Abusy2025atDC BookstoPrisons!
We got a lot done at DC Books to Prisons this past year, sending more than 6,500 bundles of books (on average of 3 books per bundle) in response to individual written requests to over 500 federal and state prisons across the country.
To increase our reach within the prisons we serve, in October we cut the time people must wait to request books from us from five months to four.
We met and exceeded our fundraising goal in 2025 thanks to the hard work of our volunteers and the support of all of our generous donors! This will allow us to handle the increase in letters we anticipate for the coming year.
And not including training sessions, we had over 100 different people volunteer with DC Books to Prisons in 2025.
MissionStatement
DC Books to Prisons works to provide a wide variety of informative, educational and enjoyable reading material, free of charge, to inmates in US prisons We prioritize inmates in underserved regions and respond to individual inmates' requests, whenever possible including short personal notes (which are sometimes as important as the books we send). Efforts include selected secondary projects to address the gap in resources and access to reading material
We believe that books can change lives They can change the way people view the world, other people, and themselves, provide an education, provide a vocabulary, and open minds to new possibilities
IndependentBookstoreDay bookdriveandfundraiser
From April 21-May 5, we once again held a book drive in conjunction with Independent Bookstore Day on April 26 Along with the book drive, a donor matched the purchase price of all books with a cash donation Over 200 books were donated off our Politics and Prose and bookshoporg independent bookstore wishlists!
Keep an eye out for our 2026 Independent Bookstore Day book drive in April!
Copaganda
Author Alec Karakatsanis of Civil Rights Corps donated 50 copies of his recent book “Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News,” a very provocative work that clearly shows the link media, security forces, universities, and “liberal’ politicians have in growing the increasingly repressive security state and ensuring unequal justice We sent 36 to the prison book clubs we support, and the rest went on our shelves to fulfill individual requests
PublicDefenderbookdrive
The producers of the documentary Public Defender, along with screenings of their film, have been holding book drives across the country for organizations like ours, and on January 16 we were the beneficiaries of their work for the second time
Brigadier General
CharlesE. McGeeLibrary (SilverSpring)
On May 17, volunteers spoke for an hour at the Brigadier General Charles E. McGee Library (Silver Spring) about DC Books to Prisons, presenting the work we do and how we do it This was followed by an extensive Q&A session, with a few people signing up to come in for training!
Supporting bookclubs
In 2025, with help from our Independent Bookstore and Banned Books Week book drives and donations off our book club wish list, we sent 272 books in total to the prison book clubs we support in three states. Copies of Catcher in the Rye, Are Prisons Obsolete?, The Light Between Oceans, All About Love, The Four Agreements, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and 14 others were sent out this year
BannedBooksWeekbookdrive andfundraiser
Prisons and jails ban more books than all public schools and libraries across the country combined, and the bans keep expanding Reasons given include format, condition, content, size, quantity, source, or the made-up fear they are all dipped in fentanyl. In order to bring awareness to this problem, and help serve those we can, the annual Banned Books Week Book Drive and Fundraiser was held from October 5-11. Expanding our book store partners, with Solid State Books in DC and People’s Book in Takoma Park joining us, the campaign brought in 406 new books filling important needs, for our most successful book drive yet. In addition, a donor gave us a matching donation equal to the price of the book. We also spent an afternoon tabling at Solid State Books, joining the Penguin/Random House Banned Wagon to bring further awareness to this issue and our organization
Georgetown DaySchool
We again hosted students from the GDS Summer Policy Institute in June who chose to focus on studying the criminal justice system Visiting our room at The Foundry, they learned about the work we do to serve the incarcerated and answered some letters themselves.
Gamernight fundraising andbookdrive
Comics, Manga, and RPGs are very popular requests from those we serve.
On April 10 our friends at Fantom Comics in DC hosted a Mario Cart Grand Prix fundraiser and book drive that helped stock our shelves and raise money the money to send them off..
DCPunkRock FleaMarket
For the second year in a row we tabled at the DC Punk Rock Flea Market, which was packed with people eager to here about us and what we do Zines were sold, names were added to our email list (maybe yours!), some came in to be trained!
Giving Tuesday/Endof-Year fundraising drive
A large percentage of our yearly fundraising comes in at the end of the year, and this year our year-end fundraising drive was boosted by a very generous $10,000 matching donation from an anonymous donor This goal was more than exceeded by 93 smaller donations that allowed us to meet our 2025 organizational fundraising goals. Thanks to all of you who helped us out!
MentalHealthbook drive
For the month of May the President Lincoln’s Cottage museum held a book drive for much needed and appreciated books on mental health.
LGBTQ+ Book donations
Twice this year Little District Books donated much needed LGBTQ+ titles!
Trainingnew volunteers
As an all-volunteer organization, our work is possible only because of the dedication of volunteers. People who wish to volunteer with us must first attend an orientation and training The number of people who want to be trained keeps growing, to the extent we expanded our training team! In 2025 we trained sixty new volunteers, and looking at our waiting list, we have more in 2026!
If you have yet to be trained as a volunteer and would like to, please email us at btopdc@gmail.com to be added to our orientation wait list. Those on the wait list will be notified via email when training times become available
ForgottenTreasures
“I want you to keep this letter and read it in times of difficulty" This sentence appears near the end of a deeply moving letter of love and support Was it a letter from a volunteer to a prisoner? No Was it a letter from a prisoner to a volunteer? Also no
The letter was sent to a person who did not, as far as we know, have any connection to anyone in prison. The person apparently treasured the letter, keeping it flat within the pages of a book. Unfortunately, the letter was forgotten when the book was later given away.
We find similar items in used books almost every week. Some appear to have been placed in books for safekeeping, while others were clearly being used as bookmarks Items have included a child's artwork, family photos, two prescriptions from an gastroenterologist for controlled substances, pressed flowers, a tax form (complete with enough information to steal the recipient's identity), a lottery ticket, dollar bills, business cards, a membership card for a golf club, and airplane boarding passes. Recently, a volunteer learned about purchases her spouse had made when she discovered three of his credit card receipts in a book.
We check books carefully before sending them, both to protect the privacy of book donors and to prevent the incarcerated recipients of books from getting in trouble for possessing "contraband" However, we are seldom able to reunite the misplaced treasures found within books with their rightful owners
Every Wednesday, people find their way to our room carrying used books to donate to us Some arrive wearing bicycle helmets, lugging only as many books as they can fit in their backpacks Others come by car, bringing two boxes filled with books People with larger donations are encouraged to email us at dcbtop@gmailcom to make arrangements But, if you plan to donate books to us, please flip through them first and remove any items you find. You might find something you may want to keep.
Supportus!
As an entirely volunteer-run organization working from a donated space, every dime we raise is spent fulfilling our mission as an organization You can support our work with a monetary donation through this Paypal link or the Venmo QR code below. You can also send a check to DC Books to Prisons PO Box 34190 Washington DC 20043-4190.
Whattocome in2026...
We will continue to seek out ways to expand our reach within the prison populations we serve In February we will start stamping the inside covers of most of the books we send, so that when they are passed around to others they cam learn about us.
We will continue to seek out new and build upon existing collaborations with local independent book stores
We will seek out new opportunities to participate in community events to bring greater awareness of our work
We will start the year increasing the number of new volunteer training sessions to two a month.
And we will continue
Morenews!
In 2025 BtP volunteers brought 15 boxes holding more than 500 children’s and YA books to the library at the Residential Institution for Children & Adolescents in Baltimore. In addition, volunteers sent holiday cards for the kids to use for art or to write notes to their friends and facility staff.
Every two months, the St. John Norwood Episcopal Church community in Chevy Chase donates at least 8 boxes full of great books!
American University students and staff are great supporters, with regular book drives by various student organizations, including law students and AU's Zero Waste project, bringing in books that have been rescued from professors and students' vacated premises!
The Cleveland Park DC Public Library regularly gives us carefully chosen books, plus whatever we want from their book sales!