Dr. Tom Haney on Books Through Bars, Philadelphia

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/09/02

Books Through Bars has been sending free books to incarcerated people in six mid-Atlantic states (Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia) for over 30 years.

To learn about programs serving people in other states, check out Prison Book Program’s list of books to prisoners programs. We’re all unaffiliated, although of course we admire each other’s work.

We do our best to send the books people ask us for, whatever those may be. By fulfilling all requests to the best of our ability, we work to support self-determination, self-education, and healing behind bars.

Nearly all of the books we send are donated. That means our ability to fulfill requests depends on the donations we receive.

By donating books, you can help ensure that incarcerated people receive the books they need!

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, today, we are here to talk about Books Through Bars, Philly. As a Canadian or a foreigner, I know Philadelphia by its nickname, “Philly,” one of the most recognizable city names in the United States. So, how did Books Through Bars, Philly get started in Philly?

Dr. Tom Haney: Well, Scott, this is interesting because there’s a Canadian connection. Originally, a couple of people working for New Society Publishers here in Philadelphia started the initiative. New Society Publishers has since moved out on the West Coast to Canada.

A person at New Society Publishers, a company dedicated to certain types of books, started receiving letters from inmates. The letters often said, “I don’t have any money, but I’d like to read. Can you send me some books?” This person and a few others got together, and that’s how Books Through Bars began.

There’s a bit more to the story. Two people from New Society Publishers were involved, one of whom was Barbara Harlow, the mother of Books Through Bars. She took over from Todd and got a few of her friends together. The issue was that New Society Publishers didn’t publish the kinds of books that incarcerated people were requesting. So, they branched out on their own, looking for places where they could buy or have books donated, and they were the first to start sending books to prisoners across the United States.

Jacobsen: The United States has a significant incarcerated population. It’s intertwined with various issues, such as racial and class disparities. We can touch on those later. But regarding your role as president, Tom, what responsibilities or tasks does that entail?

Haney: I’ve been with Books Through Bars for about 12 years. Like everyone else, I started by walking through the doors, picking and packing books to send out. I’m now the president of Books Through Bars, which I often joke about, saying it comes with no responsibilities other than having my name on the legal documents. We are a nonprofit organization registered in the state of Pennsylvania. By law, we need three people to sign the legal documents, including the president. My primary duty is to be the face of BTV. I do a lot of interviews and public speaking, and I’m one of the main hosts when volunteers come in to help pick up and pack books for shipment. There are a few other small tasks, but that’s it from my perspective. 

Jacobsen: You’ve received extensive media coverage in Philadelphia, including from the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Citizen. That’s at least half or more of our coverage. How does that happen? How does a Canadian come across this organization every 15 years or so?

Haney: I don’t know how to answer that one. As I mentioned, the roots of Books Through Bars date back to 1989; by 1991, we became a nonprofit organization separate from New Society Publishers. We’ve been around for over 30 years; many people know and contact us. We used to ship books across the United States, but that became too expensive, so now we only send them to prisons in the mid-Atlantic states. However, we’re still fairly well-known across the country. So, that’s how people hear about us. I hope that answers your question.

Jacobsen: It does. That was just a side question. What are the barriers inmates face to accessing literature?

Haney: Now, that’s a big question. 

Jacobsen: Well, the thing is, these organizations exist for a reason. So why? Does public infrastructure need to fill that gap?

Haney: There’s a comparison to be made between now and when Books Through Bars first started. Back then, we were one of only three organizations in the country. Now, there are organizations like ours in almost every state. Plus, there are a couple of similar organizations in Canada and England.

The need for these organizations comes from a few different areas. First, one of the major reasons people end up incarcerated and in trouble is a lack of education—poor or no education—especially if they’re coming from a major city or inner-city area. It doesn’t matter nowadays because major cities’ suburbs and surrounding areas have grown and face the same problems as big cities. So, many people haven’t graduated high school and may not have even made it out of grade school. There are a few reasons for that.

The major one is abuse, especially child abuse, and how a person feels about themselves. A lot of incarcerated people have poor self-esteem, hate themselves, and don’t think they’re worth anything, which leads them to believe they can’t accomplish anything. As a result, their education suffers. Another issue is that once a person is incarcerated, prison schools and libraries are treated like the schools and libraries in major cities—when money is needed elsewhere, ancillary programs are cut.

Those in a big city might see how your public schools work. A lot of smaller programs get cut because funds are needed elsewhere. The same thing happens in prisons. Schools and libraries in prisons are considered ancillary programs. So, when prisons need more funds—typically for security—money is cut from the schools and libraries.

This leaves people inside the prison needing more resources to educate themselves. Books Through Bars’ major goal is to help folks inside educate themselves. We don’t just send educational books; we send all kinds of books and literature. If we can get a book into someone’s hands and they sit down and read it, they’re educating themselves, no matter what the book is.

Two things happened recently. We got a letter from an incarcerated gentleman who serves as the inmate librarian in his prison library. He’s asking us for books because the prison won’t buy more books for their library. Another sad story: we received a letter from a teacher in a high school prison asking us to send books to help her and her students and stock the prison library because the prison recently made significant cuts to the school’s budget. Studies have shown time and time again that if a person can educate themselves before they are released, they have a far better chance of leading a better, crime-free life.

And so, this is our major goal—to help folks on the inside. Another example: About six months ago, we received a letter from a gentleman who sent us the transcript for his GED. He’s been receiving books from us for a few years, but I’m unsure how many. He just got his GED while in prison, and now he’s asking for books to study for the SATs because he wants to go on to college. Folks, getting your GED on the outside can be difficult. Getting your GED in prison could take several years. So, this is no small accomplishment for this particular gentleman, and that’s why we do what we do. We receive thank-you letters telling us how much the books are appreciated and how we’ve helped them. Education is our goal for the folks on the inside.

Jacobsen: Now, African Americans and men typically receive harsher sentences, even when you control for other factors like criminological, demographic, and socioeconomic variables.

Haney: True. 

Jacobsen: In the United States, a significant portion of the prison population is men. So, in terms of unequal sentencing treatment and the disproportionate number of men and African Americans in these areas, this seems like a gender equality issue. This seems like a deep feminist issue that isn’t talked about much, probably because it’s seen as politically touchy, sensitive, or incorrect to advocate for men in this way, in general. When it comes to those effects, how does the lack of literature, even though these organizations now exist more widely, restrict life possibilities for men if they’re in prison or once they’re out, given that they now have a record and often haven’t had access to educational materials?

Haney: What you’re saying is correct. Unfortunately, I don’t have any figures on hand at the moment. But I can tell you that my organization and I are involved with other organizations that support what we call “returning citizens” here in Philadelphia, especially because many of the people being released are people of colour. It takes much work for people to find employment, especially depending on the crime they were incarcerated for.

Employment, in general, is tough, and I don’t have the exact figures, but unemployment is high, no matter what. So, they have to battle—because of their record—to find any employment, especially over someone who hasn’t been incarcerated. Due to their lack of education, the available jobs are often extremely low-paying, menial, and sometimes difficult to handle. This is a huge concern for many people here on the outside.

Another part of your question touches on the fact that some people outside prison feel that those who have been incarcerated—ex-cons—don’t deserve certain things, including decent-paying work. I’ll touch on something else that may not have been part of your question but is relevant to what’s happening in society today: People with alcohol or drug addictions face very poor treatment programs on the inside. These programs don’t work well unless the person is extremely motivated, which many incarcerated folks are not, due to poor self-esteem and self-worth. They don’t feel they deserve anything better.

So, when these folks come out, they still have to fight their addictions, and there’s not much funding for treatment programs on the outside, either. Many of those programs aren’t well-run and don’t perform much better than the programs inside. So, these folks often end up below the poverty line, maybe living on the streets, still fighting their addiction, still seeking drugs and alcohol. If I remember correctly, one study I saw not too long ago indicated that recidivism rates for people with little or no treatment when they come out—good treatment, when they finally do get out—are still 60% or higher. Most of these folks are back in jail within 30 days to a few months.

Another problem with incarceration is that, at least here in the States, we are terrible at taking care of our mentally ill population. Due to cutbacks in mental health programs several years ago, prisons have become overcrowded with people who have mental health issues and should not be there in the first place. This overcrowding takes money away from programs crucial for the people I was talking about. The funds instead go toward building new prisons, increasing security, and hiring more staff. In that respect, our prison system has become a failure because of the overcrowding and the presence of mentally ill individuals who should be receiving care elsewhere.

Jacobsen: What kinds of literature do inmates generally want to read? In other words, if people want to donate books—hint hint, wink wink—what kind of literature should they donate to ensure it gets read rather than sitting and gathering dust?

Haney: Let me put it this way. Anyone wishing to donate should know that there are what we loosely call “books to prisoners” organizations across the United States and Canada. If you go online and type in “prisoner book programs,” you should come up with a list of states and the organizations in those states. Organizations can do it because of your donations. The first thing to do is look up those organizations online. Like Books Through Bars here in Philadelphia, they all have donation pages. Check out their donation page. It will tell you what books we need, what books we don’t need, and what books we won’t accept.

I have some figures in front of me, although they’re a few months old. First of all, dictionaries are the number one requested book. This shows you how many people on the inside want to help educate themselves. After that, thrillers, mysteries, romances, and sci-fi are the books most requested by the public. It goes down the line from there.

We get requests for various kinds of books. For instance, we get business books, hobbies, and art requests. We also receive a fair number of requests for books on law. Let me point this out, folks. Books on law are hard to fulfill because we are not law libraries, and we need to get the type of books donated necessary for someone who wants to work on their cases or appeals from the inside. So, we send them information on where they can look for that material. By the end of 2023, we had sent out roughly 19,000 pounds of books. We receive around 100 letters a week.

Yes, a week of requests. If you can imagine, almost every single day—if you can tell by my fingers here because I don’t have the exact number—almost every single day, we get about that many requests. That would be 30, 40, or even 50 requests a day. Now, not all of them are for us. Some of them are for other organizations around the country. For the states we don’t ship to, we forward those requests to the appropriate organizations so they can respond. In return, those organizations that don’t serve Pennsylvania send the Pennsylvania requests to us. So, we are looking at at least 100 or more weekly requests that our volunteers have to process and send out.

Jacobsen: What is the process for starting an organization like yours in another state or county? It doesn’t have to be grand to be important. 

Haney: When we get a question from someone who wants to start an organization, I usually tell people to start small. Start with your city or county prison first and work out from there. Over the years, this has become an extremely difficulttask.

It’s gotten harder because of prisons’ restrictions on organizations like ours. Getting things started and getting yourself vetted into various prisons is no small task, and you’ll have to put in much personal time to get it up and running. Not only time, but you’ll also have to spend a fair amount of your money to get the place going. When our people started this, postage was, and still is, the highest expenditure for organizations like ours. When these folks started sending books, they bought stamps out of their pockets because they didn’t have enough money from donations to help run the organization. I will say that Books Through Bars has a booklet on how to start a Books to Prisoners organization that lays out all of the major steps to starting an organization like this. It would take me too long to explain it here because you must write letters, wait for replies, and find the right people to talk to—which can be difficult. So, we published a little booklet just for that. I’m not entirely sure how else to say it.

The other thing to consider is that you may already have a Books to Prisoners organization in your town. For instance, here in Pennsylvania, there are Books Through Bars in Philadelphia. Still, there’s also the Prison Book Program in Pittsburgh. So, Pennsylvania has two organizations. New York State has a couple of organizations as well. So, if you’re thinking about this, and if there’s an organization close to you, consider volunteering with that organization because we can always use more help.

Jacobsen: Tom, any final thoughts based on the conversation today?

Haney: No, I hope everybody enjoys this, finds some good insight, and goes out to find a Books to Prisoners organization near them to volunteer with or donate books. You heard what I discussed here in Philadelphia—help your local organizations. Other organizations around you may not necessarily be related to sending books in but are related to prison issues. You might want to get involved with those and help them because it is serious.

For instance, in October, I’m going to a conference in Colorado on public safety. I will discuss how reducing public safety concerns involves working on the front end—before someone gets incarcerated—and on the back end—when people are released, helping them start a better life. This can reduce crime, gun violence, and injuries on our streets. These are ways to get involved and help make a difference.

Jacobsen: Tom, thank you for today’s opportunity and time and for introducing me to Books Through Bars, Philly.

Haney: Yes, folks, remember that. Especially if you’re here in Pennsylvania, if you look us up online, it’s “Books Through Bars,” spelled out, and make sure it’s the Philadelphia address. There are other organizations with similar names, so if you look us up, look for the Philadelphia location. Scott, thank you so much for inviting me here. It was a pleasure. This is enjoyable for everyone to listen to and for you to process and get out there. I hope you enjoyed listening to me talk.

Jacobsen: I did, I did. Thank you. 

Haney: Thanks, thanks, thanks so much, and enjoy the rest of your day.

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Other coverage:

 To learn more about our work and our impact, read the Books Through Bars 2023 End-Of-Year Newsletter.

BTB IN THE NEWS

Books Through Bars: Discussing the Importance of Books in Prisons with Dr. Tom Haney: Pursuing Justice podcast episode, March 21, 2024

Sentences for the Sentenced: The Philadelphia Citizen, March 11, 2024

Second First Chance: A documentary produced by students from Temple University’s Klein College of Media and Communication, May 5, 2019

Under Pressure, Pa. Prisons Repeal Restrictive Book Policy: The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 2, 2018

Pa. Prison Authorities Curb Letters, Books, Newspapers: The Militant, October 1, 2018

One Review of Pa. Prisons’ Pricey Ebooks: ‘Books That Are Available for Free, That Nobody Wants Anyway’: The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 21, 2018

Return to Sender: No More Mailing Books to Inmates in Pennsylvania: Slate, September 19, 2018

Pa. Prison Books and Mail Policies Draw Protests, Petitions, and Possible Legal Challenges: The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 13, 2018

Pennsylvania Prisons Terminating Book Donations Amid ‘Drug Crisis’: Billy Penn, September 12, 2018

Barbara Hirshkowitz, Activist Who Aided Prisoners: obituary for our co-founder in The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 22, 2007

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. ©Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use or duplication of material without express permission from Scott Douglas Jacobsen strictly prohibited, excerpts and links must use full credit to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with direction to the original content.