Urbana-Champaign Books to Prisoners

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Urbana-Champaign Books to Prisoners

UC Books to Prisoners is an Urbana, Illinois based project of the Independent Media Center (IMC).

We provide free books to incarcerated individuals in Illinois by mail, to the Juvenile Detention Center and run a small library in the county jail.

06/16/2026

Look what our volunteers found this week! A New York City Metro card tucked inside a copy of The Temporal Void.

It was probably being used as a bookmark. What sort of random objects do you use as bookmarks?

06/11/2026

To our delight, we received a hollowed out Textbook of Abnormal Phycology this week! It came to us already empty, but we are so curious what used to be hidden inside.

Unfortunately, this book cannot be sent to a prison, but our volunteers got a kick out of it!

06/09/2026

A gift we received from one of our prisoners: an origami elephant and eagle.

Prisoners frequently send us art in their letters like origami, drawings and poetry, and we treasure every piece.

06/08/2026

Come see us at the Juneteenth Celebration this Saturday!

Learn how we send books to prisoners and how you can get involved. We will also have our handmade book earrings for sale!

📆 June 13
⏰ 12-3pm
📍 Douglass Park

05/28/2026

📖Prison Book Spotlight📖

In "Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail," Malika Oufkir tells her story of how her and her family were imprisoned for twenty years in a desert penal colony after her father, a general, attempted to kill the king of Morocco in 1972.

Her book was featured on the New York Times Best Selling List as well as Oprah's Book Club.

05/26/2026

📖Prison Book Spotlight📖

We have a section of of shelves dedicated to prison memoirs.

In "Beyond Innocence: The Life Sentence of Darryl Hunt," journalist Phoebe Zerwick tells the true story of the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of Darryl Hunt in 1985 North Carolina.

Her book recounts his later exoneration and advocacy work that brought about prison reforms such as the ability of death row prisoners to appeal their sentences based on racial bias.

His case helped illuminate systemic racism in the U.S. justice system. However, he tragically passed away of su***de in 2016.

05/21/2026

📖Prison Book Spotlight📖

In "The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row," Anthony Ray Hinton tells the true story of how he was wrongfully convicted of murder and spent 30 years on death row in an Alabama prison before being exonerated.

The Guardian called his memoir a "harrowing masterpiece."

05/19/2026

❤Look what we found!

One of our volunteers found an origami heart made of Vietnamese money, called dongs, in a donated copy of Tom Robbins' "Another Roadside Attraction."

Thank you to the person who donated this book! Your contribution makes our mission possible.

05/17/2026

📖Prison Book Spotlight📖

We have a section of our shelves dedicated to memoirs about experiences in prison.

In “I Will Never See the World Again,” Ahmet Altan, a Turkish journalist, writes from his cell after being arrested in the wake of a coup in Turkey in 2016.

He was released in 2021 and his charges were overturned after the European Court of Human Rights accused Turkey of violating his civil rights.

04/22/2026

📖That’s a wrap on our Spring Benefit Book Sale!

A big thank you to everyone who came out to the sale, to the .imc for hosting, and to our volunteers who make it all possible!

See you in November!

Address

202 S Broadway Avenue
Urbana, IL
61802

Website

http://www.books2prisoners.org/

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