12/06/07:Prisoners Reading Project - Camy Matthay
Prisoners Reading Project
The Capital Times :: LIFESTYLE :: D3
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Lynn Danielson
Prisoners in Wisconsin and elsewhere have received hundreds of books this year thanks to the Wisconsin Books to Prisoners Project. The all-volunteer group, which began a year ago, has sent 400 packages of two or three books to 23 correctional institutions in the state, as well as to prisoners in 13 other states.
The project is trying to help address the inadequate selection of books in prison libraries, encourage literacy and support self-education.
So far, the group reports in a press release, Madisonians have been generous in donating books, and the biggest challenges are keeping up with the cost of postage and with specific requests such as dictionaries, thesauruses, books by African-American authors, drawing books, and - surprisingly - books by Friedrich Nietzsche.
Inmate requests included:
* "Do you have any books by Steinbeck?"
* "I'm trying to learn more about the Civil War."
* "I'm trying to teach my cellie Spanish. Do you have any instruction books for beginners?"
* "Do you have the sixth Harry Potter book?"
* "I'd like to read an autobiography of Tolstoy, Gandhi and/or Martin Luther King Jr."
New or gently used fiction and nonfiction can be dropped off at Rainbow Books, 426 W. Gilman St.; Lakeside Press, 1334 Williamson St.; or Madison Infoshop, 1019 Williamson St.
For more, contact Camy Matthay at 455-2712, maha@chorus.net, or Molly Stentz at Rainbow Books at 257-6050.
The Capital Times :: LIFESTYLE :: D3
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Lynn Danielson
Prisoners in Wisconsin and elsewhere have received hundreds of books this year thanks to the Wisconsin Books to Prisoners Project. The all-volunteer group, which began a year ago, has sent 400 packages of two or three books to 23 correctional institutions in the state, as well as to prisoners in 13 other states.
The project is trying to help address the inadequate selection of books in prison libraries, encourage literacy and support self-education.
So far, the group reports in a press release, Madisonians have been generous in donating books, and the biggest challenges are keeping up with the cost of postage and with specific requests such as dictionaries, thesauruses, books by African-American authors, drawing books, and - surprisingly - books by Friedrich Nietzsche.
Inmate requests included:
* "Do you have any books by Steinbeck?"
* "I'm trying to learn more about the Civil War."
* "I'm trying to teach my cellie Spanish. Do you have any instruction books for beginners?"
* "Do you have the sixth Harry Potter book?"
* "I'd like to read an autobiography of Tolstoy, Gandhi and/or Martin Luther King Jr."
New or gently used fiction and nonfiction can be dropped off at Rainbow Books, 426 W. Gilman St.; Lakeside Press, 1334 Williamson St.; or Madison Infoshop, 1019 Williamson St.
For more, contact Camy Matthay at 455-2712, maha@chorus.net, or Molly Stentz at Rainbow Books at 257-6050.
Submitted by wnpj on Fri, 12/07/2007 - 1:15pm.