Local non-profit group to play host to concert

The Bloomington chapter of the Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project will host two benefit concerts tonight. The first will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. at Rhino's All Ages Club, featuring the bands Mt. Gigantic, The Door Keys and Sex Tiger. The second begins at 10 p.m. at Vertigo, with Turn Pale, John Wilkes Booze, Bobby Conn and Puppy Vs. Dyslexia. Admission to both shows is $6 without a book donation, $4 with one.\nBoxcar Books and Community Center Inc., a local independent bookstore, has coordinated the Bloomington MPPP chapter since 2002. The project sends books to prisons in the Midwest free-of-charge. \n"Access to reading materials is one of the most important things you can give people," said Corinna Manion, a member of the Boxcar Board Directors and the coordinator for the project in Bloomington. "It's an important right, and since (the inmates') access to the prison libraries is often limited, I feel like this is one of the most tangible things I can do from the outside."\nThe MPPP has been in operation since 1996. \nIt depends on donated books and monetary donations to send up to 175 books per week, responding directly to nearly 100 of the inmates' requests. Highly requested subjects include dictionaries and reference materials, African-American studies, American Studies, Vocational studies, and Criminal Law. The project encourages rehabilitation and self-education among inmates.\n"Rehabilitation is one of our main goals," Manion said. "We get lots of letters from prisoners saying how we helped them get through their time. Some have written how, because of our project, they have been able to rethink their lives."\nPaul, a Bloomington resident and Pages to Prisoners volunteer for two and a half years, commented on the way prisoners are treated. \n"The prisoners are locked up and forgotten about, treated like monsters," Paul, who preferred not to give his last name, said. "It's not rehabilitation. Pages to Prisoners is a step towards rehabilitation."\nHans Sherrer handles The MPPP through the Prison Legal News. \n"Pages for Prisoners is one of the best things going (for prisoners)," Sherrer said. "In some places, inmates aren't paid for their work, and prison libraries are often deficient. Pages for Prisoners is often the only other access they have to books."\nBut in regard to the project's goals toward rehabilitation, Sherrer was not wholly convinced.\n"It certainly doesn't hurt," Sherrer said of the project. "Prisoners get insight and exposure to things from the outside. But you never know what helps someone change."\nIn response to critics of the program who might say inmates are in prison for a reason and should not be afforded added comfort, Manion and Sherrer both remarked that 95 percent of prisoners are later released. \n"Most prisoners are non-violent offenders, like those arrested for drug possession and property damage," Manion said. "Just by being in prison they get this rap for being monsters, the worst of the worst. And for the rapists and murderers, it takes an act of looking inside yourself for forgiveness."\nSherrer said the project can help prisoners change in a positive way.\n"The punishment is being sent to prison; it isn't given at prison," Sherrer said. "Over 95 percent of prisoners are released. What kind of people do we want to come out? Someone that's bitter and maybe dangerous, or someone that's changed for the better? Projects like this make better people."\n-- Contact staff writer Daniel Castro at dacastro@indiana.edu.