In an office on West Genesee Street, 11 volunteers folded more than 250 forms they would eventually send to people incarcerated in New York state prisons. The volunteers worked on behalf of Unchained, a Syracuse-based nonprofit dedicated to dismantling the prison industrial complex. The forms, sealed in colorful, custom-designed envelopes, will allow incarcerated people to request books, which Unchained has organized to be sent back to incarcerated people free of charge. Emily NaPier Singletary, Unchained’s co-founder and co-executive director, is one of the people spearheading the effort to increase access to educational resources inside state prisons.“They’re cut off from so many types of information sources,” said NaPier Singletary, whose husband Derek, Unchained’s other co-founder and co-executive director, is incarcerated. Unchained organized the “mailing party.” PM Press, which calls itself an “independent, radical publisher,” will help distribute the books to the incarcerated people. The program is called “Unchain the Page.” Because PM Press is a vendor, any packages sent by the publisher will not count toward an incarcerated person’s limit of two packages per year. The 250-plus incarcerated activists are members of Unchained and communicate their testimonies and opinions on policy work with the organization through prison-issued tablets and JPay, an app that allows for communication between incarcerated individuals and people outside the prison for a fee. JPay also charges incarcerated people to purchase books, movies and music at high prices.Unchained’s work with PM Press will help incarcerated people and their families avoid sinking their commissary funds into books. The books will be focused on abolition and activism, though will not be exclusive to those topics.“These books could help build that framework to contextualize their own lived experiences within the larger context of white supremacy and capitalism that drives prison industrial complex,” NaPier Singletary said. Books and reading in prison are notoriously thorny topics for prison officials. Earlier this year, New York Focus found that prisons regularly block access to books about the criminal legal system, including books about solitary confinement and books about incarcerated women. Until two years ago, Blood in the Water, a book by Heather Ann Thompson about the Attica prison uprising, was banned in state prisons. NaPier Singletary once tried to send a copy to her husband, but it was never delivered. She’s optimistic that the books Unchained plans to send to incarcerated people through PM Press will not be rejected by the state’s prison system. Katie Tastrom, a partner of the project who published a book with PM Press and helped stuff envelopes, believes the program is important to increase the small variety of information incarcerated people have access to.“The lack of access to education in prisons proves the point that the purpose isn’t to get better, isn’t for rehabilitation. The way people are treated. The way things often get worse and people can decompensate mentally,” said Tastrom.Teddy Robinson, 63, who volunteered to stuff envelopes with Unchained, is an apprentice through the UnchainNYrogram. Unchained created a curriculum to teach formerly incarcerated people how to use their experiences to become community organizers. Robinson remembers how precious and scarce books were for him while incarcerated. He read and reread the few books he had, taking his time and focusing on each word, Robinson said. He’d look forward to returning to his books throughout the day. “It’s like going to the movies, or going to a gospel, a concert. This is what it meant to me reading these things,” said Robinson.Robinson attributes his reading to keeping himself sane in what he called the “inhumane conditions” of prison. He also found a sense of community through books in prison, he said. Because books were so limited and the libraries were closed more than they were open, people would look through each other’s books and trade when they finished. “It helps you escape from your present situation and have some peace of mind while you’re traveling through the pages,” said Robinson.Unchained’s members also hope the program provides incarcerated people a feeling of meaningful connection with the outside world. While some of its members have family they can stay connected to, others don’t have anyone to communicate with.Even just getting a piece of mail to request books can be a mental and emotional boost amid experiences of isolation, said NaPier Singletary.“We get letters and messages about how meaningful it is to know that they haven’t been forgotten in there,” she said. “That someone is paying attention to them and looking out for them.”The post How Unchained plans to increase incarcerated people’s access to books in New York state prisons appeared first on Central Current.