For incarcerated people, education can sometimes be the difference between starting a new life or falling back into old habits upon release. According to a 2013 Rand Corporation Study, education is an important element in reducing recidivism.
Books offer similar benefits, said Dr. Tom Haney, the president of Books Through Bars in Philadelphia.
“Education is one of the major problems for people who are incarcerated.” he said. “It’s one of the major problems for people getting into trouble. And as all the results and studies have shown, while a person is incarcerated, if they can educate themselves, they will come out and do far better on the streets than they did previously.”
Books Through Bars works by sending free books to people who are incarcerated in the mid-Atlantic region.
For Mark Loughney, who was formerly incarcerated in a State Correctional Institute in Dallas, Pennsylvania, books proved to be a lifeline.
“I just needed some art and science books,” he said. “I needed something to keep my mind occupied.”
Loughney said Books Through Bars sent several book packages to him throughout his years in prison. He explained the program not only helps people through education, but can also help mentally.
“Part of the importance of this program is just knowing that there’s something coming and someone is thinking of me and cares about my education and wants me to be enlightened a bit,” he said.
The program started decades ago when a publishing company received letters from an inmate requesting books.
“[The company] didn’t necessarily have the books that people were requesting,” Haney said. “And that’s where Books Through Bars came in. Back in 1987, a couple of people that were part of the publishing company got together on their own and advertised and spent some of their own money to get the books that folks were requesting.”
The group eventually moved into one of the member’s homes. And in 1991, the group officially became a nonprofit organization.
The process
The Rand study showed that those who participated in correctional education programs (often involving books) were 43 percent less likely to return to prison than those who didn’t. But, according to BTB, prisoners often say libraries in the facilities are “inadequate and inaccessible.”
That’s why BTB gets many different requests, Haney said.
“If you can imagine holding your thumb and your finger about a half inch apart, that’s pretty much the number of envelope requests that we get every single week,” he said.
Prisoners send in letters that BTB “letter loggers” sort through. If BTB gets letters from states it doesn’t serve end up in the pile, Haney explained they are often able to redirect requests to similar organizations in other regions and states.
“After the letter is logged, a little ticket is made and it’s put on the envelope, and then that goes out to our front room,” he said. “And that’s where all the volunteers that come in to help us come in, and we have a core group of about 20 people that do the behind-the-scenes.”
Volunteers will choose books from the BTB’s library to send to inmates. Haney said BTB is unique – they oftentimes tell inmates to requests a topic rather than a specific book. As the nonprofit’s books are often donated, they may not have a specific book on hand at the time of the request.
“So, let’s say a person asked for Stephen King,” he said. “Stephen King is still a popular author. We do get donations of Stephen King, but we don’t get a lot, so we may not have Stephen King on the shelf. So we tell our volunteers an area in the library where they can go and they can substitute. Stephen King is a horror author, so pick another horror author and send them that. We send what we have.”
As for the types of books inmates frequently request, it’s similar to what any other person may request, said Stephanie Riley, a volunteer at Books Through Bars.
“People always ask, ‘What kind of books do you need for Books Through Bars, and what kind of books do people ask for?’ ” she said. “And it’s in a very good-intentioned way, because they want to help. But, I think my response is maybe not what people expect – it’s always whatever a public library would have on the shelves. And I think that’s something that people don’t fully internalize, which is, we’re dealing with… people like you.”
Riley emphasized a large part of the organization’s operation and mission is about removing the barrier and stigma around incarcerated people.
“I think there’s a lot of ‘othering’ historically,” she said. “[People saying] ‘Oh, that wouldn’t happen to me, because I don’t do bad things.’ I think there’s a lot of assumptions made, and I was just hoping that people can really take a pause and think about where their assumptions are coming from, and really look inside themselves for more empathy.”
Janet Bowker organizes a group of volunteers from Overbrook Presbyterian Church that help with Books Through Bars. She explained there can sometimes be limitations when choosing or packing books.
“To hear that you can’t send this kind of a book or you can’t send a hardback, it’s just very disturbing at times, but at least we feel like we’re making a little dent in the problem,” she said.
Loughney emphasized the importance of a program like Books Through Bars – as many prisons are limited in their offerings.
“There was a very limited selection of books and visual materials inside the prison law library,” he said. “The Books Through Bars books I received were kind of an oasis.”
The importance of education
Haney said the books BTB provides aren’t just for entertainment, many are educational.
“Dictionaries are the number one requested book,” he said. “So we buy dictionaries, we buy legal dictionaries, and we buy medical dictionaries along with regular dictionaries, and we also buy some thesauruses.”
Libraries in prisons may not always have books available as well. This was a major concern during the Covid pandemic, with heightened isolation and infection rates in prisons during the worst parts of the public health crisis. Additionally, 3 out of 5 American prisoners can’t read. With literacy challenges and barriers, many advocates argue access to books is crucial to build skills and education.
Haney said this is part of why the BTB library is so varied.
“We have what we consider to be a large selection of genres, and we try to keep the most popular books on our shelves,” he said. “A lot of times for the popular authors, they come in one day and they’re gone the next.”
Loughney now works within the art sphere. He said Books Through Bars helped him learn integral skills that have informed his post-incarceration career.
“I was able to learn through the books that they sent me about art,” he said. “I learned about how to make art and art history and science, things that inform my craft.”
Riley added that beyond the obvious literacy benefits, books provide a space for incarcerated people to improve their experience.
“There is that other side of the coin, which is providing more of an escape and a release for people and giving people an outlet,” she said. “It’s a very dehumanizing system that they’ve been sucked into, sometimes through actions of their own, sometimes through circumstance, but it’s incredibly dehumanizing.”
She said receiving a personalized message – whether it is through a response letter from BTB, or the appropriate books – can help incarcerated people through these experiences.
BTB will often get letters from inmates who received books saying that they can tell the book choices were thoughtful, Riley shared. She said this is part of what makes her so passionate about the organization.
“It’s about seeing the person and bringing a sense of humanity to this population who are typically treated the worst in our society,” she said. “They’re always forgotten.”
Bowker said it is important work to provide these services for inmates.
“We feel like we’ve accomplished something,” she said. “Maybe it’s not a lot, but it’s part of just making sure that inmates get books.”
Inmates often say these books are the only things keeping them educated or entertained, she added.
“The letters from the inmates are very touching,” she said. “There is a lot of ‘this is my only way of learning’ or ‘this is what keeps me busy’ and so it feels like it’s an important mission in that way.”
Moving forward
Riley emphasized the organization accepts help of many kinds – whether it is physical help, money, books or boxes.
“The ‘four B’s’ we need are books, bills, bodies, and bags or boxes,” she said.
Riley adds the organization has zero employees. Because it is volunteer-based, all donations go directly to services such as shipping and book buying.
Haney said the organization expects to send upwards of 7,000 to 8,000 books this year. In addition, he said, donations help with the large demand the organization faces.
“From January up to May, our postage has been almost $12,000, in that we sent a little over 11,000 pounds of books,” he said.
Bowker said volunteers make the organization, and it is “inspiring” to see.
“The people who are there when we are regularly there seem to be very devoted,” she said. “It’s always inspirational and always pleasant.”
Haney emphasized the organization always welcomes donations and volunteers, and he is grateful for what the organization has accomplished so far.
