Inventory: 0
Points: 576.6
Mooched/given: 76/0
Pending mooch/give: 5/0

Wishlist: 2
Feedback: +0
Smooches: 1
Charitable gifts: 1
Charity received: 141
Friends: 4
Cancelled requests: 2
Books receiving lost: 5

Will send: only to my country
Joined: 2006/10/16
Last here: 5349 days ago
(possibly inactive)
Country: United States

Books in inventory: 0

INVENTORY >

Home page:
http://www.booksthroughbars.org/

Bio:
We believe a society of social and economic inequality leads to a cycle of crime and incarceration. We work to reverse the dehumanizing effects excessive punishment inflicts upon individuals, families and communities. Books Through Bars sends quality reading material to prisoners and encourages creative dialogue on the criminal justice system, thereby educating those living inside and outside of prison walls.

Prisoners are not able to receive donations of books from individuals. Friends and family members aren’t able to choose something from their own shelves to send to their loved ones. They aren’t even able to purchase something from a bookstore and send it with their own return address. Instead, prisons limit book packages to publishers, bookstores and “legitimate” book distributors.

Books Through Bars was founded in 1989 when an employee of New Society Publishers began receiving and answering book requests from indigent prisoners. At that time, he and several other employees of New Society Publishers received approximately 40 requests each month. Today, the group is comprised of 9 core collective members (including 1 of the original collective) and nearly 20 occasional volunteers, receives approximately 1000 letters each month, and has received grants from Bread and Roses Community Fund, Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative, Resist Inc., Womens Way, the Funding Exchange, and the Puffin Foundation. Originally sponsored by the New Society Educational Foundation, we recently received our own 501(c)3 status.