As the Prisoners Literature Project works through January 2016, we’re hitting some new heights in terms of sending out books to U.S. prisoners. We’re also continuing to receive some wonderful letters that we wanted to share with you.

Firstly, we managed to send out 20 boxes of packages this week (from Jan 5th to 12th, 2016) – that’s around 240-250 packages in total, and probably close to 750 books. This is wonderful, and thanks to all the volunteers who turned up on Wednesday and Sunday – as well as a bonus Sunday evening group session – to get everything addressed, picked, and packaged.

Secondly, we wanted to start showcasing some of the thank you letters (and requests!) from prisoners a little more often – so here are three or four recent examples. Firstly, here’s a wonderful thank you note – which is as applicable to all of our donors as our volunteers and everyone who helps the PLP work:

Here’s a nice holiday message from a prisoner who wrote us back around the Xmas season – very nice of him to do so:

Thirdly, here’s a lovely brief note from someone who explains how he wants to use the books to educate himself and operate his own business when he leaves prison:

And finally, we’ll try to vary things up and showcase some of the requests we get, as well as the thank you letters in the future. This is one of the more amusingly phrased recent requests – CHESS, CHESS, CHESS. (Luckily, we have a whole section in our library devoted to chess books, so that was exactly what we gave him!)