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Books Beyond Bars
CAL’s Books Beyond Bars (BBB) program provides free reading materials to incarcerated New Yorkers.
BBB’s mission is to provide free reading materials to indigent, incarcerated individuals and to advocate for policies that support their access to information. BBB’s goal is to encourage literacy, education, self-empowerment, personal growth, or simply to provide a brief escape from the dehumanization of the criminal legal system.
Since its founding in November 2016, BBB has sent thousands of books and magazines to individuals locked in New York’s jails and prisons. Initially a program limited to CAL’s clients, BBB now also sends reading materials to any incarcerated individual who sends us a request, including clients served by three other major public defense offices in New York, expanding the program’s reach to individuals convicted in criminal courts in all five boroughs.
Incarcerated individuals, like anyone else, deserve the chance to achieve personal success and fulfillment. We hope that our program can, at least in some small measure, help them towards that end. At a minimum, we hope that by the seemingly simple act of sending a book in the mail, we can demonstrate to our clients that, although the New York justice system has largely failed them, there are people who remain committed to their welfare and who care about them as human beings.
For more about Books Beyond Bars, please visit booksbeyondbars.org. Or follow us on Instagram @booksbeyondbarsny
As importantly, we hope that by the seemingly simple act of sending a book in the mail, we can demonstrate to our clients that, although the New York justice system has largely failed them, there are good people in New York City who remain committed to their welfare and who care about them as human beings.
Impact
BBB’s goal is also to give our clients a diversion from the trying realities of their daily lives.
We think books are liberating, and our clients agree, as one recently wrote to us:
"I have to say that this book ha[s] me like a kid again ... When I read the book it unlock[s] things inside of me, it's like I'm being set free, like someone gave me back my liberty ... I would never forget this nice thing you've done for me. And you might think to yourself, for a book[?] But it's not just a book, it's the path that this book is about to set me on"
Contact
Ben A. Schatz and Alexandra Schoenborn coordinate this project for CAL.
Help Us
We welcome your support, make a donation to Books Beyond Bars.