DC Books to Prisons (Washington, D.C.) is a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides free books to incarcerated individuals and supports prison libraries. DC Books to Prisons has participated in the A.R.T. Library Program since 2024.

A.R.T. Library Program Questionnaire gathers insights from librarians and publishers within the Program's distribution network to reconsider and reflect on what it means to make art books public today.

• How would you define the main role the library plays in your community?

We supply books to prisons and prison inmates at the state and federal level. Our "community" is thus very widely disbursed and consists largely of individual prison inmates. Nevertheless, whether or not this constitutes a "community," we play a vital role in distributing books and other printed resources to incarcerated individuals and prison libraries across this country. Per the latest info from our Board, we distributed well over 20,000 free books in 2023 to inmates and libraries, mostly responding to letters from inmates requesting particular genres and titles. These range from resource and legal guides to dictionaries, foreign language instruction, academic and trade courses, fiction, poetry, all of the sciences, art, art instruction, photography, coloring books, puzzles, comic books and manga, word games, almanacs, bibles and other religious books, journals and planners, as well as many other topics too numerous to mention. With each package we send out to inmates, we also write a personalized letter (unless prohibited by the institution) adding what I believe is an important human contact to the interaction.

• How would you define your responsibility as a member of DC Books to Prisons?

We are a group of individuals who volunteer to collect, organize, and distribute books to prison inmates and libraries.

As mentioned in my last letter, because I am an artist, I have been in charge of curating our art, art instruction/drawing, and photography sections. Despite being in extremely high demand, these categories have been chronically undersupplied, in part because art books are relatively expensive. Although the organization does occasionally purchase very basic how-to-draw books, these fly off the shelf and prior to receiving the benefit of books donated from Art Resources Transfer, often I had ZERO books on art or photography available and the only thing I had could send an inmate with an interest in making art was a photocopied handout on basic drawing. Also, because of the high demand, I am only permitted to send out one book or handout in any given category. It is also a challenge finding art and photography books that do not violate institutional restrictions against nudity and other content.

• When was the first time you participated in the A.R.T. Library Program? Do you participate yearly?

This is our first year participating. We had no idea Art Resources Transfer existed until one of our members received a forwarded email. It came as a total surprise and revelation that such an organization exists. It is a huge godsend!

• What do art books provide that other books might not? Why is it important for your library to make art books available?

First of all, we try to send out the type of books inmates are requesting, and books on art are in extremely high demand, so much so that we are prohibited from sending more than one art book per inmate. Often an inmate who wants books on art will also request how-to books, so it is logical to infer that the art books are also contributing to the overall creative development of the requesters. I personally am very committed to this topic because I feel art and creativity have the ability to nurture and heal the human psyche. Creating and even just being immersed in art, often characterized as a "right brain" activity, engages the mind in a special way that taps into emotions, intuition, self-awareness, joy, and emotional release. When making art, artists often mention that they are unaware of time passing and are able to free themselves of negativity and harmful thought patterns. Thus art is often therapy as well. We get letters all the time about how the art books we send out are so very valued and help humanize a crushingly brutal institutional existence of prisons. However until now the dearth of art and photography books, as well as books on art instruction, which are all in extremely high demand, has been a constant source of frustration. So the A.R.T. Library Program is a godsend and I want to reiterate just how large an impact this will have on our ability to meet the demand for books on art and photography.