Books for prisoners; Can you help?

The non-profit Wisconsin Books to Prisoners (WBTP), in conjunction with Rainbow Bookstore (Madison), sends books, free of charge, to prisoners in Wisconsin and other states who request them. They need your help.

Many prisons have antiquated, non-accessible, and, in some cases, non-existent library facilities. As a result, prisoners have little or no reading or educational material. WBTP tries to address this problem.

WBTP currently gets about 30 requests a week and each package of 2-3 books costs on average about $3 to mail. During the past year, postage costs alone exceeded $3,000, and that’s expected to double by the end of 2008.

The project is facing a financial crisis and must raise funds for postage immediately; it has temporarily suspended sending books to out-of-state prisoners until it raises money for postage.

Can you help?Checks can be made out to and mailed to: “Wisconsin Books to Prisoners”, 1019 Williamson St. #B, Madison, WI 53703.

Books are also needed, fiction and non-fiction, soft covers preferred. More info here.

Current Drop Off Sites for Donated Books:

Fair Ground Coffeehouse, 5901 W. Vliet St., Milwaukee WI 53208

Lakeside Press, 1334 Williamson St., Madison, WI 53703

Madison Infoshop, 1019 Williamson St., Madison, WI 53703

Rainbow Bookstore, 426 W. Gilman, Madison, WI 53703