(Matt Harlan, buzz Illustrator)

Dictionaries, African American history and auto books are some of the most popular requests among Illinois prisoners in letters sent to the Urbana-Champaign Books to Prisoners.

The organization constantly has volunteers improving the lives of Illinois prisoners by sending them literature. One core group, the key staff, primarily runs the organization.

The members of this staff are responsible for processing decisions within the organization, said member Deborah Sanderson.

In terms of the entire organization, Sanderson feels strongly about the organization’s need within the community.

“[We’re] a much-needed service not provided by anyone else,” she said.

The organization’s mission statement, according to its Web site, has four main aspects: “To provide books to inmates in Illinois by recycling donated books, to facilitate a quality volunteer experience, to offer a venue for inmates to tell their own stories [and] to educate ourselves and our community about prisons.”

The prisoners send letters to the organization, requesting different genres of books.

Three times a week, volunteers help key staff members with opening prisoner letters and bundling requested books. After choosing the books, volunteers write personal messages on an insert, which prisoners receive along with their package of five books. Although they currently have space in Champaign’s Independent Media Center, the organization began in a much smaller area.

“When I first got involved with Books to Prisoners, [it operated] out of a closet ... the collection of donated books was in boxes,” said Suzanne Linder, another member of the key staff as well as the treasurer of the group.

Linder became involved near the group’s beginning when she started as a volunteer in 2005.

“The group began by [a University graduate student] Radym,” she said. “It started as a project for one of his library science classes. He got a handful of letters ... [then] more and more inmate requests.”

While the organization does not advertise, Linder said it grows largely due to word-of-mouth from the inmates.

The one expense the organization must endure is postage. The organization’s increasing number of letters, as well as the upcoming postage increase in the next couple of months, calls for more funds than it currently has.

During the past three months, Books to Prisoners has spent about $123 per month, Linder said.

Throughout the past years, Books to Prisoners has coped with the money it earns from its constant sources — profits from Amazon.com and the organization’s biannual book sales.

“If you donate [a recently used textbook] on Amazon, we might be able to get $25 to $30 for that book,” said Barb Kessel, a member of the key staff.

At the book sale, the organization sells only books that do not interest the prisoners, Kessel said.

“We sell all the books that we have not given to prisoners,” said Kessel. “Physics, Jane Austin ... Prisoners aren’t going to be interested.”

Unlike in past years, Books to Prisoners was not able to reserve a booth at the Farmer’s Market for the regular weekend of the spring book sale.

“The book sale is going to be six weeks after we usually have it,” said Linder. “That’s why we have a financial crunch.”

According to Linder, the organization made about $4,000 at the last book sale; this amount held Books to Prisoners for four months instead of the usual six months.

Alternative methods for raising money are being recognized by the organization because of the possible lack of funds as well as the fact that dictionaries, including Spanish dictionaries, are in high demand. The key members have been buying paperback dictionaries for the past year at $2.98 apiece, Kessel said.

“If we don’t figure out some new income stream ... we’re going to have to change our way of answering letters and maybe send three books,” said Kessel. “We don’t want to do that, but we might have to.”

Though the organization mails books to inmates, it also has reading material available in libraries throughout Illinois prisons with staff from Books to Prisoners helping the libraries.

“We write down the names of books they’re taking, [and they] bring [the books] back,” said Kessel. “[They] can only have six at one time, including magazines ... sports magazines, People, National Geographic, stuff like that [is popular] ... What’s interesting to us is the most popular books that are sent are different than the popular books in libraries.”

Autobiographies on Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, along with the urban fiction genre, are extremely popular requests, Sanderson said.

Another common request is for skill books, such as those on auto mechanics, because many inmates hope to start their own businesses after prison.

According to both Kessel and physorg.com, more than 1 out of 100 American adults are in prison.

According to Linder, about 90 percent of inmates come back into our society.

“We forget about them,” said Linder. “We should be invested in them returning as healthy human beings.”

Not only do many inmates come back into our society but they also may not normally have access to reading materials without organizations like Books to Prisoners.

“We can give them that escape, outreach ... materials to help them succeed, learn and to reach out to a world they can’t reach out to otherwise,” said Sanderson.

Amy Sayre-Roberts, a graduate student in LAS and a volunteer, has volunteered with Books to Prisoners for the past couple of months.

“I was really galvanized by [the system],” she said. “It is shocking how lonely and isolated it is. Regardless of their crimes, they’re still human.”

Linder summed up the volunteer experience that Sanderson desires from every volunteer at Books to Prisoners.

“A couple of hours a week can make several people happier,” said Linder. “Then when you go home, you think, ‘Wow, I sent four packages out, and they’re going to have those books to read, even if they’re in segregation ... in there for 23 and a half hours a day.’ Our books reach the darkest corners.”