Urbana Champaign Books to Prisoners

UC Books to Prisoners is an Urbana Illinois based project providing books to Illinois inmates at no cost. We offer books by mail to all Illinois inmates and operate lending libraries in our two local county jails.

We are a volunteer organization with a number of easy ways for you to get involved. Whether you have an hour a month or would like to volunteer more often, you are invited to to work with us.

Our volunteers primarily interact with inmates by reading their letters, selecting books from our collection of donated materials and shipping those books directly to inmates in response to their requests. We also staff two lending libraries in the Champaign County jails. If you would prefer to work behind the scenes, we can also utilize your unique skills managing volunteers, coordinating book donations and fund raising, as well as many other education & outreach as well as technical tasks.