URBANA, Ill. (WAND) — “I felt like this was something that I could do personally to make a difference,” Will Bartee said.
Bartee is a senior at The University of Illinois. When he isn’t studying biology, you can find him volunteering with the UC Books to Prisoners.
Saturday afternoon, Bartee and other volunteers helped run the bi-annual Urbana-Champaign Books to Prisoners Benefit Sale.
“We get donations from everywhere!” shared Rachel Rasmussen, Organizer of the event. “We get them from schools, individuals, retiring professors…” she added.
These gently used books are for Illinois prisons. “It just seems imperative to take all these used books that we have, and get them into the hands of the prisoners who want to read them!” Rasmussen said.
This special book sale features thousands of books, from poetry, to education, to foreign languages. These shelves are filled with books that prisons don’t need, have duplicates of, or aren’t in the best condition. Each hardcover is marked at $2, and paperbacks are $1. With the money raised from the book sale, funds go towards shipping the books to Illinois prisons.
Since beginning this project just over 20 years ago, the UC Books to Prisoners organization has shipped books to roughly 24,000 incarcerated individuals.
“Over 95% of incarcerated people are coming home someday to their community…” Rasmussen explained. Who do we want to come home? Do we want people that just felt resentment because they’re bored to death? Or do we want people to have a chance to educate themselves? I think all of us, as citizens, can think about that.”
The next sale will be held on November 1st at the Independent Media Center in Urbana.
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