Russell Nestor, a 58-year-old inmate at the Berlin Federal Correctional Institute in New Hampshire, has spent nearly 24 years in prison. He says his love for reading books is a way to endure the challenges of incarceration.
“I remember it was about 2003 when I found out about the Prison Book project,” said Nestor. “I was flipping through a book, and I thought they had their stamp in one of the books I was reading, so I emailed them.”
According to Wordsrated, the United States has around 2.3 million people behind bars. Three out of five are illiterate. Prison Book Programs are non-profit organizations nationwide that support people in prison by sending them free books and educational materials. Their friends and loved ones are often not allowed to send them books directly.
The city chapters work primarily with donated books, libraries and book drives. Volunteers read letters from prisoners, carefully select books that match the inmates’ interests, write them short notes and ensure the books meet the prison’s restrictions before sending the packages.
D.C. Books to Prison was established in 1999 and sends over 7,000 book packages to prisoners in 600 state and federal prisons per year in 34 states. The organization also works with different programs around the country that have the resources to serve all 50 states. One of these is The Prison Book Project in Titusville, near Orlando, which was established in 1994 and focuses mainly on Christian books. The group works with several publishers to fulfill prisoners’ book requirements.
For Maya Riser-Kositsky, a D.C. Books to Prisons board member and senior volunteer, the most rewarding part of her work in the program is receiving thank-you and success letters from the prisoners. The letters are a testament to the program’s positive impact on the lives of the incarcerated and a ray of hope in a system that often feels broken.
“We’ve had people who have written for a book to help them learn English and then wrote back to us in English,” she said. “They’ve used that book to improve their English enough that they can write to us.”
Volunteers also agreed that books impact recidivism rates. A study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that 68% of prisoners are incarcerated again within three years of their release date. However, for prisoners who utilized the library or took part in prison education programs, there was a 43% reduction in recidivism rates.
Nestor has been in six different prisons and said he had never encountered a program before that helps so much to ease prisoners incarceration experience.
“When you’re in here, you really need to make some changes in life,” he said. “This is why it’s so important that prisoners have access to real life-changing books.”
Those who want to contribute to the program can visit the Prison Book Program’s website and find the chapter in their city.
