How do I start a books to prisoners project in my community?
The first thing that you'll have to do is to find a local bookstore or publisher to partner with your project. All of the prisons and jails that we know of only allow books to be sent from a bookstore or publisher. So, in order to get books to incarcerated people, you will have to operate under that bookstore or publisher. In our case, we partner with Boxcar Books.
There is a national listserve for people involved with books to prisoners projects. This is a good resource for advice about starting a project and to get an idea about the concerns and practices involved with running a project. You can find out more information about this mailing list here.
Finally, if you're able, come and visit us in Bloomington and volunteer for a day. You'll be able to see how we do things and pick the brains of our volunteers. Information about volunteering with us is available on our volunteering page.
