Give the Power to Unlock Worlds
Feeling the urge to give to the less fortunate this holiday season? Looking for something different, something secular, something that immediately helps those not helped by the usual charity suspects? How about something that exceeds even the usual "for just pennies a day you can change a life" standard?
Vicky Wright at AP:
For people behind bars in six Appalachian states, the books are one of the few forms of escape — hundreds of used volumes, wrapped in brown paper and stacked thigh-high under a table, just waiting to be shipped.On November 18, Melissa Harris-Perry had a great show that focused on prison reform. The whole show is worth watching, but this segment eliminating - not reducing, but eliminating - recidivism through inmate education is riveting.
Parenting and self-help books. History and law. Dictionaries, biographies and fiction. Whatever the subject, volunteers with the Appalachian Prison Book Project believe they hold the power to unlock worlds.
From a small room in a historic house next to the Morgantown Public Library, they organize requests, exchanging letters to find just the right read and getting permission from prison administrators while simultaneously scrambling to raise money for shipping.
SNIP
Many prisons lack the money to develop a good library, and most inmates have no way to buy books themselves, Ryan said. Her team receives requests that range from pragmatic (a Scrabble dictionary to settle fights) to heartbreaking (a mother determined to become a better parent.)“I have MS and am bound to a wheelchair, so I spend most of my time reading,” one Tennessee prisoner wrote. “I don’t have anyone on the outside that can help me with finances or packages. You are very special people to do this for us.”
SNIP
For more information on the book project, go to http://aprisonbookproject.wordpress.com.
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