Connie Banta, ed., et.al. This Books is Free and Yours to Keep: Notes from the Appalachian Prison Project. Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University Press, 2024. ISBN: 9781959000358.
The book is arranged as follows:
- Preface.
- Introduction. This provides some history of the APBP. It explains a bit about the letters and what kinds of issues and requests they feature.
- Editorial Statement. This discusses how the book was put together, how the letters were curated and selected, and how the book is organized overall.
- Chapter 1: Book requests.
- Chapter 2: Access and Restrictions.
- Chapter 3: Letters as Windows.
- Chapter 4: Circles, Classes, and Conversations.
- Chapter 5: Weaving Webs.
- Where is the Honey? A closing essay.
- Afterword, Works Cited list, and a Resources list. The Works Cited includes books and a broad range of articles. The list of resources features groups and organizations by topic.
Each chapter has a theme. Each chapter starts with a short preface, and then we get the letters and art from the incarcerated. A strength of the book is that it let's prisoners do most of the writing and speaking. We see and come to appreciate their experiences through their writings and art.
These are often very moving and powerful letters. Some are long; some are short. Some have prose; some have verse. These documents also highlight a lot of creativity, imagination, feelings, thoughts, dreams, wishes, and other strong emotions. The editors keep their role to a minimum to let them speak their own words.
The book overall is an easy read. It is also a powerful document of the human spirit. It is also an important book about the region and the impact of the prison industrial complex in the region. I recommend the book for public and academic libraries. For libraries with strong collection focus on Appalachia this book is essential. We ordered it for our collection. Locally, this book may be of interest in General Studies, Peace and Social Justice, Sociology, and Education. It may also be of interest for LIS programs.
In the end, this is an excellent book I recommend for all readers.
5 out of 5 stars.
Additional reading notes:
The range of book requests:
"The requests cover the spectrum: sci-fi, westerns, poetry, manga, astronomy, LGBTQ+ literature, books by Black writers, books on how to draw or learn music or start a business, books on indigenous histories, dictionaries, books in Spanish, puzzle books. One person only wanted books on West Virginia. Another wrote, 'I'll read anything you send to me'" (1).
A note on their archive:
"We have accumulated an archive of tens of thousands of letters that document reading practices and everyday life in prisons and jails in the early twenty-first century. These materials are a testament to the ways people held captive in our region continue to learn, to grow, and to support one another and their loved ones" (1).
APBP's dream:
"Our dream is not more books in confinement but an end to torture, not more programs in prisons and jails but an end to mass incarceration and perpetual punishment" (7).
According to Emma Kelly, as cited in the book, 3 reasons that encourage prison building in Appalachia:
- Decline of coal and the economic hole it left.
- Plenty of Open Spaces, leftover from industries like mining that have left the region.
- Cultural marginalization of Appalachia (74).
Items from the Works Cited I may want to read:
- Alexander, The New Jim Crow.
- Coogan, David, ed., Writing our way out.
- Davis, Angela, Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture.
- --- , Are Prisons Obsolete?
- Kaba, Marianne, Let this radicalize you.
- Schept, Judah, Coal, Cages, and Crisis.
- Shakur, Assata, Assata: an Autobiography.
This book qualifies for the following 2025 Reading Challenge:
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