LGBTQ inmates imprisoned in both mind and body across the country have the opportunity to find solace through free books provided by a local Madison organization, LGBT Book to Prisoners.
LGBT Book to Prisoners seeks to work against oppressive functions of the prison system and give some control back into prisoners’ hands. The project aims to provide access to knowledge because incarcerated persons have little access to reading material, particularly LGBTQ-identified prisoners.
The project wants LGBTQ prisoners to know they have a supportive community that cares about their well-being as they face the hardships of prison, such as isolation and physical violence, according to Irene Toro Martinez, an LGBT Books to Prisoners organizer.
The project began as a branch of the Wisconsin Books to Prisoners organization, Toro Martinez said.
LGBT Books to Prisoners receives letters from LGBT-identified prisoners who have seen their brochures in prisons across country, Toro Martinez said. Volunteers then spend time entering information from prisoner’s request letters into databases, wrapping packages and matching books with letters.
Toro Martinez said matching books to request letters is more complicated than it seems. Prisons often have restrictions on the number of books able to be sent in or require only new, softcover books.
This poses a challenge for an organization run mostly on donations and the work of volunteers, Toro Martinez said. However, the number of volunteers has been growing, so much they added a second weekly volunteer session, she said.
And these folks volunteered yesterday to prepare #transbookdrive packages with @LGBTBooksPrison at @rainbow_coop! http://t.co/Pj2NilLfER
— Janet Mock (@janetmock) December 14, 2014
Some of the most popular requests volunteers fill are for dictionaries, Melissa Charenko, another LGBT Books to Prisoners’ organizer said. Because inmates lack access to Wikipedia and Google, many use dictionaries to learn and understand their own court cases, she said.
Other popular requests include thesauri, almanacs, art, “airport books” such as Stephen King novels and LGBT topics, Toro Martinez said. She added that there has been an increasing amount of requests for books with “trans themes.”
The organization is one of few that reaches out specifically to LGBTQ inmates. Charenko said prisoners often write to the organization thanking them and explaining what they have learned from the books and how they found support in the books that they otherwise would never have received.
Power of books in prison and what they mean to prisoners, from a letter we responded to yesterday: pic.twitter.com/ToeoQET5BX
— LGBT Books to Prison (@LGBTBooksPrison) November 2, 2014
Since its conception, the organization has extended its reach to more than 3,800 LBGTQ prisoners in 45 states and has sent out around 7,000 to 8,000 books in just the past year, Toro Martinez said.
LGBT Books to Prisoners sends books to almost any prison from which they get requests, with the exception of Texas. Toro Martinez said Texas had to be cut from the program because the organization could not sustain the amount of requests from its prisons.
The organization gets help from many community partners, including the local Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative, which provides a free space for them in its basement, Toro Martinez said. Most prisons require books to be sent from an official bookstore, which is where the bookstore comes in, she said.
The organization has also paired with Outreach LGBT Community Center, Against Equality, University of Wisconsin LGBT Campus Center and other organizations, Toro Martinez said.
Charenko said she hopes LGBT Books to Prisoners will become sustainable in the future so all inmates can receive their requests.
“We all have dreams for what this project could turn into later,” Toro Martinez said. “But for now it’s doing what we’re doing already – better.”
