Books Through Bars
Stories from the Prison Books Movement
By Dave "Mac" Marquis and Moira Marquis
People organizing prison books programs have quietly gathered in basements, storage spaces, and the back rooms of secondhand bookstores for the last seventy years, reading letters written by incarcerated people and sending books in return. This diffuse and nonhierarchical movement operateson shoestring budgets with donated libraries in thirty states, and yet, there is little awareness of this long-standing social movement.
This book contains essays that explain the need for prison book programs and offer advice on how to establish or become involved with prison books programs, as well as shedding light on current challenges. While mass incarceration can make people feel powerless, this book details how ordinary people can organize and intervene in the largest imprisonment the world has ever known. The editors of this book hope it will inspire more people to realize that everyone has the power to treat each other differently and to foster a culture of care over cruelty.
Loved by our collective!
Created by longtime prison book program activists as a movement resource and source of abolitionist inspiration, this museum quality book deserves a place on every radical's bookshelf. The fact that the editors and multiple contributors have called Asheville home—weaving local stories into the collection—only makes me adore it more!
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