What kind of book is most often requested by people who are incarcerated? The book that prison inmates ask for the vast majority of the time is a dictionary. These books, as well as thesauruses, prove useful for mastering reading skills, writing letters home, and taking college courses. Prison Book Program, based in Quincy, Massachusetts, has an extensive list of organizations across the country that accept used books and provide them to prison inmates, as does the American Library Association. Although dictionaries are in high demand, it’s important to check what kind an organization will take, as many accept only paperback versions. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Prison Book Donation Programs”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
We heard from K2 in Quilseen, Washington, who wrote us to say that she regularly donates books to people in prison.
And do you know the book that prison inmates most often ask for? It surprised me.
I don’t know, law books or crossword puzzle books or romance fiction or…
We’re on a language show, so I’m guessing something related to what you and I do.
Yes, I was very surprised to learn that the number one request of people who are incarcerated is dictionaries.
Dictionaries. Dictionaries.
Yeah, and to a lesser extent, thesauruses.
That’s lovely. As a fan of dictionaries myself, I think that’s great.
What are they using them for?
Well, a lot of people are using them when they’re taking college correspondence classes or maybe they’re writing to family and friends and they just want to look up a word, or maybe they’re learning English for the first time as a second language.
You know, Malcolm X, in his autobiography, said that he taught himself to read and write in prison by copying page after page from dictionaries.
That’s fantastic.
Yeah, I could see, you know, having the time and the will to improve your knowledge of the language.
You have all these very concrete reasons to perfect your language.
I need to write to my family to express my love for them.
I need to write to my lawyer to express my interest in pursuing this case.
I need to write this essay for this correspondence course so I can pass this and get this degree.
All these very specific cases in this dictionary as a fundamental instrument of learning is being put to its perfect use.
I love that.
Yes, and I learned a lot of this from a Massachusetts organization called the Prison Book Program.
But there are lots of these programs around the country.
The American Library Association on its website has a list of them.
And it surprised me.
That hadn’t occurred to me that that would be the thing that would be most requested.
But I know I have some old dictionaries lying around the house.
You have to check out what kinds of books can be donated on these sites because, for example, the one in Massachusetts doesn’t take hardcover books, but I know I have some softcover dictionaries.
Yeah, that sounds great.
So we can look on the Prison Book Program’s website for how to donate our books to prisons and prisoners.
That’s fantastic.
I should do that too because, believe me, I have way too many books here.
Why does that surprise me?
And dictionaries, I’m sure.
Whether it’s donating books to prisons, building little libraries, teaching people to read, or anything else related to literacy and learning and books, we’d love to hear about it.
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