[Bookstoprisoners] tamms

Holley K hollymn1 at yahoo.com
Wed Feb 22 11:22:18 CST 2006


You are doing a wonderful  job.  It is great to hear about so many volunteers involved with sending books out to prisoners.   I want to share something I keep reading about from men at Tamms and see if you feel we can do anything about this?  
  Tamms is the Supermax prison.  they are in their cells 23 hours a day.  I write to several men there once or twice a month, and maybe 10 more occassionally.  They are isolated from each other,  and are not together for yard,  etc. They have to have money sent in to be able to buy TV sets or radios,  and many don't have the money to purchase them. I have had maybe 5 men tell me that the librarians have quit and they have no access to the library!  One said there was an interim person, but they still couldn't get books. I think it is cruel and certainly will make them more angry,  if not plain crazy,  to spend years at a time with nothing to do!  some do go crazy from the isolation.  Even at yard,  it is concrete all around with sky just above them.  
  Last spring I purchased a number of those frequently  requested african american books,  called and talked to the librarian,  and sent them in care of their school district.  I had hoped that more than one person could read them then.  So now they sit there!

  Could you help me call there or write letters to TAmms about the lack of access to books?  
  Holley Kramer
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Today's Topics:

1. Re: what books most popular in the jail? (Suzanne Linder)
2. Re: what books most popular in the jail? (Susan Porter Bruce)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 10:28:19 -0600
From: Suzanne Linder 
Subject: Re: [Bookstoprisoners] what books most popular in the jail?
To: Holley K 
Cc: bookstoprisoners at lists.chambana.net
Message-ID:
<3f0a48830602220828y935881ha0f6b69528e8fe71 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Holley--

The Mystery/Thrillers are the most popular (Dean Koontz, Jame Patterson,
Grisham...the usual suspects) but the most requested books (as in the ones
we don't have nearly enough of) are books by Donald Goines, Iceberg Slim,
popular press fiction by African-American authors and poetry by
African-American poets. Also very popular are the Chicken Soup for the Soul
books and the Left Behind series.

Thanks for filling those special requests! It's great that you can send
books directly to inmates now--Jay did a great job with the website :)

Suzanne

On 2/21/06, Holley K wrote:
>
> Without anyone taking a lot of time tabulating book by book, I am just
> curious as to the categories of books that were checked out most often.
> You're doing a great job there!
>
> *bookstoprisoners-request at lists.chambana.net* wrote:
>
> Send BooksToPrisoners mailing list submissions to
> bookstoprisoners at lists.chambana.net
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/bookstoprisoners
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> bookstoprisoners-request at lists.chambana.net
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> bookstoprisoners-owner at lists.chambana.net
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of BooksToPrisoners digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Jail "statistics" to date (Susan Porter Bruce)
> 2. Books to Prisoners in Illinois (Sandra Ahten)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 13:34:07 -0600
> From: Susan Porter Bruce
> Subject: [Bookstoprisoners] Jail "statistics" to date
> To: BTP Libraries , BTP
>
> Message-ID: <0C1E6232-97A1-44C3-895D-B77624BDC808 at yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed
>
> Jail Librarians and others interested in Books-to-Prisoners:
>
> As you may know, the jail check-out cards were sorted last week, with
> the cards of those who have been released or sent to prison put in
> the back of the box. (Librarians did this using a print-out that a
> helpful guard brought in.)
>
> I decided to take these home Friday so I could count up whatever was
> easily countable.
>
> I estimate we've been going to the jail for 20 weeks, and during that
> time we created about 220-240 cards which are now retired. (I know
> there were more than I have, because we had quite a few smaller cards
> before we switched to the larger ones.) We probably have another 100
> currently in the box, i.e. people still at the jail and using the
> library.
>
> Of the 220 I have, 52 were women (23%.) That seems higher than I
> might have thought, but there may be more turnover for women.
>
> Some cards show only 1-2 books checked out, some have as many as 40.
> (We all know several who are on their second cards and who check out
> 6 books each week.) Of course, it depends on the length of their
> stay, and how often they choose to come to the library.
>
> I'll hang onto these, as we may want to sometime take the trouble to
> list the books checked out. If anyone wants to see these or do
> anything with them, let me know.
>
> In sum, we've served something like 350 or 400 people.
>
> Jay, perhaps we might share this with Nancy?
>
> Susan Bruce
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 21:45:30 +0000
> From: "Sandra Ahten"
> Subject: [Bookstoprisoners] Books to Prisoners in Illinois
> To: jdicianni at ilsos.net
> Message-ID:
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
>
> To: Illinois Literacy Foundation
> From: Sandra Ahten, Coordinator, UC-Books To Prisoners Program,
> www.books2prisoners.org
>
> Hello, I am coordinating a Books To Prisoners Program for prisoners in
> Illinois Prisons. We have been active for nearly two years and have put
> more
> than 4000 books into the hands of inmates at no charge to them. We collect
>
> books from the community; sort and store them; and then answer individual
> inmates specific requests. We supplement our stock with dictionaries that
> we
> purchase. More than 85% of our first time requests are for dictionaries.
>
> We have more than 20 volunteers participating each week.
>
> In addition we have piloted a program that stocks and staffs our county
> jail.
>
> We have done our own funding through books sales (selling excess donated
> books) and community solicitation /donations. We are supported in-kind
> through our parent organization the UC-Independent Media Center.
>
> I am interested in meeting with you in person or by phone and discussing
> the
> possibility of the Illinois Literacy Foundation funding a few specific
> projects. Could you tell me how to reach you -- or what you believe our
> next
> step should be?
>
> Sandra Ahten
> 217-367-6345
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> BooksToPrisoners mailing list
> BooksToPrisoners at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/bookstoprisoners
>
>
> End of BooksToPrisoners Digest, Vol 9, Issue 14
> ***********************************************
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> What are the most popular cars? Find out at Yahoo! Autos
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> BooksToPrisoners mailing list
> BooksToPrisoners at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/bookstoprisoners
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Message: 2
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 10:55:03 -0600
From: Susan Porter Bruce 
Subject: Re: [Bookstoprisoners] what books most popular in the jail?
To: BTP 
Message-ID: <63B59DC1-EE24-4DD2-AF40-5DD402CB72B6 at yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

The only categories I would add to Suzanne's list: self-help/ 
psychology and religion are also popular. And graphic novels.
Susan

On Feb 22, 2006, at 10:28 AM, Suzanne Linder wrote:

> Holley--
>
> The Mystery/Thrillers are the most popular (Dean Koontz, Jame 
> Patterson, Grisham...the usual suspects) but the most requested 
> books (as in the ones we don't have nearly enough of) are books by 
> Donald Goines, Iceberg Slim, popular press fiction by African- 
> American authors and poetry by African-American poets. Also very 
> popular are the Chicken Soup for the Soul books and the Left Behind 
> series.
>
> Thanks for filling those special requests! It's great that you can 
> send books directly to inmates now--Jay did a great job with the 
> website :)
>
> Suzanne
>
> On 2/21/06, Holley K wrote:
> Without anyone taking a lot of time tabulating book by book, I am 
> just curious as to the categories of books that were checked out 
> most often. You're doing a great job there!
>
> bookstoprisoners-request at lists.chambana.net wrote:
> Send BooksToPrisoners mailing list submissions to
> bookstoprisoners at lists.chambana.net
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/bookstoprisoners
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> bookstoprisoners-request at lists.chambana.net
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> bookstoprisoners-owner at lists.chambana.net
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of BooksToPrisoners digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Jail "statistics" to date (Susan Porter Bruce)
> 2. Books to Prisoners in Illinois (Sandra Ahten)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 13:34:07 -0600
> From: Susan Porter Bruce
> Subject: [Bookstoprisoners] Jail "statistics" to date
> To: BTP Libraries , BTP
>
> Message-ID: < 0C1E6232-97A1-44C3-895D-B77624BDC808 at yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed
>
> Jail Librarians and others interested in Books-to-Prisoners:
>
> As you may know, the jail check-out cards were sorted last week, with
> the cards of those who have been released or sent to prison put in
> the back of the box. (Librarians did this using a print-out that a
> helpful guard brought in.)
>
> I decided to take these home Friday so I could count up whatever was
> easily countable.
>
> I estimate we've been going to the jail for 20 weeks, and during that
> time we created about 220-240 cards which are now retired. (I know
> there were more than I have, because we had quite a few smaller cards
> before we switched to the larger ones.) We probably have another 100
> currently in the box, i.e. people still at the jail and using the
> library.
>
> Of the 220 I have, 52 were women (23%.) That seems higher than I
> might have thought, but there may be more turnover for women.
>
> Some cards show only 1-2 books checked out, some have as many as 40.
> (We all know several who are on their second cards and who check out
> 6 books each week.) Of course, it depends on the length of their
> stay, and how often they choose to come to the library.
>
> I'll hang onto these, as we may want to sometime take the trouble to
> list the books checked out. If anyone wants to see these or do
> anything with them, let me know.
>
> In sum, we've served something like 350 or 400 people.
>
> Jay, perhaps we might share this with Nancy?
>
> Susan Bruce
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 21:45:30 +0000
> From: "Sandra Ahten"
> Subject: [Bookstoprisoners] Books to Prisoners in Illinois
> To: jdicianni at ilsos.net
> Message-ID:
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
>
> To: Illinois Literacy Foundation
> From: Sandra Ahten, Coordinator, UC-Books To Prisoners Program,
> www.books2prisoners.org
>
> Hello, I am coordinating a Books To Prisoners Program for prisoners in
> Illinois Prisons. We have been active for nearly two years and have 
> put more
> than 4000 books into the hands of inmates at no charge to them. We 
> collect
> books from the community; sort and store them; and then answer 
> individual
> inmates specific requests. We supplement our stock with 
> dictionaries that we
> purchase. More than 85% of our first time requests are for 
> dictionaries.
>
> We have more than 20 volunteers participating each week.
>
> In addition we have piloted a program that stocks and staffs our 
> county
> jail.
>
> We have done our own funding through books sales (selling excess 
> donated
> books) and community solicitation /donations. We are supported in-kind
> through our parent organization the UC-Independent Media Center.
>
> I am interested in meeting with you in person or by phone and 
> discussing the
> possibility of the Illinois Literacy Foundation funding a few specific
> projects. Could you tell me how to reach you -- or what you believe 
> our next
> step should be?
>
> Sandra Ahten
> 217-367-6345
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> BooksToPrisoners mailing list
> BooksToPrisoners at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/bookstoprisoners
>
>
> End of BooksToPrisoners Digest, Vol 9, Issue 14
> ***********************************************
>
>
>
> What are the most popular cars? Find out at Yahoo! Autos
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> BooksToPrisoners mailing list
> BooksToPrisoners at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/bookstoprisoners
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> BooksToPrisoners mailing list
> BooksToPrisoners at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/bookstoprisoners

***********************
Susan P. Bruce
1501 N Coler Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
217-384-2002
217-840-9120 (portable)


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