cowpies and roadkill are excluded from this offer
books behind bars

Here's the best image out of the last roll I had developed. Its from November's Buy Nothing Day celebration I documented earlier, but on a second roll of film. Austin's Inside Books project collects and distributes books to prisoners in the Texas correctional system, and these are books waiting to be mailed to prisoners.

books going to prison

At the event, Inside Books has a notebook filled with letters and art from recipients of books. You could tell the project was very meaningful to the prisoners, just by looking at the amount of effort they put in their drawings. (OK, I'm sure prisoners have an overabundance of free time, but still.) Some of the letter brought a tear to my eye as I learned how important reading was for these people. One of the most memorable letters was from a man who said he had a problem with masturbating on women guards and reading gave him something better to do!
Growing up, my Catholic parish also collected books for prisoners, so I thought it a little amusing that the Church and anarchists have similar social justice projects. The organizers in Austin said they have no shortage of books to send prisoners, but it costs $2 a pop to send a book to a prisoner. I wondered if church book drives distributed books through the priests and nuns that serve the prisons. A lot of the letters I read that day requested books about Black nationalism, labor issues, and the like, so I'll bet the Catholics don't cater to those interests.

Here is the "scanner abuse" remix of that image:
the scanner-abuse remix

Posted by McChris at January 27, 2003 05:42 PM
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Comments

Jello? The anarchists are sending the prisoners jello?

Posted by: Prentiss Riddle at February 3, 2003 09:09 PM

"The Church and anarchists have similar social justice projects." Dorothy Day would be pleased.

Posted by: Prentiss Riddle at May 20, 2004 02:16 PM
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