Resources

Other Books-to-Prison Programs:

• Click here for a comprehensive list of programs and states they serve

• How to Start Your Own Prison Book Program: Created in 2002 by the Books Through Bars Collective in Philadelphia

• How to Start a Prison Books Collective: Created in 2015 by the Prison Books Collective in Durham

Guides for Formerly and Currently Incarcerated Individuals:

• Connections 2026: A resource guide published by the New York Public Library for formerly incarcerated people coming home to New York City

• Prison Activist Resource Center’s Resource Guide: A database/PDF list of advocacy organizations, community organizations, prison literature and arts projects, family and visiting resources, health care and legal resources, parole and pre-release resources, and prison abolition groups

• Insider’s Guide to Jailhouse Law: The new guide provides a comprehensive and practical overview of the legal system, and it discusses important legal developments over the last two decades.

• National Prisoner Resource List: Regular and large-print versions of a resource guide published by the Prison Book Program in Quincy, MA

• Inside Books Project Resource Guide: PDF and online versions of a resource guide published by the Inside Books Project in Austin, TX

• Jailhouse Lawyer’s Handbook: Published by the Center for Constitutional Rights and the National Lawyers Guild, explains explains how an incarcerated person can start a lawsuit in federal court and how to fight against mistreatment and bad conditions in prison

• Prison Legal News books and subscriptions page: Contains many publications to order that would be of great interest to people in prison as well as workers in the legal or prison advocacy field; includes digital access to Prison Legal News magazine

• Jailhouse Lawyer’s Manual: Written and updated by members of Columbia Human Rights Law Review; handbook of legal rights and procedures designed for use by the currently incarcerated

• Prison Law Office: Legal resource guide mainly for CA prisoners, focusing on constitutional rights behind bars

• Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project: Self-help materials for people in PA prisons and their families

• NC Prisoner Legal Services: Self-help materials for people in NC prisons and their families

Just a Few Resources to Learn More About Prisons:

• The Marshall Project: A journalism organization covering in-depth stories about and from the perspectives of the lives affected by the U.S. criminal justice system.
  

• The Sentencing Project: Has worked for a fair and effective U.S. criminal justice system for 30 years by promoting reforms in sentencing policy, addressing unjust racial disparities and practices, and advocating for alternatives to incarceration.
  

• Prison Policy Initiative: A clearinghouse of research on mass incarceration, PPI documents the impacts of mass incarceration on individuals, communities, and our national welfare to empower the public to improve criminal justice policy.

Book Banning Policies:

• How to Report on Banned Books in Prisons in Your State: “The Marshall Project spent over a year reporting on banned books in prisons, from a nationwide searchable table of banned book lists to Ohio’s confusing book screening process. Use this reporting recipe to investigate the issue of banned books in prisons, whether you are a journalist or a curious citizen.” – From The Marshall Project

• The Books Banned in Your State’s Prisons: “Over the past year, reporters for The Marshall Project asked every state prison system for book policies and lists of banned publications. About half of the states said they kept such lists, which contained more than 50,000 titles. We’ve created a searchable database so you can see for yourself which books prisons don’t want incarcerated people to read.” – From The Marshall Project