Local program educates inmates

A local program that meets every Sunday is sending free books to prison inmates in Indiana and nearby states.\nPages to Prisoners, which holds meetings every week from noon to 5 p.m., is available to anyone wanting to package books, read letters and write to prisoners. The meetings are held in a small room at the back of Boxcar Books, 310 S. Washington St. Boxcar Books is a nonprofit bookstore serving as the legal umbrella for the Midwest Pages to Prisoners Program.\nThe program sends out more than 50 packages of books each week. Only about five packages each week are returned for reasons such as inmates transferring to other prisons or being released on parole. Pages does not sent books to Texas or Michigan because Texas has its own book program and Michigan only accepts new books. The names of other book programs in the country include Books Through Bars and Book 'Em. \nMichael Hoerger and Corina Manion are co-coordinators of Pages for Prisoners and volunteers at Boxcar Books.\nHoerger said Pages for Prisoners was established in 1995. \n"We receive at least 200 letters a month requesting books, and we send on average three to four paperbacks per package," she said.\nHoerger said requests vary, but the program sends a lot of popular fiction such as Stephen King and John Grisham novels, as well as religious, black and Hispanic histories.\n"There are some requests for educational materials, which are mostly writing guides and math books," Hoerger said, noting he feels it's "becoming rare" for inmates to receive college degrees in prison. The dictionary is the most requested book, Hoerger said. \nAll books are donated from the community except dictionaries, which are purchased on a regular basis to keep up with requests. Although ordinary citizens can't send books to prisoners, bookstores or publishers can and each prison has different requirements. For example, some prisoners have rules on how many books can be sent, some will not accept hardcover volumes unless the covers are torn off, and some require a receipt.\nHoerger, who has been writing to political prisoners for the past eight years, said his interest developed when he was an undergraduate at the University of Connecticut. He saw piles of books outside the campus bookstores that were going to be thrown away.\n"I thought it was such a waste that these perfectly good books should be thrown away just because the bookstore will not buy them back," Hoerger said. \nSo he took them home and wrote to a political prisoner with whom he was corresponding. His correspondent was very happy to have them and told him about existing programs that sent books to prisoners. \nHoerger said the most of the political prisoners he has been writing to were arrested for their involvement in the Black Panther Party, the Black Liberation Army or Weather Underground, a militant branch of Students for Democratic Society. \nHoerger said he thinks it is important to be involved with Pages to Prisoners. \n"Every day more people view prisons as places not for reform but as places for punishment," he said. "It is a necessity that people on the outside provide heart, knowledge and help to prisoners."\nWith every package sent, a form letter is included. Hoerger said most people sign their first names but people can write back to prisoners according to their level of comfort. \nAbby Friedman is on the board of directors and is co-director of Boxcar Books. She has worked for three years with Pages to Prisoners and has been with Boxcar Books since it opened. \nFriedman said she thinks Pages to Prisoners serves a palpable need. \n"It is very important for people in prison to receive the educational materials they desire," Friedman said. "They will be released back into our society and could be our neighbors."\nLast year, Manion and Friedman organized a prison art show made up of drawings, poetry and other works. There were about 10 paintings from a Terre Haute death row inmate who will be executed in June. \n"It makes the whole situation very close to home because he is not just a person on TV," Friedman said. "He calls Pages to Prisoners and sends letters thanking us for the books. We have dealt with him and the people in the community who are advocates for him, so he is not just a stranger."\nManion, a junior studying English and African Diaspora Studies, has been involved with Boxcar since it opened and Pages to Prisoners for four years. Manion said she got involved with the program when her friend Sam Dorrsett needed help. Dorrsett was running the now-closed Secret Sailor Books, which hosted Pages at the time. \n"It was the correspondence that kept me involved," Manion said. "I always feel we could be doing more, but it is hard to be dealing with a population that is completely shut off from us."\n-- Contact staff writer Karen Yancey at kaeyance@indiana.edu.