Books to Prisoners

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Books To Prisoners

A 100% Volunteer Not-for-Profit Project

Please help us send FREE books to men and women behind bars

Since 1979 Books to Prisoners has provided free books to inmates

all across the USA. Please join our cause.

"Contrary to popular belief, conventional wisdom would have one believe that it is insane to resist this, the mightiest of empires.... But what history really shows is that today's empire is tomorrow's ashes, that nothing lasts forever, and that to not resist is to acquiesce in your own oppression. The greatest form of sanity that anyone can exercise is to resist that force that is trying to repress, oppress, and fight down the human spirit." -- Mumia Abu-Jamal

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We need YOU!

Volunteers are the lifeblood of Books to Prisoners. There's no corporate endowment, no federal grant, no paid employees. All we have are people like you. Some volunteers are regulars, some come and go. Some help out with wrapping packages, some answer letters, some just bring by a box of books now and then: ANY contribution is welcome. Here's the scoop:

Books to Prisoners is an all-volunteer project which sends donated books to individual prisoners in the name of justice and literacy. Not one of us makes a penny, and our rent is generously paid by the Left Bank Books collective, so all donations go directly to the cause. In fact, almost all of our money goes toward 4th class postage.

Books to Prisoners responds to book requests mailed directly to our organization by prisoners across the United States. The service is free of charge. We are currently looking for:

Donated paperback books, especially books on African history, Black American studies, Native American studies, Latin American studies, and -- above all -- dictionaries, thesauruses, and Spanish-English dictionaries. Age and condition are not a concern, but please, no hardbacks! Your occasional help in doing mailings and/or fundraising (i.e., volunteer a couple of hours now and then -- you don't have to commit to any kind of schedule: just show up during volunteer hours). Money or stamps (postage is our major expense!)

ACLU Background Briefing

Juvenile "Justice" In America:

Exploding the Myth of the "Teenage Time Bomb"

(EXCERPT)

ATLANTA, GA -- As House Republicans today convened the second in a series of field hearings on juvenile crime, the ACLU warned that "get tough" laws are making society more dangerous and writing off future generations.

But experts on juvenile crime who could present alternate views to "lock-em-up" policies have been locked out of participating as witnesses in the hearings in Atlanta, the ACLU and other critics charged.

"Ironically, these hearings are taking place in a state with one of the worst records on implementation of juvenile justice laws," said Teresa Nelson, executive director of the ACLU of Georgia. "Georgia's broken juvenile justice system is a prime example of what happens when institutions focus on locking kids up instead of helping them."

A recent editorial in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution called the system "a monument to state politician's neglect." Georgia is currently facing two lawsuits on behalf of youngsters incarcerated in state institutions. Among the charges: children ages 9 and 10, jailed for offenses no more serious than running away, are housed in cells with 16-year-old gang members charged with violent crimes. As many as five kids reside in 8-by-8 cells, and one 13-year-old runaway was raped by his 16-year-old cellmate, one of the suits alleges.

(The full text of the background briefing can be found on the ACLU's Freedom Network and the ACLU Constitution hall on America Online*.)

*Statement of Teresa Nelson, Executive Director, ACLU Of Georgia*

*On Juvenile Justice Hearings*

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