My first day as a teaching assistant for an Inside-Out class was the first day I walked inside a prison. I had no idea what to expect and did not know what questions to ask. When we arrived at the…
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Lessons from a Prison Book Club Volunteer
The first rule of Book Club: You must talk about Book Club. Derivatively inverse of Fight Club’s mantra, I believe this philosophy best sums up one of the key aspects of serving as a volunteer at a prison. While many…
The Other 95%
For the past six weeks, APBP volunteers have been working to understand the terms and implications of a contract signed by the WV Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation (WVDCR) with the private telecom company Global Tel Link (GTL). Our concern…
Waking Up to the Reality of Prison Book Policies
In The Washington Post’s “Book Club” newsletter, critic Ron Charles wrote about access to books in prisons. He highlighted work by Prison Legal News, PEN America, the Prison Policy Initiative, and APBP. Connecting the Dots What I especially appreciate about…
Why Books Matter
I teach literature inside prisons. My students are serious, observant, and purposeful readers. They light up with books. When one looked at the cover of Dwayne Betts’ memoir A Question of Freedom, he said, "I can't wait to show the…
How Much Does It Cost to Read a Free Book on a Free Tablet?
"War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength." So goes the official slogan of George Orwell’s Oceania, a hyper-surveillance-based police state underpinned by the illogic of doublethink. Defined in 1984 as “the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in…
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The Prison Book Club Syllabus: Learning, Listening, Inspiring
The men’s book club at Hazelton is about to have its third meeting, and already, the group has had such an impact on us. A Promising Start Everyone was nervous on our first day—no matter how many book clubs we…
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America’s Largest Book Ban Is Behind Bars
Join the Appalachian Prison Book Project and PEN America during Banned Books Week 2019 to learn more about censorship and banned books in prison. A Rise in Prison Censorship Departments of Corrections (DOCs) often claim that book bans and book…
The Start of a New Prison Book Club
Book clubs are places of gathering and welcoming; analyzing and discussing; writing and dreaming. Attendees read new things, meet new people, and tackle new ideas. These clubs are iconic and mobile, and they can happen anywhere. Even behind bars. From…
Religion Behind Bars: A Request to Create a Rastafarian Library
An overwhelming and exciting majority of the hundreds of letters we receive each week are directly from incarcerated people in Appalachia, but not all of our correspondence is from the people behind bars. Sometimes, we get letters or emails from…
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