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COVID--and the response from carceral facilities--is hurting incarcerated people in so many ways beyond the illness itself, e.g., access to libraries & education was virtually eliminated in many facilities.
Also, request letters to us plummeted after March. Why? (A short thread)
Also, request letters to us plummeted after March. Why? (A short thread)
We receive 1,000-1,200 requests for books each month from ppl across the country. This has held steady for the last decade.
Jan 2019: 1,031 letters.
Feb 2019: 1,278 letters.
June 2019: 1,126 letters.
Jan 2020: 1,217 letters.
Feb 2020: 1,069 letters.
June 2020: 836 letters.
Jan 2019: 1,031 letters.
Feb 2019: 1,278 letters.
June 2019: 1,126 letters.
Jan 2020: 1,217 letters.
Feb 2020: 1,069 letters.
June 2020: 836 letters.
The change in the number of request letters for books that we've received from June 2019 to June 2020: -34.7%. Nearly 1/3 of the anticipated request letters simply didn't arrive. And that's not an anomaly for 2020. The entire year from April onward has been like this.
A note: we don't serve men's facilities in CA (years ago, we coordinated w/ other programs to divide densest areas b/c rising costs; we kept TX, others took CA). Years later, we sometimes get requests from these facilities.
Jan-Sept 2019: 1191 letters
Jan-Sept 2020: 265 letters
Jan-Sept 2019: 1191 letters
Jan-Sept 2020: 265 letters
We considered a possibility that declines in staffing could be impacting access to mailrooms. By June, prisons in every state were reporting understaffing, per @shadowproofcom @bsonenstein: https://shadowproof.com/2020/02/12/all-50-states-report-prison-understaffing/
Another possibility to explain this decline in requests:
An overall drop (2%-22% by state) in prison populations as facilities stopped taking jail transfers, courts closed, & parole officers stopped punishing low-level violations (see from @MarshallProj: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/07/16/prison-populations-drop-by-100-000-during-pandemic)
An overall drop (2%-22% by state) in prison populations as facilities stopped taking jail transfers, courts closed, & parole officers stopped punishing low-level violations (see from @MarshallProj: https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/07/16/prison-populations-drop-by-100-000-during-pandemic)
Unfortunately, these declines are unlikely to account for a nearly 35% decline in mailed requests for books. More likely: as COVID continues & economic help has flatlined, incarcerated people and their families are making difficult choices to conserve resources, including stamps.
Because of underlying systems in this country, people who are incarcerated & their families are much more likely to be in poverty. Incarceration is also set up to drain money from people and loved ones; families must buy everything from deodorant to phone time to stamps.
The @ellabakercenter found that 1/3 of families of ppl in prison go into debt to stay in communication. We're 8 months into a pandemic & people in prison are JUST NOW becoming eligible for the single stimulus check that the government issued since the start of the pandemic.
Prisons are sites of scarcity even under the "best" conditions. COVID is underscoring the horrendous decisions that individuals and families must make. It's very possible that the drastic reduction in letters to Books to Prisoners is a symptom of this. Given everything...
Please support some of the established commissary funds to help incarcerated people meet daily needs for supplementary food & comms. Funds include:
@nu_abolition
@BICFGeorgia
Check mutual aid/abolition groups for your area. Find yours @Beyond_Prison: https://www.beyond-prisons.com/mutual-aid-networks-resources
@nu_abolition
@BICFGeorgia
Check mutual aid/abolition groups for your area. Find yours @Beyond_Prison: https://www.beyond-prisons.com/mutual-aid-networks-resources
Thank you for taking the time to read this thread and for supporting people in carceral facilities, whether through time, money, or books. Even w/ lower request volumes, we're struggling to navigate COVID restrictions to keep up--so thanks especially to our intrepid volunteers.
