A book can be the difference between knowledge and ignorance, between boredom and intrigue. A book can widen people’s awareness, spark curiosity and carry people out of their own reality and into another. Most importantly, books don’t discriminate. They open their pages to anyone willing to give them a chance.

Urbana-Champaign’s Books to Prisoners program helps spread this insight and charm from their library in Urbana to jails and prisons around the state of Illinois.

Since 2004, the nonprofit organization has been providing inmates with books donated from local community members, organizations, student groups and libraries. The Books to Prisoners office is in a colorful, cozy room located next to The Bike Project in the basement of downtown Urbana’s Independent Media Center.

Volunteers are the cornerstone of the operation; they oversee the letters once the post office receives them, sort and weigh the books and oversee the packing and shipping at the end of the process.

On the public volunteer days three times a week, volunteers read letters from the prisoners, choose books according to the inmates’ requests, write back individual responses and bundle the books together before shipping.

“From there, (the bundle of books) goes into a bin, and then we have somebody data enter it,” said Lolita Dumas, volunteer supervisor for Books to Prisoners who started in August 2011. “We data enter every single book that we send an inmate, and on our website, you’ll notice that (the number) changes … so that’s an accurate reflection of how many books we are actually sending.”

As of Monday, Books to Prisoners has sent 81,622 books to 12,822 inmates across the state. While several prisoners are new to the program, many of them have been repeatedly writing to the organization during their time in prison.

It’s difficult to say how long it takes for the prisoners to receive the books, because it highly depends on the number of volunteers and the time of year.

Within the past couple of weeks, volunteers have been answering letters from January, because Books to Prisoners was closed during Thanksgiving and the winter holidays.

The overall process is not straightforward. Oftentimes, prisoners are moved from one facility to another — this means that the volunteers and employees must constantly check the inmates’ location statuses before their books are shipped. Currently, Dumas said, one of the three Illinois women’s prisons is being converted to a men’s prison, so several inmates are being moved around.

There are similar programs throughout the state and around the country that administer books to inmates, such as the Chicago Books to Women in Prison in Illinois.

Books to Prisoners is always accepting book donations, although there are some restrictions, such as encyclopedias, magazines and books in poor condition. There are donation bins throughout the Urbana-Champaign area — in the Independent Media Center, at Strawberry Fields, the English Building here on campus and most recently, at Parkland College.

In addition to donations, prospective volunteers are welcome to walk in during public volunteer hours. Several organizations around the area volunteer regularly, either once or twice a month, Dumas said.

Monse Martinez, Daisy Urbina, Marissa Zayas and Adrianna Gonzalez from Gamma Phi Omega, an international sorority on campus, volunteered their time on March 26.

Martinez, junior in LAS, has volunteered for Books for Prisoners once before. She said that it wasn’t what she expected — she enjoyed reading and responding to the letters.

“The whole program itself is really nice and rewarding,” said Urbina, senior in AHS. “You know, we take things for granted, like we can pick up a book and go to a library … whereas here, (prisoners) are waiting months on requests.”

Both Urbina and Zayas were first-time volunteers for Books to Prisoners.

“I like to read; it soothes my soul that people are interested in reading,” said Zayas, senior in LAS. “So it’s good to know that (the prisoners) are investing in something.”

In fact, that’s part of the mission of Books to Prisoners: not only to let the inmates busy themselves with reading, but to spread literacy, encourage education and inform the public about prisons and prisoners’ lives.

Books to Prisoners not only caters to inmates in the form of books, but it publishes some of the prisoners’ original content in small paperback publications called zines. A couple of these zines include “Nothing at all will be left unsaid,” from the fall 2008, and “If you heard my cries,” from the spring 2011. The former was a collaborative project with the University Graduate School of Library and Information Science. These zines are available for free at the Independent Media Center.

The organization also has other lending libraries in addition to their main office in Urbana. These libraries are located in local jails themselves, and they enable the inmates to use them to find books in their facility. Volunteers who are 21 years and older can help out in these jail libraries.

Books to Prisoners will be having a book sale on April 12-14 to raise money for packaging and shipping expenses. Volunteers can sign up for time slots, and anyone is welcome to stop by to browse.

Ultimately, Books to Prisoners provides the community with books, knowledge about prisoners and volunteering experience. The inmates often express their thanks and appreciation in their handwritten letters.

“(The inmates) are really interested in getting these books,” Martinez said. “The books you pick — these pages are going to free their minds for the little while that they’re reading them.”

Reema can be reached at [email protected].