If you have any questions on topics that aren’t covered here, feel free to contact us.
Is your website up-to-date?
Yep! We update it any time something changes. All the information on this site is current and accurate. If you would like to get updates when something changes, or to find out about volunteer trainings and other opportunities to support our work, you can subscribe to our mailing list here. We send out about 1-4 updates per year.
How can I volunteer?
If you are interested in volunteering please join our Mailing List to find out about upcoming trainings and opportunities to support our work.
How can I donate books?
We are not accepting book donation dropoffs at our space or used book donations. However we have an online wishlist, so you can select books which will be bought from local bookstore Tubby and Coo’s and shipped as a gift to us:
Yeah, but how can I donate USED books?
Thanks for thinking of us, but we’re not accepting used book donations at this time. We are only taking books from our wishlist. We just don’t have the capacity right now. Please check the Book Donation page for a list of other great local places that can accept them.
Can I make a tax-deductible donation?
Yes! Louisiana Books 2 Prisoners is a 501(c)(3) certified non-profit. We accept Paypal and cash and checks. For more information, please visit our donation page.
Are you still in the same location on George Nick Connor Drive in the 7th Ward?
No, we moved to a new office that’s really clean! Don’t go to our old address and especially don’t leave boxes of books there! We aren’t there to receive them– they will slowly decay in the rain and then the people that live there will have to deal with a bunch of moldy books.
Will you buy a bunch of copies of my book that I wrote?
Probably not. We prioritize books off our wishlist and do not have a budget for bulk purchases of other books.
How does someone receive books inside?
Please note we only serve people who are incarcerated. This includes state, federal, or local detention facilities. Individual people who are locked up write us a letter asking for general types of books. Our selection is varied but limited, so we usually cannot fulfill requests for specific book titles. We send a package of 3-ish books that match as closely as possible to the requested subjects. We will only send a package to an individual person once per month. For more info, see the book request info page.
How long has Louisiana Books 2 Prisoners been active?
Louisiana Books 2 Prisoners has been run by a bunch of different individuals and groups since 2003.
I went to a worknight when I was in Austin/Chicago/Portland/someplace else. Is your group related to that group?
No, most prison book programs in the United States run independently of each other. However, these groups do belong to a network of similarly focused programs and cooperate and communicae in pursuit of their shared goals. You can find similar groups across the country by viewing the National Prisoner to Prisoners Program List maintained by the Prison Book Program in Boston.
Where does your group send books to?
We currently serve only following states: Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana. We serve local jails, state prisons, federal prisons, and ICE facilities (when they let us). We’ve chosen to restrict our service area to decrease the lag-time between receiving a letter and sending out books. For a mostly complete list of programs that cover the states we no longer serve please check the National Prisoner Resource List.
What are prison restrictions on books?
Every prison has its own regulations. Some harsher restrictions are: no hardcovers, no used books, and no books unless sent by an “approved vendor” – which frequently means that we cannot send anything to that prison. Whether or not an individual book or package gets through is often at the discretion of the person working in the mail room that day.
We do not send hardcover books, anything depicting pictures of weapons or overtly sexual situations on the cover, or books with “provocative” words in the title (which can increase the likelihood that a package will be rejected).
For information about prison book restrictions across the US and the fights against those book bans, check out Seattle Books to Prisoners’ massive list of bans and lawsuits. For an overview of the prison book censorship issue, check out PEN America’s 2018 report “Literature Locked Up: How Prison Book Restriction Policies Constitute the Nation’s Largest Book Ban.”
How many people run Louisiana Books 2 Prisoners?
The Louisiana Books 2 Prisoners Collective generally has a core membership of 4-6 people.
How many packages do you send out a week?
We send out as many as we can. In pre-Covid times, this was about 1,500 to 2,000 a year but it’s a lot slower now.
Where does your funding come from?
We get donations from the community. We apply for the grants. We’re always interested in additional sources for funding, and we welcome any ideas or suggestions on the topic of fund-raising.
What’s the difference between a volunteer and a collective member?
Collective members are responsible for keeping the program going. They have access to the space and at least one collective member is always staffing a worknight. They handle the finances and vote on decisions at our monthly meetings. They’re writing this website right now. They used to be regular volunteers!
Volunteers and collective members both wrap packages and conduct all the worknight tasks. Both are equally important to keep the project going. People who volunteer with us are welcome to assume as much responsibility as they desire, and we encourage people to be involved as much as possible. We recommend that people be realistic about the level of commitment that they can handle. Unfortunately we are closed to volunteers at this time.
We have regular meetings for anyone interested in becoming more involved with the collective. If you’ve been attending our worknights for awhile, feel free to ask us about these meetings.
If you are curious about a topic we haven’t covered here, please contact us with any other questions you may have.
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