Sweetnam says some of the more popular authors that get requested are Eckhart Tolle and Paulo Coelho. Photo: Books To Prisoners / Instagram

A grass-roots organization has now started collecting book donations in Nanaimo to give to those incarcerated at the Nanaimo Correctional Centre.

Books To Prisoners BC is a non-profit organization that began in Vancouver in 1992, that provides prisoners with reading materials.

This year the organization has created a collective in Victoria to support those at the Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre (VIRCC) and the Nanaimo Correctional Centre.

CHLY spoke to Stephanie Sweetnam, who runs the collective in Victoria. She said Books To Prisoners BC is the oldest Books To Prisoners program in Canada and is run by volunteers.

She said she started the Victoria collective in January of this year but only just recently created the donation drop boxes and created a social media page to post about the collective.

As a self-proclaimed prison abolitionist, she said she started volunteering with this organization to support those inside correctional centres.

“I don't really believe prisons should exist. I think that people deserve to have like their needs met and have access to resources over being punished for often what are systemic failures,” Sweetnam said. “So because I can't do anything about that, and I am passionate about reading, I started to Google, what I could do to help folks inside and this kind of resonated the most so that's how I got involved.”

Sweetnam currently teaches at the University of Victoria and said because the Vancouver group was busy shipping books to prisons all over Canada, they needed the extra support of a new location.

“And I was just the right person at the right time with the right resources. It just was meant to be,” Sweetnam said.

She explained that every correctional centre has different rules for how the organization can send books inside. She said for the Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Centre in Victoria, the inmates can contact Books for Prisoners about the book requests they have. Books for Prisoners then connects with the correctional centre library and works with them to donate the requested books.

At the Nanaimo Correctional Centre, inmates can instead write to the organization and request books to be sent to them directly. It will then come down to whether the organization has that certain book or genre in its stock.

Sweetnam said she posts on the Victoria Collective's Instagram the books requested by inmates or types of books or genres that are popular with them.

“But things that are very popular. People love graphic novels, sci-fi, fantasy, things about the trades, things about exercising things about imagining a life outside of bars, so like building log cabins, gardening, and how to raise goats,” Sweetnam said. “All different kinds of things. Some very popular authors right now, I would say are Eckhart Tolle and Paulo Coelho.\

While they cannot donate art supplies, she said colouring books and how-to art books on topics such as drawing or calligraphy are also very popular.

But she does say there are many rules around what books can go into the correctional centres that can differ between locations.

“For Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Center there, we are not allowed to send hardcovers and then for both Nanaimo and VIRCC; no spiral bound, no heavily damaged books, no books with writing, no books with highlighting, no books that are critical of the carceral system or policing in Canada, no true crime books, and no books on pornography and no books on how to immobilize a person,” she said.

The organization has now opened donation boxes at Torch Song Cafe, Camas Books, and FOAL Books, in Victoria and Risebridge in Nanaimo.

“Just kind of keep an eye out on our page and see what we're asking for,” she said “And if you have it, donate it, that would be super helpful.”

She said their biggest expense for running the organization is the cost of shipping. She says they have information on their website on how people can directly donate money to them.

Information and resources can also be found on their website at bookstoprisoners.ca on running book drives for Books to Prisoners along with a pamphlet on how to get started and a book drive poster template.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.