Resources: Free Books Programs

The Appalachian Prison Book Project (APBP) sends free books and provides educational opportunities to people incarcerated in the Appalachian region. We serve six states: Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. You can request by topic area or title, and we will do our best to find a good book for you.

Athens Books to Prisoners is a volunteer-run organization that sends free books to prisoners in Ohio only.

A grassroots, volunteer-run prison abolition project that provides free books upon request to people incarcerated in New Jersey prisons. Please include your name, ID number, facility name, address, and the kind of books you want. Since all of our books are donated, we can't guarantee exact titles (though we do our best). New Jersey only.

Free books across the Eastern Seaboard. Sends to DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA & VA only.

Free book project covering Alabama and Texas. Write with general requests.

We carry FREE books on many topics (please request by topic, not title or author) and specialize in the following:  History (world), Black, Latino Native American and Asian Studies, Women’s studies / feminism, Labor studies / unionism, Philosophy, Sociology, and Literary Classics. We serve nationally and send 3-6 books at a time.

Provides free books to people incarcerated around the US. Write to request specific titles, authors, and or general types of books you're interested in. If we don't have exact titles or authors on hand, we will do our best to send a close match from books available. Serves: federal facilities and CA, TX, and FL state facilities.

Volunteer-run organization that sends books and other educational materials, free of charge, to LGBT-identified people in prison across the US (except those in TX). Will send books in Spanish (enviar libros en Español). Sends one package of books per year.  Prefers requests by topic/genre, but can occasionally fulfill specific requests. Serves all states except Texas.

The only organization that provides books of their choosing to youth in Illinois prisons. Volunteer-run. Write for a catalog of options. Illinois only.

Write in your book requests by topic or genre, or have a friend print the optional order form from our website and mail to you. Spanish resources available. No law books. Sends books to people who are locked up in jails, prisons, and ICE facilities in Louisiana, Alabama, and Arkansas.

Midwest Pages to Prisoners provides free books and zines to prisoners in these ten Midwest states only: AR, IA, IN, KS, MN, MO, ND, NE, OK, & SD. In your letter, please tell us what type of reading material you are interested in—sharing subjects and genres of interest is most helpful. 

Write for free books from a large assortment of fiction and non-fiction, including political and history books, and other educational books. Does not send religious texts. Fills requests from all states except AL, FL, LA, MA, MI, MS, NC, PA, OH, and WI. Priority for New York prisoners.

All-volunteer non-profit organization that sends free educational books and quality reading material to people incarcerated in Pennsyvlania. Pennsylvania only.

The Prison Books Collective Publishing and Distribution is a books-to-prisoners nonprofit based in Durham, NC. PBC's catalog includes radical essays, guides, games, and Words of Fire, our literary magazine of art and writing by incarcerated people (always accepting submissions). Sends books and zines to any incarcerated men in NC, incarcerated people of all genders in AL, and people incarcerated in federal prisons in DE, KY, MD, TN, VA, and WV. Women in NC should mail the NC Women's Prison Book Project. Zines available to people across the US—write for a catalog.