Sending free books to people incarcerated in texas
Inside Books Project is a volunteer-led nonprofit based in Austin, Texas that sends free books and reading materials to people incarcerated in Texas.
Inside Books is the only books-to-prisoners program in Texas, where more than 130,000 people are behind bars. We work to promote reading, literacy, and education among incarcerated individuals and to educate the general public on issues of incarceration.
Get involved
Volunteer
We hold two volunteer sessions a week where volunteers read letters and requests from incarcerated individuals, select books from our donated library to send back, and write a letter in response.
Donate funds
Give your gently used books a second life by donating them to Inside Books. Incarcerated people request specific books and educational material, and volunteers match those requests with books donated from our community.
Donate books
We have sent over half a million free books to incarcerated people in Texas, funded entirely by donations from our community. Inside Books Project has no paid staff — all donations go directly to supporting our mission.
Each year, we send more than 35,000 free books to people in Texas prisons.
We believe that everyone in prison has the right to quality reading and educational materials, and that reading, learning, and self-expression are invaluable opportunities that are too often denied to the incarcerated. In Texas, cuts to prison education programs and libraries continue to highlight the emphasis on punishment over rehabilitation. The benefits of literacy in people’s post-incarceration lives are well-documented, and evidence points to a beneficial relationship between supplemental reading and increased literacy.
