Portland Books Through Bars

Portland Books Through Bars is a 100% volunteer-run organization distributing reading materials for free to adults in US prisons and jails. Incarcerated people mail hand-written reading requests and volunteers hand-select materials from our donated library to fulfill their requests. We aim to provide respect and dignity to people experiencing a dehumanizing system.

We envision a world where access to physical reading materials is a fundamental right. Portland Books Through Bars (formerly Portland Books to Prisoners) formed in the mid-1990s as a sister program to Seattle Books to Prisoners, emerging with a shared mission to combat educational inequity for people who are incarcerated. Over the decades, the organization evolved into a dedicated collective working to challenge restrictive policies and advocate for the transformative power of books.