I'm going to be moving this summer, and I have a whole lotta books I want to give away to people who can use them. There are two things which, as I understand it, make it difficult to send them to prisons: they're used, and I don't have just one or two, I have boxes and boxes. I'd like to send them to prison libraries, and I contacted Books Through Bars, but they said they don't especially need most of what I have (novels). Does anyone know of a good prison/books-to-prisons group which would take several boxes of novels (horror, classic), non-fiction, and religious (various - mostly Buddhist)?

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Heb 13:3: Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them. Remember those who are suffering, as though you were suffering as they are.

I have done a bit of volunteer work with Books to Prisoners and they would take them and send them to prisoners--but postage isn't that cheap to send your books to them. Check out their website:
http://www.bookstoprisoners.net/
They really need donations for postage and volunteers to package and ship the books.

I sent a donation for postage since I can't be there to help pack stuff.

Thanks, Gumby, for your donation. I've done more volunteer work there now and see that there are some subjects that we have no material on, so I thought I'd list some that stand out: starting a small business
cartooning and drawing
almanacs (not more than 3 years old)
dictionaries and thesaurus/thesauri
mini encyclopedias
learning foreign languages
calligraphy
improving spelling, writing skills
inventions, how things work
science fiction and fantasy
So if you have any books on these subjects, please help out by donating them to Books to Prisoners!

Thanks, kind-hearted folks!

I've found that some states are more lenient than others about used books. If you want to donate them, go to state DOC websites and find out their mailing policies. Some states ( Utah is one ) allow used books to be sent. I think Connecticut is another. Like you I feel the more literate a prisoner is the more confident he will feel about applying for a job. Plus it's hard to get in trouble when you're deep in a good book.i2damax@aol.com

I will be moving in about 2 months & have to down size my collection of "True Crime" & "Self Help Books" so I might just send them. But I do have one question about some of the books. I thought that you couldn't send hard back books to prisons, only paper back. Will this "Books To Prisoners" be able to use the hard back books as well as the paper back books?

CO's Wife