Resources: Books, Magazines, and Publishers
PARC corresponds with and mails a directory of these resources to prisoners, their friends and family members. We are often the first point of contact for people to connect with prisoners' rights organizations, community organizations, prison literature and arts projects, family and visiting resources, health care and legal resources, parole and pre-release resources, and the prison abolition movement.
Download a PDF copy of the 2022 edition linked here.
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Alabama Books to Prisons Project Run through the Burdock Book Collective, this program fulfills book requests and manages a penpal program for people incarcerated in Alabama prisons. LGBTQA friendly: "As queers and allies ourselves, we aim to provide a space for personal expression and communication free from homophobia and transphobia." |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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Anarchist Black Cross Los Angeles Since the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the Anarchist Black Cross (ABC), has been on the frontline in supporting those imprisoned for struggling for freedom and liberty. In May of 1995, a small group of ABC collectives merged into a Federation whose aim was to focus on the overall support and defense of political prisoners and prisoners of war. Write for information on political prisoners and for addresses of other chapters in Bakersfield CA, Inland Empire CA, Orange County, Lancaster PA, Philadelphia PA, and New York City. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Newsletters and Magazines |
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Appalachian Prison Book Project The Appalachian Prison Book Project (APBP) sends free books and provides educational opportunities to people incarcerated in the Appalachian region. We serve six states: Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. You can request by topic area or title, and we will do our best to find a good book for you. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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Asheville Prison Books Sends free reading material to folks incarcerated in North Carolina and South Carolina, including county jails, detention centers, state prisons, and federal facilities. They do not have a catalogue, but try to match requests to books as best they can. Serves people in North Carolina and South Carolina only. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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Athens Books to Prisoners Athens Books to Prisoners is a volunteer-run organization that sends free books to prisoners in Ohio only. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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Big House Books Sends books to Mississippians in prisons and juvenile detention centers. Every person has the right to educate oneself; lets make that a reality. Serves Mississippians only. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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Books Behind Bars - New Jersey A grassroots, volunteer-run prison abolition project that provides free books upon request to people incarcerated in New Jersey prisons. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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Books Behind Bars - Virginia Serves people incarcerated in Virginia only. Write with requests for up to three books per month. They will do their best to fulfill all requests, but c annot guarantee specific title availability. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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Books Through Bars Free books across the Eastern Seaboard. Prisoners may request by topic (not exact title or author), and provide several areas of interest if possible. Sends to DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA & VA only. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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Connecticut Prison Book Connection CT Prison Book Connection is an all-volunteer run organization that sends free books to prisoners across the United States. All books are donated from various sources. Individuals may request books by subject/genre. Please request multiple topics of interest in order to get something desired. Books in different languages are provided but are on a first come first serve basis and are very limited in number. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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DC Books to Prisoners Request reading material by mail. lease request by prioritized subject and not specific book title (we rely on donations), and list prison restrictions if known. DC Books to Prisons responds to state and federal prisoners in AK, AL, AR, CA, CO, DE, GA, HI, IA, ID, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NM, NV, OH, OK, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WV, and WY as well as federal prisoners (only) in AZ and requests from DC residents in federal prisons in all states. Please wait 5 months between requests. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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East Bay Prisoner Support Formed in 2007 as a prison abolitionist, anti-authoritarian collective. Write to receive a catalog of anarchist, decolonial, queer liberation, anti-capitalist, black, brown and indigenous-oriented literature, sent free to prisoners in any state. También enviamos literatura gratuita en español. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers |
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Edward R. Hamilton Books Vendor of overstock and bargain books, some hardbound and others paperbound (type of binding listed in catalogs). Sends out free book catalogs, organized by the following subject areas: Arts & Education; Fiction; Healthy Living; History; Home & Garden; Biography; Cookbooks; Military History; Craft/Needlecrafts; Science & Nature; New Arrivals; and Bargain Books. Serves people nationally. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Vendors and Publishers |
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Forbidden Books Library, LLC Publishes and distributes "The Texas Write Writer's Survival Guides" including THE TEXAS CITEBOOK which contains 1,400+ Texas caselaws on 100 legal topics and has a foreword by the National Lawyers Guild. To receive an order form and more info send SASE. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Vendors and Publishers |
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Freebird Publishers Offers prisoner titles such as Cell Chef Cookbook, Life With A Record, Start Thinking Outside Prison, and other books, guides, newsletters, collectible artwork photos, greeting cards, and niche items created for and by incarcerated individuals. Send for their packet of color brochures, and include a pre-addresses stamped envelope for faster service. Produces Inmate Shopper (2018-19 Issue), which is America's largest book of resources for inmate's services plus many other sections of reading and entertainment. PARC especially recommends the Inmate Shopper because it reviews and rates many of the businesses that service inmates. Order online, phone, email or send a payment for $26.99 (includes priority shipping & tracking) to the above address. Accepts JPay and Corrlinks at Diane@FreebirdPublishers.com. MoneyGram also accepted. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Vendors and Publishers |
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Grant Publications Magazine subscription services with years of experience servicing inmates. Send SASE for more information. Order any five (5) magazine subscriptions and get one (1) year magazine subscription for free from specially marked list with (*). Serves people nationwide. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Newsletters and Magazines |
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Great Falls Books Through Bars All volunteer group that distributes books to contribute to the education, entertainment and support of incarcerated people. Will read requests and find the closest matches they can among their book collection. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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Haymarket Books Haymarket Books is a nonprofit, radical book distributor and publisher, a project of the Center for Economic Research and Social Change. They believe that activists need to take ideas, history, and politics into the many struggles for social justice today. The books they offer reflect their values. Write for a copy of their catalog (discounts for prisoners). Serves people nationally. Expect delays due to covid. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Vendors and Publishers |
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Inside Books Project Sends free books and literature to prisoners in Texas only. Also sends a very informative prisoner resource guide free to prisoners in all states. Send two stamps, or pre-addressed stamped envelope containing two stamps for a copy of their resource guide. Serves people in Texas prisons only. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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Ithaca College Books Thru Bars Set within Ithaca College, this group works to send reading literature to incarcerated individuals as well as raise awareness of issues related to incarceration. Serves NY, NY, VT, MA, RI, CT, NJ, and PA. Include a request for a genre, author, or title and any mailing restrictions for you facility. Requests will be honored as best as possible. Be patient for response as they only pack and mail twice per semester. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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LGBT Books to Prisoners Volunteer-run organization that sends books and other educational materials, free of charge, to LGBT-identified people in prison across the US (except those in TX). Will send books in Spanish (enviar libros en Español). Sends up to two packages and books per year. Prefers requests by topic/genre, but can occasionally fulfill specific requests. Serves all states except Texas. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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Liberation Library The only organization that provides books of their choosing to youth in Illinois prisons. Volunteer-run. Write for a catalog of options. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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Liberation Lit Abolitionist group of volunteers sending books to individuals incarcerated in Missouri and Kansas only. Also runs a small pen pal program. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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Lopez Books New as of 2022! Books to prisoners program serving Washington and Alaska only. Send with general requests by genre and/or topic. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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Louisiana Books 2 Prisoners Louisiana Books 2 Prisoners sends books to people who are locked up in jails, prisons, and ICE facilities in Louisiana, Alabama, and Arkansas. Write for book request form, or have a comrade print and mail to you. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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Louisville Books to Prisoners Ships free books directly to prisoners in Kentucky and Virginia only. Request reading material by prioritized subjects and list facility restrictions if known. Serves Kentucky and Virginia only. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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Midwest Books to Prisoners Midwest Books to Prisoners is staffed by volunteers who collect book donations, read letters, pack packages and solicit donations. Books are sent to prisoners in the following states: IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MO, NE, OH, ND, SD & WI. Unfortunately, due to policy restrictions by MDOC and INDOC, we cannot send books to Minnesota or Indiana state prisons at this time. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project Midwest Pages to Prisoners provides free books and zines to prisoners in these ten Midwest states only: AR, IA, IN, KS, MN, MO, ND, NE, OK, & SD. In your letter, please tell us what type of reading material you are interested in—sharing subjects and genres of interest is most helpful. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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Missouri Prison Books Program All volunteer organization that sends free books on request to incarcerated people in Missouri. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Free Books Programs |
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News & Letters News & Letters is a Marxist-Humanist newspaper published by the News and Letters Committees, an organization of Marxist-Humanists who stand for the abolition of capitalism, whether in its private property or state property form. It is published bi-monthly, and features articles by prisoners and others on the prison struggle. Free to prisoners. Serves people nationally. |
Books, Magazines, and Publishers, Newsletters and Magazines |