As we enter the second half of 2026 we wanted to take a moment to celebrate our progress and thank all the lovely volunteers and donors who helped us get here! Thank you for continuing to show up for BTP and our incarcerated peers! So far we have sent just over 9 thousand (9,082!) packages of books to incarcerated people across the country! We are on track to beat our record of 14,744 which we set last year in 2025. Our volunteers have logged a whopping 4,247 hours of work! W

This is the first thing you should know: LGBTQ+ people are nearly 3 times as likely to be incarcerated as straight-identifying people. And for lesbian and bisexual women, the numbers are even worse – they are more than four times as likely to be arrested than their straight counterparts. While there are many reasons for this beyond mere stigma, the prevalence of subsistence sex work among members of queer and trans communities, drug law enforcement specifically targeted to

This Father’s Day, more than 1.2 million parents will be separated from their children under the age of 18 by the walls of an American prison. As a result, over 2.7 million children will face the social, emotional, health, and economic consequences of family separation. This accounts for roughly one in every 28 children, a rate that is over six times higher for Black and Hispanic children than their white counterparts. Skyrocketing incarceration rates since the 1990s affect

Juneteenth is a national holiday that takes place every year on June 19th. Also known as "Emancipation Day” or “Freedom Day,” Juneteenth was a pivotal moment in history when the United States advanced toward becoming a nation that grants freedom and equality to all its citizens. Juneteenth became a state holiday in Texas in 1979, and it was only five years ago in 2021 that this crucial day in U.S. history became a national holiday. To truly understand the legacy of Juneteenth

The Couth Buzzard is one of our partner independent book stores where you can purchase books for us! Recently they hosted BTP volunteers and guests for a community night and showcase! How did you begin working with Books to Prisoners? Our history with Books to Prisoners goes back over a decade! I asked our previous owner, Theo, and he couldn't dredge up the exact origins, but I know the partnership was originally spearheaded by Sarah, a past employee to whom we owe a great de

“When the prison gates slam behind an inmate, he does not lose his human quality; his mind does not become closed to ideas; his intellect does not cease to feed on a free and open interchange of opinions; his yearning for self-respect does not end; nor is his quest for self-realization concluded. If anything, the needs for identity and self-respect are more compelling in the dehumanizing prison environment.” - Thurgood Marshall, Procunier v Martinez, 416 US 428 (1974). The Pr

This May marks Mental Health Awareness Month, providing a reminder to all of us to reflect on the troubling links between the prison system and the treatment of those with mental health conditions in our society.

April marks both National Deaf History Month and National American Sign Language (ASL) Day, which was celebrated on the 15th of this month. At Books to Prisoners, this month serves as a reminder of the unique challenges and injustices that deaf people face within the prison system.

Despite broad social and medical acceptance of cannabis today, since 1970, United States federal, state, and local law enforcement have made over 20 million marijuana related arrests, over 90% for possession only. Black Americans across the United States are on average 3.6 times more likely to face marijuana-related charges and more than nine times more likely to be arrested for public use than their white counterparts. Since Washington State legalized recreational cannabis u

Established in 1974, National Volunteer Week occurs during the third week of April and is a week-long recognition of the impact of volunteer service in our communities and the power of volunteers to transform the world. This year, we celebrate National Volunteer Week from April 19-25, 2026. Books to Prisoners (BTP), was created in 1973 as a project of Left Bank Books, an independent bookstore located in the historic Pike Place Market. Volunteers are the core of BTP. BTP lit

The following letter is written by several representatives from the national list including Books to Prisoners executive director Andy Chan, and posted per Andy’s request: Dear friends and supporters,The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ has begun implementing a new batch of restrictions that will make it much more difficult for non-profit volunteer organizations to send books into Texas prisons. Do you have a few minutes to help? The new policy would ban hardcover

March 31st marks International Transgender day of visibility. Today, we take a moment to acknowledge the existence of transgender people inside U.S. prisons, and recognize that they are not getting the care they need and are unduly targeted by guards, other inmates, and the system due to their gender expression. Trans individuals are almost always housed in prisons that match the gender of their birth certificate, not that of their identity and lived experience. A recent stud

On December 19, 2025, the ABC voted to enact the most restrictive prohibition on books and magazines anywhere in the US. As of February 1, 2026, people in AR state prisons would no longer be allowed to own or receive actual paper books, magazines, or newspapers. They could only read from electronic tablets or check books out from their prison's library. The only exception would be for religious material that had been mailed to a chaplain. ABC said that such a radical approach

Starting April 1, Texas will be instituting changes in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) regulations that restricts books sent to incarcerated individuals. Under the new changes, only new paperback books will be allowed in state prisons (Federal prisons are not impacted.) Used books, hardcovers, and books with minor wear would be rejected. Additional requirements include prohibitions on: Any markings such as highlighting or annotations Water damage, staining,

This year on International Women's day we take the time to acknowledge and honor the women trapped in our countries prisons and jails. Women make up a proportionately small percentage of the incarcerated population, but have experienced a faster rate of incarceration than men in the past decade. Women in U.S prisons face unique challenges due to the layers of institutionalized gender based violence perpetuated in carceral settings. Power imbalances within the prison setting m

Hello all! My name is Curran Connelly, I currently serve as the President of the Board of Directors for Books to Prisoners. I was asked to comment on 2025 and to describe what I am looking forward to in 2026 for our organization. The following are only my views and do not necessarily describe the goals or feelings of the board as a whole. For those curious, the board is the governing body for BTP. It is largely composed of volunteers who have worked with us for many years, wi

Last year, the SCDC began enforcing a policy that prevented people in state prisons from receiving books from any source besides six approved vendors, all of which charge for books. Asheville Prison Books (APB), a free prison book distributor like Books to Prisoners (BtP),and Firestorm Books, a local independent bookstore, are preparing to sue SCDC on constitutional grounds. They contend that SCDC is violating their 1st Amendment right to freedom of speech by refusing to let

Presidents Day is a federal holiday created to honor the executive leaders of our country and their legacies. Part of these legacies is the maintenance and evolution of a criminal justice system based in racial hierarchy and exploitation. So which of these executive leaders wielded their power to contribute to the horrors of modern mass incarceration and the growth of the prison industrial complex? The 1970s brought a boom in the prison population and an exponential increase

“The moment we choose to love, we begin to move toward freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others” bell hooks Valentine's day is a day we take to celebrate the love in our lives, but frequently we find ourselves focusing on the love in our individual relationships rather than love we seek from community and society. As feminist theorist bell hooks reminds us, love is not a feeling we are struck by, or something we are lucky to fall into, but rather a political

As we celebrate Black History month this February, it is essential to acknowledge the disproportionate impact the prison system has on the black American population and its role in the maintenance of race based oppression. This adverse impact is no accident, it is the result of years of culminated racial violence targeting black people, carried out by state institutions. Since the eradication of slavery after the Civil War, prison has been used as a tool to target black popu