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Red Bird books to prisoners
by Brian Deller
in Journal issue March-April 2005
March 21, 2005

“10,888 days and counting. That’s not the number of books in their inventory; it’s the number of days I’ve been warehoused in prison as of 7/28/04. The most difficult, even painful part of the prison experience is not so much the physical violence, the eight plus years of segregation, being rejected by loved ones, nor the struggle with dependency issues and personal demons. No, the real struggle is for growth. In prison you don’t truly grow as a human being; you just sort of grow old. People grow hopefully through experiencing the world around them, even if it’s simply their community. In the prison world, we fear what we can grow into. For many prisoners, the path to their social, political, spiritual and educational growth and development can be tracked by following the footprints of the worn volumes of books they’ve read and in some instances fought to possess.” - Ray Champagne, inmate, Shirley, Massachusetts

Descending a dark flight of stairs, Jenna Latour struggles to find the light switch while maintaining a hold on a rather cumbersome looking cardboard box. Latour tip toes her way to the farthest end of the subterranean realm and plops down the cardboard box. The lip flips up and its cargo is revealed. Books and lots of them. Some are weathered and might have been current during the Nixon administration. Others appear to be brand new; their covers never opened. It’s Tuesday afternoon. “Welcome to Red Bird Books to Prisoners,” she says.

Columbus’ version of Red Bird Books is run out of the basement of Ujaama Books at 1206 North High St. Ujaama Books is a radical African American bookstore that is part of the Alkebulan Community Center.

“We receive letters from people incarcerated across the country and make them packages of books, reading materials and legal resources if we have them and send them into the prisons,” Latour states, as she begins to sort through the inmates letters. After the piles are sorted Latour and another volunteer, Remy Berkowitz, read through the letters and write the desired genres and books on the outside of the envelopes.

“We need to help prisoners because while they are in there, they are supposed to be rehabilitated, but they are not. They’re being dehumanized. You cant just take a person and rip apart everything they know and put them in a situation where they have to move whenever they are told, have no freedoms and believe truthfully they are going to be able to enter back into society,” she states. “It’s not just the prison system we are against. There are bigger problems why people end up in prison. We can’t just expect that throwing them in jail is going to solve the problems.”

“We get a wide array of requests. People want something they can dig into. Something they can get into and escape.” Berkowitz explained. “Dictionaries are the most requested books. Second are textbooks or self help books. Westerns, Sci-fi and true crime are the third most. Some prisoners request legal books because they want to find out more about the processes that put them there. ”

Future plans for Red Bird Books to Prisoners involves getting more volunteers interested and a steady flow of money to keep the books going into prisoners’ hands. A Hip Hop benefit show is being organized for March.

Get Involved! Donate!
Red Bird Books to Prisoners
c/o Ujaama Books
1206 N. High Street
Columbus, OH 43201
redbirdbooks@gmail.com
614-299-4488 or 412-972-0471
Volunteer Hours:
Tuesday 12-3pm
Friday 12-3pm.

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