Books Through Bars receives, on average, 1200 letters from prisoners requesting books each month. These letters powerfully demonstrate the many struggles prisoners face in obtaining educational resources.

Popularly-Requested Books Tell Us a Story About Incarceration

Volunteers new to Books Through bars will notice many patterns as they read prisoner book requests. They’ll note, for instance, the overwhelming numbers of prisoners requesting books about African-American and Mexican history. They’ll discover after just a few letters the value of a dictionary even if we haven’t told them that nearly ¼ of the letters we receive include dictionary requests! And they’ll undoubtedly see the numbers of prisoners attempting to prepare for the GED examination. Noting these patterns is important as they reveal to us that so many prisoners are poor people of color denied access to quality educational employment opportunities.

While the letters do reinforce what some of us might already know about incarceration, they also reveal the diversity of interests and skills present within the imprisoned population. One might be shocked, for instance, to read one prisoner’s request for advanced Calculus, 17th-century British literature, physiology, and existential philosophy. Many volunteers are struck by the similarity of their interests to those of the prisoner whose book request they are filling.

Whether the letters help us to understand the ways in which incarceration is destroying the lives of young Black men or whether they dispel stereotypes by illustrating the humanity of those who are imprisoned, these letters are a testament to the eagerness of many to learn and teach.

• Dictionaries
  Of the 1200-1500 letters Books Through Bars receives each month, roughly ¼ include requests for dictionaries. Some of those requesting dictionaries are just beginning the cycle of their self-education and have identified dictionaries as the best tool to help them get started. Others have been self-educating for years and are looking for more advanced dictionaries.
• GED preparation materials
  Countless studies support the claim that nearly 70% of prisoners did not complete high school. As a result, many prisoners utilize the time of their imprisonment to acquire their GED. Although states are required to provide GED programming, there are many barriers keeping prisoners from achieving this goal. For instance, many prisoners remain on waiting lists for several years before enrolling in GED preparation programs. Or, once they are enrolled in them, they do not receive the materials they need to progress. As a result of these obstacles - as well as the fact that many who are housed in administrative segregation programs are denied participation in educational programs - many prisoners write to Books Through Bars asking for GED preparation books.
• Books by/about people of color
  African-American, Mexican and Mexican-American, and Puerto Rican people are incarcerated at rates dramatically higher than people of other backgrounds. Although they are incarcerated a disproportionate rate, they have access to few books or programs focused on their heritage. In most cases, prisoners from every background have been denied information about African-American, Mexican and Puerto-Rican history and culture. As a result, many prisoners want to begin the process of learning their history during their imprisonment.

The book requests we receive give a snapshot of prisoner education in the US.

Many of the prisoners requesting educational materials from Books Through Bars share information regarding the educational opportunities they are able to access.

Most of their complaints concern the quality or non-existence of prison libraries. Some prisoners tell us about the lack of educational programming—but since educational program offerings have decreased significantly in recent years, many have not had the experience of enrolling in them and so aren’t able to share their assessment of their quality. While older prisoners can talk to us about the differences they’ve seen over the course of their imprisonment, many younger prisoners have not known a time during which educational programming has been easily accessible to them. Many of the prisoners who approach Books Through Bars are housed in administrative segregation and are not afforded access to either libraries or educational programming of any type. They are completely cut off.

The array of obstacles and critiques are startling. We’re including here just a small selection of the obstacles prisoners face when trying to use the time of their imprisonment to make positive changes in their life.

Libraries

The widest array of barriers keep prisoners from utilizing library facilities – hurricane damage, conflicting work schedules, decreasing budget allocations. Prisoners who write to us also provide alarming descriptions of the actual contents of prison libraries - often describing selections that are small, out-of-date, and mostly comprised of mass-market fiction as opposed to educational books of any type.

Read prisoners’ letters about libraries in their facilities

Educational Programs
Every week, prisoners tell us that their state’s allocations for prison educational programming have decreased and courses have been eliminated.

Adult Basic Education and GED Programs
Although states are required to provide Adult Basic Education (ABE) and General Equivalency Degree (GED) programs, they are often unable to do so in sufficient numbers. While it is occasionally the case that prisoners will tell us GED programs have been eliminated, it is more common for them to explain to us the barriers that prevent them from enrolling in such programs. For some, it is because they are housed in administrative segregation. In others, the state has had to implement enrollment selection criteria that prevent enrollment. For instance, because it is most important to offer such programming to those who are to be released in the near future, prisoners with longer sentences are often unable to enroll in GED programs for many years. Even where this is not the case, prisoners may be relegated to a waiting list for several years. [A wait of 5 ½ years is the longest we’ve seen yet!]

College Programming
In years past, prisoners were eligible for higher education financial aid in the form of Pell Grants. This allowed community colleges and some university systems to provide in-prison programming to prisoners at little or no cost to the individual prisoners. For more than a decade, conservative politicians attempted to repeal prisoner eligibility—stating that such funds [less than 1% of the total funds allocated for Pell Grant recipients] should not be usurped by criminals at the expense of law-abiding citizens. Pell Grant eligibility for prisoners was repealed in 1994. Since that time, prisoners have lost almost all access to college programming. Those who have received their GED often have no other avenues through to educate themselves throughout their incarceration.

There are still small numbers of prisoners who are able to receive college degrees while incarcerated—but only if they have family members with the economic means to pay fees associated with distance education programs. Even when they are able to enroll in such programs, many prisoners are not able to raise the funds to purchase the necessary books—books that are not available through their facility’s library.

Read prisoners’ letters about access to educational programs