Books to Prisoners Spokane
books2prisonersspo.bsky.social
Books to Prisoners Spokane
@books2prisonersspo.bsky.social
We seek to empower people who are incarcerated with access to the books and knowledge they deserve by connecting incarcerated individuals with reading materials at their request.

Help us by donating!
https://secure.everyaction.com/nshNJIVbyUm_mAb5AnrqOA2
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Books to Prisoners Spokane has a wish list on Bookshop!

Help us purchase these relevant, requested books so our volunteer team can ship your donation to incarcerated folks across the country.

Books stimulate not only the imagination but growth for the future.

bookshop.org/wishlists/e8...
Books to Prisoners Spokane Matching Grant Wishlist
Bookshop.org Custom Registry
bookshop.org
"[A]bout 60% of people coming into the Spokane County Jail have behavioral health disorders, and 20% of people leaving the jail are homeless."

This mass incarceration does NOT provide solutions or better our community.

#EndMassIncarceration

www.spokesman.com/stories/2022...
May 17, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Books to Prisoners Spokane
We're halfway there. Please help us spread the word. Have a great weekend, folks!
👥 This week, we launched a newsletter campaign to add 200 new readers. Can you help us reach our goal? Invite your friends to sign up for the Sunday newsletter. ⤵️
Get The Inside Story
The Inside Story is Prison Journalism Project’s weekly newsletter, which highlights our writers’ best work. Get it right in your inbox.
prisonjournalismproject.org
May 16, 2025 at 10:14 PM
We are so excited! Portrait artists at Terrain are partnering with Jupiter's Eye to do a book drive for Books to Prisoners!!

Come in Friday, June 6th from 6-8 pm at 411 W Riverside Ave, Spokane, WA and purchase books for Books to Prisoners and you will receive a portrait drawing FREE!
May 13, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Another week, another pile of books being shipped to fulfill folks' requests.

Our volunteer team can do this because of community donations. Thank you to everyone who has bought from our wishlist on bookshop!! We receive a matching grant from the Hull Foundation and are able to send even more!
May 4, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Reposted by Books to Prisoners Spokane
My Fellow Black People‼️ There is no non-racist capitalism; there is no non-deadly capitalism.

Black People‼️ Please, PLEASE heed the words of our ancestors.

There is no place for us in this nation—no safe place for Black America to thrive within the capitalistic structures of these United States.🇺🇸
May 1, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Reposted by Books to Prisoners Spokane
[Book requests from prisoners] remind us that reading, at its core, isn’t about cultural capital or carceral control. It’s about maintaining our essential human right to imagine differently, to choose freely, and to find joy in our own way, even within confinement. #MustRead
Learning prison regulations felt like studying for a degree in carceral bureaucracy. Behind every rejection lurked an institutional paranoia: hidden messages, drugs or seeds of discontent that might blossom into unrest concealed within innocent pages. Must-read!

lareviewofbooks.org/article/read...
Reading Behind Bars, and Beyond Barriers | Los Angeles Review of Books
Jackie Snow reflects on what working for a books-to-prisons nonprofit has taught her about reading.
lareviewofbooks.org
May 1, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by Books to Prisoners Spokane
"I first make a sketch using white or brown regular colored pencils. Next I add a few highlights with my watercolor pencils. Then I get my Q-tips out and start dipping them into my paints and filling in the sketch. ... Once that's finished, I take a Q-tip or toothpick and begin to dot the work."
Using floor wax and colored pencils, John W. Zenc creates his own acrylic paints. His art has earned him the nickname "Picasso." Here’s how the 65-year-old, working with Q-tips and toothpicks, has become a remarkably resourceful artist.
In Prison, They Call Me Picasso
Nicknamed Picasso in his California prison, artist John W. Zenc uses homemade acrylic paint and Q-tips to create his idiosyncratic artworks.
prisonjournalismproject.org
May 2, 2025 at 1:19 AM
We always learn something reading people's letter requests.

In this letter, that Paul Morphy could play chess blindfolded. Imagine that!

Not many prisons accept hard cover books anymore, so it was doubly special that we had just the book requested--and that the facility would accept it!
May 1, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Reposted by Books to Prisoners Spokane
If you're looking for some more inspiration for ways you can take action in your community, explore our One Million Experiments website—you'll find snapshots of community-based projects exploring how we can define and create safety and reduce harm without police and prisons. Plus zines + a podcast:
One Million Experiments
Exploring snapshots of community-based projects that expand our ideas about what keeps us safe.
millionexperiments.com
April 30, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Reposted by Books to Prisoners Spokane
To learn about why policing doesn’t stop violence, why police reforms will never work, and more about how the demand to defund police is the floor, No More Police by @prisonculture.bsky.social and @dreanyc123.bsky.social is essential.

For excerpts, interviews, and resources related to the book:
No More Police: A Case for Abolition — Interrupting Criminalization
In this powerful call to action, New York Times bestselling author Mariame Kaba and attorney and organizer Andrea J. Ritchie detail why policing doesn’t stop violence, instead perpetuating widespread ...
www.interruptingcriminalization.com
March 5, 2025 at 12:24 AM
Reposted by Books to Prisoners Spokane
Did you miss Independent Bookstore Day? Don’t worry! You can donate a book to DCBTP today from bookshop.org and get free shipping! Support independent bookstores and send books to prisoners - linktr.ee/dcbtp #BooksToPeopleInPrison #IndieBookstoreDay #PrisonBooksWishlists
April 27, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Books to Prisoners Spokane gets all our letters from @bookstoprisoners.bsky.social Seattle.

The letters are as unique as you and me and the individuals that write them.

One common theme is always that books HELP. They provide entertainment, information, connection, spirituality, and HOPE.
April 26, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Another week, another huge pile of packages Books to Prisoners is fulfilling to ship to incarcerated folks!

Due to limited funds each package contains 3 books usually. Recently we've been receiving a lot of requests for adult coloring books.

Thank you to our community for helping make this happen!
April 25, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Spokane County Jail discriminately incarcerates more Black people—something the JFA Institute reported when Spokane County paid them to analyze jail disparities.

Increased police state disproportionately harms people of color—and benefits the wealthy. #FreeThemAll

www.inlander.com/news/spokane...
April 24, 2025 at 1:54 AM
Incarceration disappears people from our community. Legally they can be used as slave labor to enrich the billionaire class.

Spokane has contracts using incarcerated folks' labor for cheap furniture, etc.

This does our community no good.

#FreeThemAll #EndMassIncarceration
April 23, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Reposted by Books to Prisoners Spokane
Spokane County Jail is no exception.

We must demand our officials prioritize medical treatment for medical emergencies.

Addiction is a disease, and withdrawal can be fatal. Locking up people for drug-use offenses—preventing treatment—only harms our community.

www.spokesman.com/stories/2019...
‘They should have taken him to the hospital’: Records detail Spokane County inmate’s overdose death
Shane Carson, 31, overdosed on methamphetamine and some type of opioid. But at the time, corrections officers believed he was “detoxing” or experiencing withdrawal symptoms, and they dismissed the con...
www.spokesman.com
April 23, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Books to Prisoners Spokane has a wish list on Bookshop!

Help us purchase these relevant, requested books so our volunteer team can ship your donation to incarcerated folks across the country.

Books stimulate not only the imagination but growth for the future.

bookshop.org/wishlists/e8...
Books to Prisoners Spokane Matching Grant Wishlist
Bookshop.org Custom Registry
bookshop.org
April 23, 2025 at 7:45 PM
When Books to Prisoners Spokane receives letter requesting free books, we don't just get authors or subjects or book titles.

Incarcerated writers pour their personality through drawings sometimes.

We're grateful to be able to be able to donate so much through community support!
April 23, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Reposted by Books to Prisoners Spokane
if we're defining a constitutional crisis as a breakdown in the rule of law or the erosion of constitutional protections, then we’ve been in one for a long time (see: US prisons.) what we’re seeing now is just that breakdown becoming more visible to people who were never directly targeted before
April 14, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Reposted by Books to Prisoners Spokane
April is Second Chances Month, which means we're thinking a lot about life after prison.

And that's exactly what our friend Renaldo Hudson spoke about when he visited us a couple of years ago.

Listen to his talk on perpetual punishment:
Renaldo Hudson: Understanding Perpetual Punishment
YouTube video by Appalachian Prison Book Project (APBP)
www.youtube.com
April 10, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Books to Prisoners Spokane has a table at Get Lit tomorrow!

Join us as we listen to featured authors, guest speakers, and SpokAnimal open mic time. There's poetry and more.

We're selling t-shirts and books we cannot send to incarcerated folks, to fund sending more!

inside.ewu.edu/getlit/get-l...
April 12, 2025 at 12:29 AM
Spokane's criminal legal system similarly discriminates.

SPD + Prosecutor Larry Haskell overcharge individuals—both in # of charges & severity of charges—to guarantee plea deals.

If you hit 9 charges, they'll then demand max sentencing.

www.scarspokane.org/haskell-back...
April 11, 2025 at 7:30 PM
We send books to incarcerated individuals almost every week! Here is an example of the packages we put together to send out—each package contains ~3 books.
April 11, 2025 at 4:10 PM