Open Books Bookstore & Prison Book Project

Open Books is a non-profit, volunteer-run bookstore. Proceeds from the sale of books and donations support the Prison Book Project, operating since 2000. The Prison Book Project currently sends around 10,000 books each year to indigent inmates in Florida prisons, one of the largest prison Read More …

The Prisoners Literature Project

The Prisoners Literature Project is an all-volunteer, non-profit group that sends free books directly to prisoners who request them from throughout the United States.  Working almost continuously for thirty years, the U.S. prison books program has gotten (literally) tons of books into the American prison Read More …

LGBT Books to Prisoners

LGBT Books to Prisoners is a trans-affirming, racial justice-focused, prison abolitionist project. They are a donation-funded, volunteer-run organization based in Madison, Wisconsin that sends books and other educational materials, free of charge, to incarcerated LGBTQ people across the United States. Each package contains 3-5 books, Read More …

Paper chains: Modern slavery in the Florida criminal justice system

By 1845 Almost half the state of Florida’s population were enslaved African-Americans working on large cotton and sugar plantations in the north-central part of the state. Slave  labor accounted for 85% of the state’s cotton production. Black slaves used to be rounded up to work Read More …

Literature Locked Up: How Prison Book Restriction Policies Constitute the Nation’s Largest Book Ban

With over two million Americans incarcerated, the book-restriction regulations within the United States carceral system represent the largest book ban policy in the United States. The reality of book banning in American prisons is systematic and comprehensive. State and federal prison authorities censor content with little oversight or public scrutiny. Often the ultimate Read More …