Despite being locked up and miles away from home, many men and women serving time in correctional facilities still have an opportunity to experience the world behind bars.
Books Through Bars (BTB) is a local non-profit organization with a mission to answer book requests from those incarcerated. Since the 1980s BTB has been serving Mid-Atlantic prison population by collecting and sending various books to prisoners. Collectively run by volunteers of the Walnut Hill community, individuals, school and church groups and even men from half-way houses come to the A-Space Anarchist Community Space located on 4722 Baltimore Avenue to package various book requests. These volunteers meet every Tuesday evening at 7PM to 9PM and the first and third Saturday of each month from 11AM to 2PM.
Over the past two years, BTB sent over five thousand book packages to prisoners in Pennsylvania and other surrounding states in the Mid-Atlantic region. Tim Dunn, BTB organizer and volunteer, is ecstatic about the recent delivery of law and criminal justice books from a Drexel student led book drive.
“We get a lot of request for dictionaries, thesauruses, vocational books, GED [study books]. Spanish and English [books], Black history, Korans and Bibles come in, too,” Dunn said.
Not only does BTB answer book requests, but streaming from the walls of the A-Space is numerous art work from prisoners. In early January, BTB has even started the Library Project at the Riverside Correctional Facility. The Riverside library now has the most well-stocked library within the Philadelphia Prison System. For information about book donations or volunteer opportunities vist their website: http://www.booksthroughbars.org/
Trenae McDuffie, Taquiya Miller, Cedar Park
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