There were about 1,561,500 prisoners in the United States as of 2014, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics website.
Due to recent prison facility restrictions, books are becoming a difficult commodity for prisoners to acquire.
Pages for Prisoners is one group trying to help prisoners obtain as much literature as possible. The Bloomington-based initiative is centered in the nonprofit Boxcar Books and Community Center and has workshops five days a week for volunteers to assist wherever necessary.
Pages for Prisoners is a volunteer-based organization started in 1995 that sends books to prisoners in 11 states.
“I have a lot of friends and some family that are incarcerated and understand one function of prison is isolating people from society and from their support networks,” volunteer monitor Sam Harrell said. “I feel that anything I can do to minimize that isolation and communicate across bars is really important.”
One of the most commonly requested books is a dictionary, Harrell said. Many prisoners request a dictionary because they are working toward a GED diploma. Dictionaries are the only books Pages for Prisoners purchase.
Vocational, medical and criminal law books are books commonly requested for the prisoners’ education, Harrell said.
The majority of books the program sends are donated by the local community and are completely free for the prisoners.
The program began serving prisoners throughout the U.S. but eventually dialled back to 14 states and is now at 11, Harrell said. This cutdown is due to the assistance of other upcoming books-for-prisoners projects across the country, which allows for faster response times.
“I did time myself,” volunteer Ross Berg said. “I did one year, and I am empathetic to what it’s like to have your rights taken from you and to be stripped of your individuality, and just the awful, ugly monster of the prison system is just horrible.”
The Pages for Prisoners space, where volunteers meet and store the program’s books, is behind the shelves of Boxcar Books. The program has many bookshelves of its own that hold books on a wide variety of topics, Harrell said.
Pages for Prisoners puts on volunteer orientations from 6 to 8 p.m. every second Sunday of the month at Boxcar Books, Harrell said.
“I think volunteers come in here and are surprised by the amount of requests that are very functional and practical, not just, ‘I want to read the new James Patterson novel,’ but, ‘I have cancer, and they’re not letting me see a doctor,’ and, ‘I am studying for my GED, and I don’t have a dictionary,’” Harrell said.
Berg has been a volunteer for about a month and a half, putting in four to five hours a week writing to prisoners.
“Just walk in and check it out,” Berg said. “They do this almost every day. The times are on the chalkboard in front of Boxcar.”
When she is not volunteering with Pages for Prisoners, Harrell is a social worker in various capacities, one of which is helping prisoners re-enter society after their incarceration. She said this is her favorite part of volunteering with the group — hearing how much it mattered to the prisoners.
“Unlike a lot of our volunteers, I get the privilege of hearing from people when they get out about the books we send and the difference they make,” Harrell said. “There are a lot of different ways you can get engaged in Bloomington, but this project can feel very directly and immediately meaningful. It’s very tangible.”
For Berg, he said the project is not for him, but for the prisoners, and his favorite part of volunteering is when he can send someone exactly what they ask for. He said it’s a way to let them know someone is thinking about them and cares about them.
“The most satisfying part is sending the package — just writing, ‘Hey, you’re not forgotten. We know you’re in there. Enjoy this book,’” Berg said.
