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Since 1994, the Women’s Prison Book Project (WPBP) has provided women and transgender –identified persons in prison with free reading materials covering a wide range of topics from law and education (dictionaries, GED, etc.) to fiction, politics, history, and women’s health. We are an all volunteer, grassroots organization. We seek to build connections with those behind the walls, and to educate those of us on the outside about the realities of prison and the justice system.
Of the more than two million people confined in U.S. prisons and jails, over 150,000 are women. Eighty percent of these women are there for non–violent crimes, such as shoplifting, prostitution, drug related convictions, and fraud. Of the women convicted of violent crimes, the vast majority were convicted for defending themselves or their children from abuse. More than 1/2 of all women in prison are women of color, and two–thirds of women in prison have at least one child under eighteen. Most of these mothers had primary custody of their children before going to prison.
These facts mean that women in prison have specific needs for particular
kinds of information: material on families, children, women's self–help,
women's health, and legal aid pertaining to women who fight back against
their abusers. There are also many lesbian, bisexual, and transgender
prisoners who often have trouble obtaining information that is relevant
to their lives. As new prisons are built to warehouse the growing
number of incarcerated people in the U.S., the meager resources previously
available to prisoners are being cut or limited to only a few. WPBP is
one place where women/transgender persons in prison can get information
that is often unavailable from any other source. WPBP works to support
prisoners; and through that solidarity work to empower prisoners themselves
and build connections through prison walls.
We recognize that prisons and the entire “justice” system
are about controlling and suppressing the lives/movements of the poor,
women, and all people of color. The U.S. has the highest incarceration
rate in the world, and that is no accident.We urge all progressive people
to include prison issues as an integral part of the struggle for sweeping
social change. In keeping with this view we also acknowledge that as activists
on the outside it is vital to provide whatever material support that WPBP
can to women political prisoners and prisoners of war in U.S. prisons
and jails.
For more on how you can be involved, please visit our volunteer opportunities and book donation pages.