured me that it doesn't really matter what books recommendations I make; the receiver is grateful to actually get books they can call their own, and to make a pen pal friend. Plus, they could use their time trying to make their lives better.
The volunteer center is located at the bottom of the post office in Urbana at 202 S. Broadway (next to Lincoln Square Mall). Volunteer sessions are:
7:00-9:00 PM Tuesdays
2:00-4:00 PM Thursdays
2:00-4:00 PM Saturdays.
You can also help re shelve books at the prison libraries. I haven't done this yet, but plan to when school lets out for the summer. Those hours are:
6:00-9:00 PM Monday
9:00 AM-Noon Friday
1:00-4:00 PM Friday
For more information you can visit their website at: http://www.books2prisoners.org/volunteer.php
Finally, the books to prisoners program is having a book sale to raise money for postage. Stacks and stacks of books are waiting to be shipped to the prisoners, but are on hold because they have no funds. Money raised from these book sales also goes to purchasing dictionaries because those are the most requested book from the prisoners and they never have enough. If you have any books or dictionaries that you don't want, drop them off in the books to prisoners donation boxes. They can be found in business and libraries around town.
Book sale information:
April 16-18 at 202 S. Broadway, Urbana
Friday 4-8 pm; Saturday 8-5 pm, and Sunday 10am-2pm.
$.50 for soft covers, $1.00 for hardbacks, bag sale Sunday - fill a bag for $4.00.
Help spread the word
If you have other questions or want to know more about what I did or my thoughts about the program, you can contact me.
Brittney Richards
Thank you for sharing Brittney! What a wonderful thing you were able to do!
