We CU Community Partner Spotlight: Books 2 Prisoners

11/28/2022 12:20:12 PM

Our feature today is Urbana-Champaign Books2Prisoners. The mission of UC-Books to Prisoners (B2P) is to provide books to people incarcerated in Illinois free of charge to them, and to promote education about incarceration and prisons in our community. They do this by collecting gently-used donated books from the public and sorting them into a likely library for volunteers to choose from, when answering the written book requests that prisoners send them. 

Volunteers, including We CU Scholars, read the letters, choose the books, and write short notes of encouragement. In addition, volunteers sort thousands of donated books in the course of a year. They are a community driven, volunteer-run working group of the UC Independent Media Center since 2004. 

Connect with Books2Prisoners on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! 

A brief summary of what your organization does.
 
The mission of UC-Books to Prisoners (B2P) is to provide books to people incarcerated in Illinois free of charge to them, and to promote education about incarceration and prisons in our community. We do this by collecting gently-used donated books from the public and sorting them into a likely library for volunteers to choose from, when answering the written book requests that prisoners send us. Volunteers read the letters, choose the books, write short notes of encouragement; they utilize a database to track what books we've sent to whom; pack up and ship out books. In addition volunteers sort thousands of donated books in the course of a year. We are a community driven, volunteer-run working group of the CU Independent Media Center since 2004.
 
What advice do you have for University of Illinois students who are interested in getting involved in the community?
 
Young people are the investment of all earlier generations and we are eager that through community involvement, you will return to your classroom even more ready to learn about your world, yourself, and your place in it-- as well as to develop skills. Moving between the community and your classes, and bringing them into dialogue with each other in your head, sets you up to discover what it is you don't know that you don't know. And it's okay to not know stuff you can't know until you learn it. Next, especially first-years, but all students really, need to make their top priority their school work and the learning it was designed to make possible. Involvement in the community is involvement as a student first. Learning one's limits is key to a balanced, healthy life and college is an excellent setting to learn yours. When you are clear about your priorities, you will be able to bring your best off campus to other sites and projects. You have a lot to contribute.Lastly, remember in your volunteerism that you are there to serve the project or program or the people in the community. It's so tempting to view volunteerism as a really cool way for your club or frat or church group to spend time together. But we don't exist as sites for your bonding primarily, and while I do encourage volunteering with others, and I hope the experience is fun, I advise you to please remember to keep your eyes on what the people need from your being there. 
 
What do you want UIUC students to know about your organization?
 
Our volunteers do all the work necessary to fulfill our mission. There is only one part-time paid staff person. Therefore, volunteering here is different from sites where others actually run it, and volunteers are occasional extra help. Through regular attendance, students have the opportunity to take on more responsibility in the work and running of this organization. We are not an ideal site for groups who are looking for something fun to do for an hour together, therefore. Some maturity and seriousness of purpose is necessary. At the same time, everyone is welcome to come see what it's about. And no one has to commit to a regular schedule. Reading letters from state prisons is highly educative; breaking down stereotypes and provoking powerful questions about the role education might play in life outcomes.
 
What do you wish more people knew about the populations you serve?
 
At the beginning of 2020, Illinois had approximately 54,700 incarcerated people – 0.56% of the population. The incarceration rate in Illinois has been slowly decreasing for the past 10 years but is still more than three times the rate of 40 years ago. More than half of all people in jails and prisons in the US have a mental illness. Black Americans are 15% of the Illinois population and 56% of its prison population. 24% of state prisoners report a cognitive or learning disability, nearly five times the national rate. 62% of those incarcerated in state prisons did not complete high school, compared to just 12% of the US population overall.
 
It makes sense from these numbers then, to question the popular notion that our prisons are full of irredeemable, hardened psychopaths, people do not want to be or do better in the future (and of course, people actually guilty of the crimes accused.) Every person has a story. As mothers and fathers who love their children, sons and daughters, siblings, friends, and/or spouses to someone on the outside, they are working their story out. It is a proven fact that the most effective intervention in recidivism is education. Instead U.S. prisons tend to view education as a security threat, and thwart access to the rehabilitative power of serving your time reading. In 2017, the Illinois Department of Corrections spent $276 dollars on books for prisoners, less than $10 per prison. Until well-stocked and staffed libraries become part of the prison experience, U-C Books to Prisoners is here for those who long to be and do better when they get out, even right now.