Books to Prisoners

@B2PSeattle

Books to Prisoners is a Seattle-area nonprofit that mails free books to prisoners in the United States. Literacy & communication since 1973.

Seattle, WA
bookstoprisoners.net
Joined April 2014
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  1. Pinned Tweet
    May 11

    What's going on in Ohio? Some clarifications. 5120-9-19 guides incoming mail. There are no official prohibitions on used books since, hypothetically, policy allows for any distributor (e.g., stores reselling used books or prison book programs stocking used books) to send.

    1 reply 8 retweets 15 likes
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  2. Retweeted
    53 minutes ago

    👉 Avem nevoie de câteva cărți în limba română! We need a few books in Romanian! Maria in AL needs them. (And you know the prison library doesn’t even have one 📕 în limba română...) See our profile for how to get *paperback* 🇷🇴📚 to us. Mulțumesc!

    2 retweets 1 like
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  3. Retweeted
    7 hours ago

    “He knew that while he was sitting in there, I was thinking about him. [The book] gave him hope,” ACLU of GA staff attorney Kosha Tucker says. Such hope is in short supply at Georgia prisons. Read it here:

    4 retweets 4 likes
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  4. Retweeted
    6 hours ago

    This Mothers’ Day, please consider donating books to young people in Illinois prisons & jails who are separated from their mothers & loved ones through incarceration. Order from our wishlist here:

    12 retweets 7 likes
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  5. 2 hours ago

    🤔🤔🤔

    Thanks to answer via DM I now have the Maricopa Co prison rules for receiving books - they MUST be ordered “directly through a publisher” - must it also be a publisher the jailers know the name of...?
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  6. Retweeted
    24 hours ago

    “I stayed in the [prison] law library. I read every book I got my hands on, whether it was law work or history." —Hassan Bennett

    3 replies 81 retweets 237 likes
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  7. Retweeted
    May 10

    Georgia prison libraries short on books and titles, AJC analysis finds

    3 replies 11 retweets 21 likes
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  8. Retweeted
    23 hours ago

    Nothing but respect

    3 replies 48 retweets 103 likes
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  9. Retweeted
    May 10

    The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections is considering revisions to its mail policy (5120-9-19) which would restrict prisoners to buying new books. please stop this change.

    6 retweets 3 likes
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  10. May 11

    "Those meager offerings aren’t for lack of demand...Their condition reflects their constant handling. A note in the March 2019 monthly summary at Phillips State Prison reported: 'If (inmates) do find a book or periodical they want, it is unbelievably worn and tattered.'”

    my first for the looks at disparities between prison libraries in Georgia. GA prisons get books mainly by donation so the quantity, quality, and ideology varies enormously depending on where you're incarcerated. consider donating at
    3 retweets 4 likes
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  11. Retweeted
    May 11

    This shit is wildly corrupt

    Right now, tablets are sold at Ohio prisons. Just as JPay controls deposits of money, JPay controls those tablets and the e-books being sold on them. The new ODRC Director worked at JPay directly before coming back to ODRC. Stop the JPay monopoly, keep access to free books.
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  12. May 11

    We don't want a return to the ambiguity and confusion of the last few years in Ohio prisons. We want a straightforward, standardized, transparent policy for books which ensures that prisoners can access free, used books at EVERY facility. It's time for change.

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  13. May 11

    Right now, tablets are sold at Ohio prisons. Just as JPay controls deposits of money, JPay controls those tablets and the e-books being sold on them. The new ODRC Director worked at JPay directly before coming back to ODRC. Stop the JPay monopoly, keep access to free books.

    1 reply 7 retweets 16 likes
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  14. May 11

    We have deep concerns about the direction that ODRC is headed with its policies for books. Prisoners cannot afford expensive new books. JPay takes up to 20% of every deposit for money placed onto a prisoner's account. Prisoners need other options for books at EVERY prison.

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  15. May 11

    Tell ODRC that you want a BETTER policy which standardizes access at all prisons. A policy eliminating the ability for a prison (like Chillicothe, above) to force prisoners to buy books through prisoner accounts. A policy allowing prison book programs to support prisoners.

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  16. May 11

    But this policy revision, should it come to pass, is still in its early stages. That's why we're asking for help. We can intervene in a way never before possible for prison book programs. Tell ODRC that the public WANTS access to continue for free, used books.

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  17. May 11

    We reached out this week directly to Ohio prisons and Ohio DRC headquarters. And more than one person was told that Ohio policy 5120-9-19 is in the early stages of revision. And that the revisions are strongly leading toward eliminating access to free, used books at all prisons.

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  18. May 11

    So now, book distributors like BTP Seattle & other prison book programs are all being treated differently in different prisons. Some books are getting through, some aren't. Sometimes, any book we send is considered "used" by virtue of our status as a distributor (not publisher).

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  19. May 11

    Prisons in Ohio have even been sued over their erratic and confusing book restrictions. In 2017, settled against the North Central Correctional Complex (a private Ohio DRC prison, operated by company MTC) over their scattered and restrictive policies.

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  20. May 11

    Ambiguous mail policies cause confusion for all involved. Ohio prisoners don't even know their own restrictions, and restrictions are always changing. Here's a letter from an Ohio prisoner just this month. He thinks used books are OK at Toledo. No. They've been banned since 2018.

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  21. May 11

    Other prisons in Ohio have gone further, not only ending access to used books, but requiring that prisoners pay for new books from their prisoner accounts--which means that families are placing money (with fees) into these accounts, in order for prisoners to receive books.

    1 reply 3 retweets 8 likes
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