If you have lightly used paperback books sitting around, consider donating them to the Rogue Liberation Library. The group, an all-volunteer network that operates out of Peace House, will use the books to help to fill the growing number of requests from people in prisons across the country.
Book donations can be dropped off at Peace House, 543 S. Mountain Avenue in Ashland.
In September alone, the small group shipped 334 packages of books to inmates, clocking 173 volunteer hours. A total of 5,784 books have been sent in 2022 so far. This incredible success comes amid new prison policies in some states that have banned titles, and even barred families and third party groups from sending the media to people in prisons.
“We have been experiencing an increased demand for books,” said Cooper Dean, the coordinator of the project. “We are one of the few books to prisoners programs that does not have a three to six month backlog of requests.”
Dean said that correspondence with prisoners has confirmed that staff shortages in prisons means people are left in their cells for much longer periods and library access has come to a halt in certain circumstances.
Franklin, of Beeville, Texas reported conditions from inside prison in a letter to RLL dated October 11, 2022.
“The library here since COVID is always closed or you have to write to them and tell them what books you want but you can’t go down there to see what they do have,” Franklin wrote. “Texas is having a very bad problem of “short-staffed”. Most of the time it is just an excuse to mess us over and for them to sit around and do nothing.”
“I can no longer keep up with the volume of books that we need to fill requests,” Dean continued.
A wide range of state and prison policies create obstacles to families and booksellers who are trying to send books to people living inside prisons. Rogue LIberation Library keeps up to date with policy changes and works to overcome systemic barriers to knowledge in place in the US system of mass incarceration.
Paperback books in good condition and free of writing can be dropped off 24 hours a day, seven days a week in the green book bin on the lower level of Peace House, at 543 S. Mountain Avenue in Ashland. Monetary donations can be made securely online or mailed to Rogue Liberation Library, P.O. Box 524 Ashland, Oregon.
