Chicago Books to Women in Prison is a volunteer collective that distributes paperback books free of charge to people incarcerated in women’s prisons nationwide. We are dedicated to offering women behind bars the opportunity for self-empowerment, education, and entertainment that reading provides.

There are dozens of ways you can help by giving your time, books or a monetary contribution. We especially welcome money for postage, which is our largest expense.

For more information, email us.

Helping women find their place, one woman at a time. Our Place, DC (Our Place) is a unique non-profit organization in the District of Columbia (DC) dedicated to providing gender-specific direct services and advocacy to help formerly and currently incarcerated women come back home from prison. We operate with a mission to support women who are or have been in the criminal justice system by providing the resources they need to maintain connections with the community, resettle after incarceration, and reconcile with their families. Our Place helps women remain drug and alcohol free, obtain decent housing and jobs, gain access to education, secure resources for their children, and maintain physical and emotional health with a goal of helping women succeed in the community rather than engage in behaviors that result in re-arrest.

An informational guide by Defining Wellness Centers on how to identify different types of trauma and its effect on the brain.

Partnership for Safety and Justice (PSJ) is a multi-faceted, statewide advocacy organization based in Portland, Oregon.PSJ was founded in 1999 originally as the Western Prison Project. We have developed a pioneering and provocative model for our work – one that brings together all of those most directly affected by crime, violence and the criminal justice system (survivors of crime, people convicted of crime, and the families of both) to advocate for a system that is just and that more effectively builds safer, healthier communities.

We are the first advocacy organization in the country to unite all of these constituencies. We believe this approach offers a holistic perspective and a valuable strategy for shifting Oregon towards more effective, prevention-based approaches for creating community safety.

A resource and support network for formerly incarcerated women.

National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) works to secure the human and civil rights, health and welfare of all women, focusing particularly on pregnant and parenting women, and those who are most vulnerable - low income women, women of color, and drug-using women.

To educate and provide services to women and girls who have been victims of commerical sexual exploitation (prostitution/sex-trafficking) and need assistance escaping the violence in their lives.

Operated by Gina, a formerly incarcerated woman, Breaking the Chains, creates and sends care-packages to women in prison. Gina's blog provides updates on her work.

"Our goal was to create a city-wide environment where young women were involved in all major decisions that impact their lives — using their ideas to find new solutions to old problems. This model meant that young women who were formerly incarcerated or working in the street economies had the support to become leaders, policymakers, researchers, employers, and activists. As a result, we have created a place for young women to come together, heal from past experiences, dream and achieve their visions for the future through leadership development, youth organizing, employment training, and health and wellness.&quot

They are an international organization that provides religious services and materials to Jews in prison and their families throughout the world.

It is an institution that stands ready to help anyone who may reveal a desire to embrace Islam and serves as a source of guidance for Muslims.

As employees of In Touch Ministries, we have the daily and unique God ordained opportunity to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world via radio, television, satellite, cable TV, short wave, books, our magazine and the Internet.

We are a Ministry; a Prisoner Ministry. Our focus is Spiritual and on the individual looking for help. We freely offer a variety of spiritual reading materials. We provide a year-long Spiritual Recovery Correspondence Course for those in need of a more structured Program. We also offer Spiritual Training Classes on-site for those who are physically incarcerated.

AHAM's primary purpose and ongoing mission is the preservation and dissemination of Self-Inquiry, the pure stillness and peace of abiding in the One Self.

Edgar Cayce's Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc. (A.R.E.®), is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1931 by Edgar Cayce (1877-1945), to research and explore transpersonal subjects such as holistic health, ancient mysteries, personal spirituality, dreams and dream interpretation, intuition, and philosophy and reincarnation.

The Prison Birth Project is an organization focused on reproductive justice, working to provide support, education and advocacy to women and girls at the intersection of the criminal justice system and motherhood. You can find an article about The Prison Birth Project in the zine "Don't Leave Your Friends Behind."

Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS) is the only organization in New York State specifically designed to serve girls and young women who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking. GEMS mission is to empower girls and young women, ages 12-21, who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking to exit the commercial sex industry and develop to their full potential. GEMS is committed to ending commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking of children by changing individual lives, transforming public perception, and revolutionizing the systems and policies that impact sexually exploited youth.

Information and woman-centered approach to drug and alcohol recovery. Pen-pal program.

Advocacy group. Produces a newsletter written by and for HIV+ women and women with AIDS. Information and referrals.

Information for older prisoners.

Offers support, educational materials, and referrals for prisoners with HIV/AIDS.

Spanish version of POZ magazine.

Magazine about living with HIV. Free subscriptions to prisoners.

Resources, referrals, newsletter, fact sheets. Info in English and Spanish.

Health information (medical, social, political) available for African American women. Write for newsletter.

Resources, referrals, newsletter, fact sheets.

12 step program for recovery of drub abuse. There is a charge for booklets.

Free packets for diabetics. Includes information about the disease, diet, and exercise.

12 step program for recovery of alcohol abuse. There is a charge for booklets.

To educate and provide services to women and girls who have been victims of commerical sexual exploitation (prostitution/sex-trafficking) and need assistance escaping the violence in their lives.

Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS) is the only organization in New York State specifically designed to serve girls and young women who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking. GEMS mission is to empower girls and young women, ages 12-21, who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking to exit the commercial sex industry and develop to their full potential. GEMS is committed to ending commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking of children by changing individual lives, transforming public perception, and revolutionizing the systems and policies that impact sexually exploited youth.

Organization for sexual abuse survivors using the 12 step method. Free literature.

Free crisis line.

Free Information and resources.

Information, referrals, and legal assistance for battered women. Works a lot with prisoners. Free newsletter.

Lots of info and resources. Free newsletter.

Chicago Books to Women in Prison is a volunteer collective that distributes paperback books free of charge to people incarcerated in women’s prisons nationwide. We are dedicated to offering women behind bars the opportunity for self-empowerment, education, and entertainment that reading provides.

There are dozens of ways you can help by giving your time, books or a monetary contribution. We especially welcome money for postage, which is our largest expense.

For more information, email us.

Founded in 1971, the PEN Prison Writing Program believes in the restorative and rehabilitative power of writing, by providing hundreds of inmates across the country with skilled writing teachers and audiences for their work. The program seeks to provide a place for inmates to express themselves freely with paper and pen and to encourage the use of the written word as a legitimate form of power. The program sponsors an annual writing contest, publishes a free handbook for prisoners, provides one-on-one mentoring to inmates whose writing shows merit or promise, conducts workshops for former inmates, and seeks to get inmates' work to the public through literary publications and readings.

Partnership for Safety and Justice (PSJ) is a multi-faceted, statewide advocacy organization based in Portland, Oregon.PSJ was founded in 1999 originally as the Western Prison Project. We have developed a pioneering and provocative model for our work – one that brings together all of those most directly affected by crime, violence and the criminal justice system (survivors of crime, people convicted of crime, and the families of both) to advocate for a system that is just and that more effectively builds safer, healthier communities.

We are the first advocacy organization in the country to unite all of these constituencies. We believe this approach offers a holistic perspective and a valuable strategy for shifting Oregon towards more effective, prevention-based approaches for creating community safety.

Suspension Stories is a youth-led participatory action research project that incorporates survey research, interviews, storytelling, popular education and art.

The project’s goals are to:

1. Develop and administer a survey about suspensions, expulsions, and the schoolhouse to jailhouse track to students across Chicago.
2. Collect and circulate many stories from different youth in Chicago about suspensions, expulsions, and the schoolhouse to jailhouse track.
3. Learn from the surveys and the stories about what can be done to decrease suspensions and expulsions.
4. Solicit and create art (visual and writing) that illustrates the connections between schools and jails and compile all of our information to create an interactive website.
5. Increase our collective ability as youth to challenge the schoolhouse to jailhouse track in Rogers Park.

The non-profit, non-partisan Prison Policy Initiative documents the impact of mass incarceration on individuals, communities, and the national welfare. We produce accessible and innovative research to empower the public to participate in improving criminal justice policy.

Operated by Gina, a formerly incarcerated woman, Breaking the Chains, creates and sends care-packages to women in prison. Gina's blog provides updates on her work.

WORTH (Women on the Rise Telling HerStory) is an advocacy/consultant group comprised of formerly and incarcerated women, who have the expertise and understanding to engage, navigate and challenge policies and perceptions concerning incarcerated women.

American non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about Paganism and building community. We are positive, proactive, and dedicated to results! We are a network of members, subscribers, and networking partners, using progressive techniques emphasizing respect, pluralism, human rights, and individualized local action.

Launched in 2009, Project NIA works to dramatically decrease the number of children and youth in Chicago who are arrested, detained, and incarcerated. We help communities develop support networks for youth who are at risk of or have already been impacted by the juvenile justice system. Through community engagement, education, participatory action research, and capacity-building, Project NIA facilitates the creation of community-focused responses to violence and crime.

In 1974, women imprisoned at New York’s maximum-security prison at Bedford Hills staged what is known as the August Rebellion. Protesting the brutal beating of a fellow prisoner, the women fought off guards, holding seven of them hostage, and took over sections of the prison. Why do activists know about Attica but not the August Rebellion? Resistance Behind Bars documents collective organizing and individual resistance among women incarcerated in the U.S. and challenges the reader to question why these instances and efforts have been ignored and why many assume that women do not organize to demand change. It fills the gap in the existing literature, which has focused mostly on the causes, conditions and effects of female imprisonment. Women have significantly disrupted the daily operations of their prison to protest injustices and demand change. More often, however, they have employed less visible means such as forming peer education groups, clandestinely organizing ways for children to visit mothers in distant prisons and raising public awareness about their conditions. By emphasizing women's agency in resisting individually as well as organizing collectively against their conditions of confinement, Resistance will spark further discussion and research on incarcerated women's actions and also galvanize much-needed outside support for their struggle.

Prison of Peace is a pro bono project created by professional mediators Laurel Kaufer, Esq. and Douglas E. Noll, Esq. at the request of life and long term inmates at Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, CA. Prison of Peace strives to embed peacemaking, defined as collaborative, respectful problem-solving processes to resolve interpersonal and group conflicts, within the prison and to provide an avenue for continuing education and training for correctional officers and administrators in conflict resolution, peacemaking, and restorative justice.

Film: War On The Family, Mothers in Prison and the Children They Leave Behind

JACKIE RIVET-RIVER, an EMMY Award winning filmmaker and the founder of Peace Productions, began her film career in Chicago at the Fred A. Niles Communications Center (now Harpo Productions) and was the first female in the Midwest Chapter of the Director's Guild of America.

JOHN LYONS is an EMMY Award winning documentary filmmaker. A graduate of Chicago's Columbia College, he has produced, directed, shot and edited films in various areas of the humanities, often taking him around the country and the world. The first film he co-produced and co-directed, Too Flawed to Fix: The Illinois Death Penalty Experience, completed in 2001, was widely acclaimed and the recipient of several awards. He is also an accomplished photographer.

The Urban Institute gathers data, conducts research, evaluates programs, offers technical assistance overseas, and educates Americans on social and economic issues — to foster sound public policy and effective government. Today, we analyze policies, evaluate programs, and inform community development to improve social, civic, and economic well-being. We work in all 50 states and abroad in over 28 countries, and we share our research findings with policymakers, program administrators, business, academics, and the public online and through reports and scholarly books.

Established in 1985 as the Western Regional Office of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA), the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ) is a nonprofit nonpartisan organization promoting a balanced and humane criminal justice system through the provision of direct services, technical assistance, and policy analysis. CJCJ maintains a professional staff with diverse backgrounds and expertise. Our senior staff members possess over 30 years of experience in the criminal and juvenile justice field that includes program operations, policy development and analysis, technical assistance, nonprofit management, program evaluation, and organizational reform. Headquartered in San Francisco, CJCJ is among the leading criminal justice agencies in the nation.

The American Constitution Society (ACS) believes that law should be a force to improve the lives of all people. ACS works for positive change by shaping debate on vitally important legal and constitutional issues through development and promotion of high-impact ideas to opinion leaders and the media; by building networks of lawyers, law students, judges and policymakers dedicated to those ideas; and by countering the activist conservative legal movement that has sought to erode our enduring constitutional values. By bringing together powerful, relevant ideas and passionate, talented people, ACS makes a difference in the constitutional, legal and public policy debates that shape our democracy.

Solitary Watch is an innovative public website aimed at bringing the widespread use of solitary confinement and other forms of torture in U.S. prisons out of the shadows and into the light of the public square.

A unique collaboration between journalists and law students, Solitary Watch’s mission is to provide the public—as well as practicing attorneys, legal scholars, law enforcement and corrections officers, policymakers, educators, advocates, and prisoners—with the first centralized, comprehensive source of information on solitary confinement in the United States.

• Advocates for the humane and compassionate treatment of all incarcerated women.
• Collaborates with other organizations dedicated to reforming the criminal justice system.
• Works for the release of individual women prisoners who pose no danger to society.
• Informs and educates the public;
• Promotes a shift of focus from punishment to rehabilitation and restorative justice.

CAASE seeks legal repercussions on behalf of survivors against perpetrators of sexual harm; advocates for policies and legislation that hold sexual exploiters accountable; creates and implements prevention initiatives, including the provision of safe spaces for survivors to give testimony about their experiences; and develops resources that empower individuals and communities to stand with victims of sexual harm and take powerful actions against sexual exploiters.

Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS) is the only organization in New York State specifically designed to serve girls and young women who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking. GEMS mission is to empower girls and young women, ages 12-21, who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking to exit the commercial sex industry and develop to their full potential. GEMS is committed to ending commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking of children by changing individual lives, transforming public perception, and revolutionizing the systems and policies that impact sexually exploited youth.

Justice Now works with women prisoners and local communities to build a safe, compassionate world without prisons.

Justice Now is the first teaching law clinic in the country solely focused on the needs of women prisoners. Interns and staff provide legal services in areas of need identified by women prisoners.

The Real Cost of Prisons Project seeks to broaden and deepen the organizing capacity of prison/justice activists working to end mass incarceration. The Real Cost of Prisons Project brings together justice activists, artists, justice policy researchers and people directly experiencing the impact of mass incarceration to create popular education materials and other resources which explore the immediate and long-term costs of incarceration on the individual, her/his family, community and the nation.

WPA program services make it possible for women to obtain work, housing, and health care; to rebuild their families; and to participate fully in civic life. Through the Institute on Women & Criminal Justice, WPA pursues a rigorous policy, advocacy, and research agenda to bring new perspectives to public debates on women and criminal justice.

Works to change sentencing laws and incarceration to deal with society’s problems. Low cost pamphlets on various prison issues.

The Western Prison Project exists to coordinate a progressive response to the criminal justice system, and to build a grassroots, multi-racial movement that achieves prison reform and reduces the over-reliance on incarceration in the western states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming and Nevada.

A clearinghouse for useful, verifiable statistics about the crime control industry. Also includes bibliographies of relevant books, music, documentaries, and other organizations.

An independent 48-page monthly publication that reports, reviews and analyzes court rulings and news related to prisoner rights and prison issues. PLN has a national (U.S.) focus on both state and federal prison issues, with international coverage as well.Their website contains tons of helpful resources and articles, including a fairly comprehensive list ofprison book projects around the country.

PARC is a prison abolitionist group committed to exposing and challenging all forms of institutionalized racism, sexism, able-ism, heterosexism, and classism, specifically within the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC). They produce a directory that is free to prisoners upon request, and seek to work in solidarity with prisoners, ex-prisoners, their friends and families. We also work with teachers and activists on many prison issues.

The National Directory of Programs for Women with Criminal Justice Involvement is a free, online resource to help you find information on programs and services nationally for women in the criminal justice system.

LSPC advocates for the human rights and empowerment of incarcerated parents, children, family members and people at risk for incarceration. We respond to requests for information, trainings, technical assistance, litigation, community activism and the development of more advocates. Our focus is on women prisoners and their families, and we emphasize that issues of race are central to any discussion of incarceration.

National organization working to challenge the belief that prisons and policing make us safer.

A great site for news, articles, and resources related to women in prison. Read online issues of The Fire Inside, a quarterly publication dedicated to providing a space for women prisoners and their supporters to communicate with each other and the broader public about the issues and experiences women prisoners face through articles, art and poetry.

Provides a space for under-represented and marginalized communities.The Stark Raven Media Collective takes a critical look at prisons and issues of criminalization. Cutting through the mainstream crime sensationalism Stark Raven delivers in-depth interviews, news and analysis on the role of prisons in our society and consequences of criminalizing affected communities.

National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) works to secure the human and civil rights, health and welfare of all women, focusing particularly on pregnant and parenting women, and those who are most vulnerable - low income women, women of color, and drug-using women.

Suspension Stories is a youth-led participatory action research project that incorporates survey research, interviews, storytelling, popular education and art.

The project’s goals are to:

1. Develop and administer a survey about suspensions, expulsions, and the schoolhouse to jailhouse track to students across Chicago.
2. Collect and circulate many stories from different youth in Chicago about suspensions, expulsions, and the schoolhouse to jailhouse track.
3. Learn from the surveys and the stories about what can be done to decrease suspensions and expulsions.
4. Solicit and create art (visual and writing) that illustrates the connections between schools and jails and compile all of our information to create an interactive website.
5. Increase our collective ability as youth to challenge the schoolhouse to jailhouse track in Rogers Park.

"Our goal was to create a city-wide environment where young women were involved in all major decisions that impact their lives — using their ideas to find new solutions to old problems. This model meant that young women who were formerly incarcerated or working in the street economies had the support to become leaders, policymakers, researchers, employers, and activists. As a result, we have created a place for young women to come together, heal from past experiences, dream and achieve their visions for the future through leadership development, youth organizing, employment training, and health and wellness.&quot

American non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about Paganism and building community. We are positive, proactive, and dedicated to results! We are a network of members, subscribers, and networking partners, using progressive techniques emphasizing respect, pluralism, human rights, and individualized local action.

Launched in 2009, Project NIA works to dramatically decrease the number of children and youth in Chicago who are arrested, detained, and incarcerated. We help communities develop support networks for youth who are at risk of or have already been impacted by the juvenile justice system. Through community engagement, education, participatory action research, and capacity-building, Project NIA facilitates the creation of community-focused responses to violence and crime.

The Prison Birth Project is an organization focused on reproductive justice, working to provide support, education and advocacy to women and girls at the intersection of the criminal justice system and motherhood. You can find an article about The Prison Birth Project in the zine "Don't Leave Your Friends Behind."

Foreverfamily works to ensure that, no matter what the circumstances, all children have the opportunity to be surrounded by the love of family. We focus our efforts on some of the most marginalized children in our society—those with an incarcerated parent or parents—and support them as they, their parents, caregivers and extended families work to remain a family.

A national legal and policy organization that advocates for public policy reform, justice and dignity for vulnerable families. Work includes efforts to change policies regarding confinement for female prisoners; advocating for alternative sentencing to maternal incarceration to provide non-violent offenders with histories of addiction and sexual victimization, access to community-based, quality education, job training, and treatment services; addressing the birth, to sexual violence, to incarceration pipeline that entrenches low-income girls in poverty, addiction, and sub-standard educational achievement; and persuading public policy makers to expand family-treatment capacity for mothers and children, based on family treatment’s successful outcomes in family stability, child well-being, cost-savings, and lowered recidivism rates.

A national organization connected to the Family and Corrections Network (FCN) that works to raise awareness about the needs and concerns of the children of the incarcerated and their families by providing information that is informed by a combination of academic research and the experiences of the families and practitioners in the field in order to promote the creation of effective and relevant policies and practices in public and private systems.

A national organization made up mainly of family members of prisoners. Advocates abolishing mandatory minimum sentences and imprisonment for drug related offenses. Free newsletter.

Can assist Native prisoners in navigating custody issues.

Working to create a nationwide program to provide support to families and provide advocacy for prisoners and their families.

Works to end unjust mandatory minimum sentencing laws, as well as change US policy towards drug laws. Also helps to prepare clemency petitions for federal prisoners. Free newsletter.

Gives legal advice, negotiates on the behalf of prisoners, and provides in-court representation for family related matters. CLAIM advocates for policies and programs that benefit families of imprisoned mothers and reduce incarceration of women and girls.

Provides free educational materials for incarcerated parents and their children.

An advocacy group for incarcerated mothers. Provides helpful information for all women prisoners with children.

Chicago Books to Women in Prison is a volunteer collective that distributes paperback books free of charge to people incarcerated in women’s prisons nationwide. We are dedicated to offering women behind bars the opportunity for self-empowerment, education, and entertainment that reading provides.

There are dozens of ways you can help by giving your time, books or a monetary contribution. We especially welcome money for postage, which is our largest expense.

For more information, email us.

The Chicago Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) Teaching Collective is an all-volunteer group that organizes interactive workshops, film screenings, and trainings which aim to inspire action.

Publication edited and written by prison health care providers discussing HIV/AIDS and hepatitis care for incarcerated people.

Serves as a national resource center to provide educational materials and legal information about AIDS in prison.

Providing inmates with spiritual food, the Holy Spirit will be able to change many hearts. It is our goal that they be given the opportunity to make a choice.

Free King James Bible, correspondence course. Offers New Testament study course through the PBI.

American non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about Paganism and building community. We are positive, proactive, and dedicated to results! We are a network of members, subscribers, and networking partners, using progressive techniques emphasizing respect, pluralism, human rights, and individualized local action.

Naljor Prison Dharma Service is a project of SourcePoint Global Outreach. We provide our services and resource materials to men and women in prison throughout the United States and to numerous prison outreach organizations.

Liberation Prison Project offers spiritual advice and teachings, as well as books and materials, to people in prison interested in exploring, studying and practicing Buddhism.

They are an international organization that provides religious services and materials to Jews in prison and their families throughout the world.

It is an institution that stands ready to help anyone who may reveal a desire to embrace Islam and serves as a source of guidance for Muslims.

As employees of In Touch Ministries, we have the daily and unique God ordained opportunity to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world via radio, television, satellite, cable TV, short wave, books, our magazine and the Internet.

We are a Ministry; a Prisoner Ministry. Our focus is Spiritual and on the individual looking for help. We freely offer a variety of spiritual reading materials. We provide a year-long Spiritual Recovery Correspondence Course for those in need of a more structured Program. We also offer Spiritual Training Classes on-site for those who are physically incarcerated.

The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to exploring Buddhist thought and practice as a living tradition, faithful to its origins, yet adaptable to the current world. The center provides a bridge between study and practice, between scholarly understanding and meditative insight. It encourages engagement with the tradition in a spirit of genuine inquiry.

Edgar Cayce's Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc. (A.R.E.®), is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1931 by Edgar Cayce (1877-1945), to research and explore transpersonal subjects such as holistic health, ancient mysteries, personal spirituality, dreams and dream interpretation, intuition, and philosophy and reincarnation.

Prison of Peace is a pro bono project created by professional mediators Laurel Kaufer, Esq. and Douglas E. Noll, Esq. at the request of life and long term inmates at Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, CA. Prison of Peace strives to embed peacemaking, defined as collaborative, respectful problem-solving processes to resolve interpersonal and group conflicts, within the prison and to provide an avenue for continuing education and training for correctional officers and administrators in conflict resolution, peacemaking, and restorative justice.

The Urban Institute gathers data, conducts research, evaluates programs, offers technical assistance overseas, and educates Americans on social and economic issues — to foster sound public policy and effective government. Today, we analyze policies, evaluate programs, and inform community development to improve social, civic, and economic well-being. We work in all 50 states and abroad in over 28 countries, and we share our research findings with policymakers, program administrators, business, academics, and the public online and through reports and scholarly books.

Founded in 1971, the PEN Prison Writing Program believes in the restorative and rehabilitative power of writing, by providing hundreds of inmates across the country with skilled writing teachers and audiences for their work. The program seeks to provide a place for inmates to express themselves freely with paper and pen and to encourage the use of the written word as a legitimate form of power. The program sponsors an annual writing contest, publishes a free handbook for prisoners, provides one-on-one mentoring to inmates whose writing shows merit or promise, conducts workshops for former inmates, and seeks to get inmates' work to the public through literary publications and readings.

Offers information about various academic and job training correspondence schools.

Offers a well-known paralegal correspondence course and other continuing education courses. Write for cost and information.

Helping women find their place, one woman at a time. Our Place, DC (Our Place) is a unique non-profit organization in the District of Columbia (DC) dedicated to providing gender-specific direct services and advocacy to help formerly and currently incarcerated women come back home from prison. We operate with a mission to support women who are or have been in the criminal justice system by providing the resources they need to maintain connections with the community, resettle after incarceration, and reconcile with their families. Our Place helps women remain drug and alcohol free, obtain decent housing and jobs, gain access to education, secure resources for their children, and maintain physical and emotional health with a goal of helping women succeed in the community rather than engage in behaviors that result in re-arrest.

They are an international organization that provides religious services and materials to Jews in prison and their families throughout the world.

A New Way of Life Reentry Project is a non-profit organization in South Central Los Angeles with a core mission to help women and girls break the cycle of entrapment in the criminal justice system and lead healthy and satisfying lives.

HOW’s mission is to provide permanent solutions to the problems of homelessness and poverty for women and children in Chicago and to advance the goal of ending homelessness nationwide.

Helping women find their place, one woman at a time. Our Place, DC (Our Place) is a unique non-profit organization in the District of Columbia (DC) dedicated to providing gender-specific direct services and advocacy to help formerly and currently incarcerated women come back home from prison. We operate with a mission to support women who are or have been in the criminal justice system by providing the resources they need to maintain connections with the community, resettle after incarceration, and reconcile with their families. Our Place helps women remain drug and alcohol free, obtain decent housing and jobs, gain access to education, secure resources for their children, and maintain physical and emotional health with a goal of helping women succeed in the community rather than engage in behaviors that result in re-arrest.

Partnership for Safety and Justice (PSJ) is a multi-faceted, statewide advocacy organization based in Portland, Oregon.PSJ was founded in 1999 originally as the Western Prison Project. We have developed a pioneering and provocative model for our work – one that brings together all of those most directly affected by crime, violence and the criminal justice system (survivors of crime, people convicted of crime, and the families of both) to advocate for a system that is just and that more effectively builds safer, healthier communities.

We are the first advocacy organization in the country to unite all of these constituencies. We believe this approach offers a holistic perspective and a valuable strategy for shifting Oregon towards more effective, prevention-based approaches for creating community safety.

The non-profit, non-partisan Prison Policy Initiative documents the impact of mass incarceration on individuals, communities, and the national welfare. We produce accessible and innovative research to empower the public to participate in improving criminal justice policy.

The Portia Projectt is based in Eugene, Oregon, and was founded in 2002 for the purpose of providing legal and other assistance to the 1,000-plus women who are incarcerated at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility (CCCF) in Wilsonville, Oregon, and to the large number of women who are under post-prison supervision throughout the state. The goals of The Portia Project include helping incarcerated and formerly incarcerated mothers maintain contact with their children, working for the release of imprisoned women who were wrongfully convicted or have convincingly demonstrated that they have earned their freedom, and educating both our elected representatives and members of the general public about the intended and unintended consequences of the rapid growth of our prison population.

They are an international organization that provides religious services and materials to Jews in prison and their families throughout the world.

Established in 1985 as the Western Regional Office of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives (NCIA), the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ) is a nonprofit nonpartisan organization promoting a balanced and humane criminal justice system through the provision of direct services, technical assistance, and policy analysis. CJCJ maintains a professional staff with diverse backgrounds and expertise. Our senior staff members possess over 30 years of experience in the criminal and juvenile justice field that includes program operations, policy development and analysis, technical assistance, nonprofit management, program evaluation, and organizational reform. Headquartered in San Francisco, CJCJ is among the leading criminal justice agencies in the nation.

The American Constitution Society (ACS) believes that law should be a force to improve the lives of all people. ACS works for positive change by shaping debate on vitally important legal and constitutional issues through development and promotion of high-impact ideas to opinion leaders and the media; by building networks of lawyers, law students, judges and policymakers dedicated to those ideas; and by countering the activist conservative legal movement that has sought to erode our enduring constitutional values. By bringing together powerful, relevant ideas and passionate, talented people, ACS makes a difference in the constitutional, legal and public policy debates that shape our democracy.

CAASE seeks legal repercussions on behalf of survivors against perpetrators of sexual harm; advocates for policies and legislation that hold sexual exploiters accountable; creates and implements prevention initiatives, including the provision of safe spaces for survivors to give testimony about their experiences; and develops resources that empower individuals and communities to stand with victims of sexual harm and take powerful actions against sexual exploiters.

A national organization working to expand, defend and promote women’s rights at every stage of the legal process — when legislatures are drafting or amending bills, when the executive branch and its agencies are writing regulations to enforce statutes, and when the courts are interpreting laws.

Justice Now works with women prisoners and local communities to build a safe, compassionate world without prisons.

Justice Now is the first teaching law clinic in the country solely focused on the needs of women prisoners. Interns and staff provide legal services in areas of need identified by women prisoners.

Represents individuals and files class action lawsuits to protect the rights of people of color, poor people, and other disadvantaged citizens facing the death penalty or confined to prisons and jails in the South.

Publishes bulletin “The Bridge” and low cost self-help litigation booklets. Some booklets in Spanish.

An independent 48-page monthly publication that reports, reviews and analyzes court rulings and news related to prisoner rights and prison issues. PLN has a national (U.S.) focus on both state and federal prison issues, with international coverage as well.Their website contains tons of helpful resources and articles, including a fairly comprehensive list ofprison book projects around the country.

Publishes The Prisoner’s Self-Help Litigation Manual. It is pricey, but very comprehensive. Write for current price. They also have other legal self-help publications.

Resources and advocacy work. Produces a free newsletter written by former prisoners.

Assists Native prisoners with religious freedom issues.

Can help with preparing sentencing and parole recommendations; death penalty mitigating circumstances; jail suicide prevention.

Publishes several low-cost materials for prisoners, including Legal Bulletins, Federal Parole Guide, and Due Process standards for administrative detention.

Legal help and advocacy for immigrants. Works with INS detainees and imprisoned immigrants.

Sells the Jailhouse Lawyers Manual. This can be used for pursing appeals, post conviction relief, civil rights actions and parole. Available at low cost to prisoners, write for current price.

Handles major class action law suits involving prison conditions in state and federal institutions. Does NOT handle cases for individual prisoners! They publish a quarterly journal and many helpful booklets. Write for current availability/cost.

The Silence Opens Doors Project is a new media venture by Muralla Media Works that examines silence and noise as cultural phenomena. Looking at diverse disciplines such as art, science, spirituality, politics, and biology, the multimedia stories here will draw connections to explore how silence is a response to and an activation of our modern experience.

This film by producer/director Daniel Birman explores the life of a young woman arrested for murder at age 16, tried as an adult and sentenced to life at the Tennessee Prison for Women. The camera follows her for nearly six years, exploring her life before prison, her adjustment to life in prison, her struggle with her identity and hope for her future.

Watch the full episode. See more Independent Lens.

The criminalization of LGBT people in the United States. Drawing on years of research, activism, and legal advocacy. Queer (In)Justice is a searing examination of the queer experience–as criminal defendants, prisoners, and survivors of violent crimes.  The authors unpack queer criminal archetypes– like “gleeful gay killers,” “lethal lesbians,” and “disease spreaders”– to illustrate the punishment of queer expression, regardless of whether a crime was ever committed.  And tracing stories from the judicial bench to the streets and behind prison bars, the authors prove that the policing of sex and gender both bolsters and reinforces racial and gender inequalities.

The Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) works to guarantee that all people are free to self-determine their gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination, or violence. SRLP is a collective organization founded on the understanding that gender self-determination is inextricably intertwined with racial, social and economic justice. Therefore, we seek to increase the political voice and visibility of low-income people and people of color who are transgender, intersex, or gender non-conforming. SRLP works to improve access to respectful and affirming social, health, and legal services for our communities. We believe that in order to create meaningful political participation and leadership, we must have access to basic means of survival and safety from violence.

The (TJLP) is a collective of radical lawyers, social workers, activists, and community organizers who are deeply committed to prison abolition, transformative justice, and gender self-determination. They provide free legal services to low-income and street based transgender and gender non-conforming people targeted by the criminal legal system.

The Write to Win Collective is a new penpal project for transgender, transsexual, queer, gender self-determining, and gender-variant people who are living and surviving inside Illinois prisons.

A journal of fiction, poetry, and essays by lesbians. Free to women prisoners on request.

Defends the rights of trans prisoners (mostly CA).

Monthly magazine by and for lesbians. Free on request.

Legal assistance on civil rights issues for lesbians.

Free newsletter and info. Lots of contacts with women in prison.

Pen pals and info for queer prisoners.

Offers a discreet Bisexual resource guide on request.

Free Information and resources.

Suspension Stories is a youth-led participatory action research project that incorporates survey research, interviews, storytelling, popular education and art.

The project’s goals are to:

1. Develop and administer a survey about suspensions, expulsions, and the schoolhouse to jailhouse track to students across Chicago.
2. Collect and circulate many stories from different youth in Chicago about suspensions, expulsions, and the schoolhouse to jailhouse track.
3. Learn from the surveys and the stories about what can be done to decrease suspensions and expulsions.
4. Solicit and create art (visual and writing) that illustrates the connections between schools and jails and compile all of our information to create an interactive website.
5. Increase our collective ability as youth to challenge the schoolhouse to jailhouse track in Rogers Park.

The non-profit, non-partisan Prison Policy Initiative documents the impact of mass incarceration on individuals, communities, and the national welfare. We produce accessible and innovative research to empower the public to participate in improving criminal justice policy.

Helping women find their place, one woman at a time. Our Place, DC (Our Place) is a unique non-profit organization in the District of Columbia (DC) dedicated to providing gender-specific direct services and advocacy to help formerly and currently incarcerated women come back home from prison. We operate with a mission to support women who are or have been in the criminal justice system by providing the resources they need to maintain connections with the community, resettle after incarceration, and reconcile with their families. Our Place helps women remain drug and alcohol free, obtain decent housing and jobs, gain access to education, secure resources for their children, and maintain physical and emotional health with a goal of helping women succeed in the community rather than engage in behaviors that result in re-arrest.

Edgar Cayce's Association for Research and Enlightenment, Inc. (A.R.E.®), is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1931 by Edgar Cayce (1877-1945), to research and explore transpersonal subjects such as holistic health, ancient mysteries, personal spirituality, dreams and dream interpretation, intuition, and philosophy and reincarnation.

Publishes a survival source book to help prisoners with post release survival including job and places to live.

Sells a parole manual, From the Inside Out. Write for current prices.