The Battle Over Books for Wisconsin Prisoners
Advocacy group says Department of Corrections blocking donations of used books.
Books are organized on shelves in Madison, Wis. on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023, as volunteers with a nonprofit called Wisconsin Books to Prisoners prepare to mail out free copies to people incarcerated in Wisconsin. Angela Major/WPR
Volunteers continue to face restrictions as they work to provide free books to people incarcerated in Wisconsin.
For nearly two decades, Wisconsin Books to Prisoners sent new and gently used books to inmates who wrote to the group, requesting specific titles and topics.
But last year, the state Department of Corrections told Wisconsin Books to Prisoners it could only send new books from preapproved vendors.
That meant Books to Prisoners had to stop sending used books, which were often donated to the nonprofit organization by community members.
Prison officials said they were concerned about drugs being smuggled in used books shipments.
“As DOC has shared previously, paper has become a vehicle for some to attempt to smuggle intoxicating substances into correctional facilities nationwide,” Department of Corrections spokesperson Beth Hardtke said in a statement. “These substances have the potential to harm or kill individuals who come into contact with them.”
Leaders with Books to Prisoners have said a books-only policy isn’t feasible in the long-term because it significantly increases costs.
And, in recent months, Wisconsin Books to Prisoners has run into roadblocks after some of its new book shipments were returned or just never delivered, said Camy Matthay, a cofounder of Wisconsin Books to Prisoners.
Matthay said the group hasn’t gotten clear answers from the DOC about what happened to those shipments.
Because of that, Matthay said Books to Prisoners has largely halted its operations at most prisons. She says that’s led to heartbreaking letters from book lovers who are behind bars.
“Letters like, ‘Your program has been so impactful,’ and, ‘I’m absolutely distraught at the fact that your program looks like it’s being shut down,’” Matthay said. “We get many letters like that.”
DOC, Books to Prisoners have started pilot program at one prison
In a news release earlier this month, Wisconsin Books to Prisoners — sometimes called WBTP — reiterated it wants to get back to is previous way of doing business. That means sending both new and used books to individual people locked up inside all of Wisconsin’s prisons.
“We are cautiously optimistic that WBTP will be back or close to our full operations by September 2025,” the nonprofit said in that release.
In a response to an email from WPR, a DOC spokesperson did not answer a question about whether that goal could be achieved by this fall.
Books to Prisoners has been working with the Department of Corrections to gradually expand used book offerings via a pilot program at the Oakhill Correctional Facility, a minimum security men’s prison in southcentral Wisconsin.
Earlier this summer, the department and Books to Prisoners completed the first phase of that pilot, which involved sending about 90 books — some of which were secondhand — to the Oakhill prison library.
As part of that pilot’s second phase, Books to Prisoners was going to send used books to individual inmates at Oakhill, similar to how the group operated before the recently-imposed restrictions, Matthay said.
Matthay said the second phase of that pilot was scheduled to begin this week, but days before the planned start, a DOC official said it would be delayed.
The DOC did not answer a question from WPR about why the second phase was delayed or whether and when it could be expected to start.
“The pilot program is designed to allow DOC to test and refine its screening process for donated reading materials to ensure the safety of both staff and persons in our care,” Hardtke wrote in an email to WPR. “The goal is to eventually allow WBTP to send reading materials to all DOC facilities – safely … DOC must proceed deliberately as screening processes and procedures are studied and refined.”
How are drugs getting into Wisconsin prisons?
Moira Marquis, an anti-censorship advocate who founded Prison Banned Books Book Week, is skeptical of the DOC’s state rationale for restricting books.
Marquis says studies are needed on what policies are effective at keeping illegal drugs out of prisons. But she says data from other states indicates that drugs are more likely to be smuggled in by prison staff rather than being sent through the mail.
“If you’re going to deny somebody a constitutional right, you should have very robust reasons for that,” Marquis said of restrictions on books in prison. “And I want to see that evidence.”
There have been reports across the country of drugs being smuggled into prisons and jails through paper that’s soaked in controlled substances, including synthetic cannabinoids.
Wisconsin’s Department of Corrections has recently tightened up its mail scanning policy, and it previously provided partially-redacted incident reports to WPR, indicating some book shipments have tested positive for drugs in the past.
But Marquis says mail scanners used by prisons are notoriously unreliable.
“Many lawsuits have already happened in various states because of false positives,” said Marquis, who works at an organization called the Petey Greene Project, which provides college readiness programs to incarcerated people.
In recent years, multiple people have died of drug overdoses while incarcerated in Wisconsin, and that’s prompted wrongful death lawsuits against the state’s prison system.
In 2023, the governor confirmed the Federal Bureau of Investigation had launched an investigation into allegations that corrections employees were smuggling contraband into Wisconsin’s Waupun prison. Last year, a federal judge sentenced a former Waupun maintenance worker to house arrest after he pleaded guilty to taking bribes in exchange for smuggling cell phones and marijuana into the maximum-security facility.
‘Books saved my life’ says woman who served time in Wisconsin
DOC officials have pointed out that people incarcerated in Wisconsin have access to books from sources other than Wisconsin Books to Prisons.
The department recently signed a contract with vendor ICSolutions and is in the process of providing new tablets at its institutions. DOC officials have previously said those tablets include some free e-books.
But the tablet rollout has been beset by technical difficulties. Moreover, Marquis says reading materials on prison tablets are typically limited to very old books in the public domain.
In Wisconsin, incarcerated people also have access to shared prison libraries. But Marianne Oleson, who spent five years behind bars, says the quality of those libraries varies depending on the institution.
Oleson says Wisconsin Books to Prisoners serves a vital role and she’s dismayed to see access to books limited in any form.
“Books saved my life,” Oleson said of her time in Wisconsin prisons. “That’s a truth echoed by all of the women that were around me. We not only relied on used books, we shared the ones that came.”
Oleson now works as a criminal justice reform advocate through Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing of Wisconsin. While she was incarcerated, Oleson got her hands on a used copy of the Wisconsin Blue Book — an encyclopedic guide to state government. She said it opened her eyes to the possibility of becoming politically active once she was released.
“Books are a lifeline,” Oleson said. “They’re they’re not just a distraction. They are a vital means of rehabilitation.”
Volunteers face delays as they work to resume sending used books to Wisconsin prisoners was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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