We use your kindly donated money for postage for the 1000+ book packages we send to prisoners monthly. But the PLP has also been making strides in buying (discounted!) requested books.

Many of our prisoners have requests for books that we can’t fulfill only from donated books. We will do so if we think the request is relevant, stimulating, and we don’t have even a partial substitute. (It’s a small minority of the books we send out, but we know those prisoners appreciate it.)

As a result, we’ve long bought paperback dictionaries & thesauruses, via both remainder websites & eBay. (That’s our number one requested item.) And chief librarian Bruno has also been buying other much-requested items like ‘how to draw’ books, history books, tradecraft books and more.

But more recently we’ve made further breakthroughs. Volunteer Eunice has teamed up with Peter, Rowan and others to get through almost our entire ‘special requests’ list from prisoners, including American Sign Language books, astronomy books, and much more – largely using affordable secondhand books or bookseller credits.

In addition to this, Bruno & Simon have discovered a cache of graphic novels (a much requested item, also difficult to find discounted), & ordered more than 100 of them, including many Marvel interpretations of classic novels, as well as multiple volumes in The Unwritten series from Vertigo.

We’re proud that we’re one of the few prison books programs in the country to keep up with requests (we still answer letters in 6 weeks of less, despite increased volume) & also afford to buy remaindered books to keep up with specific requests we can’t fulfill in other ways. Thanks again for the help that you give that allows us to do this!