Books2Booked

Books2Booked

An act of compassion and enlightenment

Books 2 Booked is a volunteer based peer-to-peer prison books program created in response to the conditions created within jails and prisons as a result of Covid 19. Due to the pandemic, inmates across the country have endured heightened risks of catching the virus, decreased visitation and phone privileges, and mandatory lockdown and isolation. All of which undoubtedly takes a toll on the mental health of an individual. Depression has long remained the most prevalent mental health disorder reported in prisons. This is heightened due to the imposed restrictions caused by the pandemic, increasing natural disasters, and protests in response to systemic oppression and continuous killing of unarmed Black men, women, and children.

We believe a simple act of compassion and empathy such as receiving a book from a stranger goes a long way during these times.

According to Dr David Lewis, a neuropsychologist at Mindlab International in Sussex, England, reading as little as six minutes a day can reduce stress levels by 60% by reducing your heart rate, easing muscle tension and altering your state of mind. Through personally speaking to prisoners who have been recipients of books, they have expressed how they have long lost contact with their loved ones on the outside and have felt forgotten, especially during these times.

Majority of prisoners incarcerated will be released at some point in their lifetime with very few acts of compassion shown to them. The goal of this program is to provide escapism through books and encourage mental through acts of compassion from strangers.

A huge goal for this program is to help these inmates explore their individuality and unmet interests by communicating with their loved ones to send books based on their personal paths and curiosities.

The Process

Through social media and word of mouth, we are able to connect directly with friends and loved ones of inmates to find out the individual interests and reading requests of inmates so that our handcrafted community can send brand new paperback books directly to those incarcerated. This is a touch we find many prison book programs don’t have the capacity to foster- individuality.

America makes up 5% of the World’s population but holds a quarter of the world’s prisoners.

We have grown a community of volunteers to buy and send books to the incarcerated in this peer-to-peer based book system. We assign an inmate’s information to a volunteer to send a new book straight from a digital vendor such as Amazon or Barnes and Noble’s website. By going through a vendor, all personal information of the sender is protected and never shared with the recipient.

1 in every 3 black boys, 1 in every 6 latinos, 1 in every 17 whites will go to jail or prison in their lifetime.