Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.

Leave No One Behind

In the United States, mental health, addiction and even poverty are often deemed and treated as choice. Those afflicted with these conditions are too commonly arrested and criminalized by the system. The solution being building more jails and prisons instead of compassion, education, treatment and prevention.

Standing on my Social Justice Soapbox

Im not going to hide it. Obviously. Im a huge proponent of criminal justice reform and inmate advocacy. Not because I side with “criminals”. Because I don’t give up on people. This isn’t a class or race issue. It effects a whole bunch of us. Many of us have a loved one, family or friend, who spent time “on the inside”. Often for petty, non-violent offenses that occur while in a mental health crisis or during an addiction relapse. It happens. And its okay. We can talk about it. We can advocate for them. We don’t give up on them. It is essential that we stay connected and provide them support.

Tablets and Books

Today’s jails and DOC’s (Department of Corrections aka prison) evolved quite a bit after the Covid Era. More inmates have access to tablets. Often their own individual inmate tablet that they can use in their cell. This is great for communication, resources, attorney correspondence and entertainment. Tablets provide text features. Courses and classes. 12 step support. Podcasts. Even books and kindle services.

Physical Books with Pages

They call it “doing time” for many reasons. Finding positive ways to pass the time is essential. Every correctional institution is different. Always check with the individual correctional facility for their rules. Some only allow mail on blank postcards. And only packages and or newsletters from the publisher or book seller. Meaning for example, Amazon must mail the book directly to the inmate. You can not buy a book and mail it to an inmate yourself. Books typically must be brand new books. And often the amount of books an inmate is allowed to possess at a time might be restricted to a certain number. Again, always check on the rules from an established and credentialed authority. I.E. the jail/DOC ombudsman, the Sheriff’s Office, the DOC family handbook, etc.

Enter into the Ashram Zone

When my son was arrested during a mental health crisis, we began his journey in and out of jail. With bipolar, he can do amazingly for years. Only to relapse and take to the streets jeopardizing everything. Inevidibly he violates some term of his restrictive probation during this manic state. Back he goes for 6 moths. Where he inevitably regains clarity. I tell him it is like an Ashram. To go internally. Seek a Monk’s refuge. Many spiritualists choose to enter into worse and more restrictive conditions. They come out stronger. I do everything I can to help foster this growth. It works out for him. The tablets do provide meditation apps. Mindfulness teachings. This helps. Ive found groups that send free books to inmates. (I will attach links). So thankful for all of these programs. It made this time survivable ad somewhat transformative.

Inmate Book Recommendation Series. Vol 1

I want to start a recurring segment on book recommendations. In that segment, Id like to include specifically titles that would help a loved one currently incarcerated. Mind you, they share books on the inside. Pass the titles around. Gift the books to other inmates or the library when finished. Knowledge is definitely power. And the true key to reform. Books that they can read over and over are most ideal. Real staples of change and survival. Both while serving out their time and for the outside world. Below will be some recommendations. Books that I sent to my own son while he was serving time, and books I think would make great additions to any inmate personal library.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.

Hill, Napoleon. Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century (Think and Grow Rich Series) From Amazon website

“Think and Grow Rich has been called the “Granddaddy of All Motivational Literature.” It was the first book to boldly ask, “What makes a winner?” The man who asked and listened for the answer, Napoleon Hill, is now counted in the top ranks of the world’s winners himself. The most famous of all teachers of success spent “a fortune and the better part of a lifetime of effort” to produce the “Law of Success” philosophy that forms the basis of his books and that is so powerfully summarized in this one.” https://amzn.to/3ZPqh8h

  

Ruiz, Don Miguel. The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book) From Amazon website ” In The Four Agreements, bestselling author don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, The Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love.” https://amzn.to/3VTNcOk

McGraw, Dr. Phil. Self Matters: Creating Your Life from the Inside Out. From Amazon website “In Self Matters, Dr. Phillip C. McGraw helps you to demystify your self-concept, and learn how to reclaim your authentic self.

What if there is a You that has never seen the light of day, has never got to say, “Hey, what about me?”
What if there is a You that you have never even met and certainly never permitted to just be, without fear of judgment or condemnation?

What if you live your life on the sidelines in constant fear of failing to please those who forever seem to stand in judgment of you and your life?
What if you discovered that you had settled for what life has served up instead of what you really wanted and needed?
What if you really think and feel things you have never allowed to come out, and certainly never acted on?
What if your marriage is not at all what you really emotionally want and need, but you silently stay the course anyway, selling out your hope to be happy?
What if you are allowing days to turn into weeks and weeks to turn into months and months to turn into years, all adding up to a lifetime of being what some nameless, faceless world has assigned you to be?

If any of these “What ifs” are true, then it’s time to step back and reevaluate your life. There’s some good news and bad news. The bad news is you are making the choices that have put you in this life circumstance; the good news is you are making the choices that have put you in this life circumstance. Now is the time to make the biggest choice of your life. Through Self Matters, Dr. Phil will help you do just that.” https://amzn.to/3ZRf9ry

Malone, Calvin. Razor-Wire Dharma: A Buddhist Life in Prison. Razor-Wire Dharma is an eloquent, enlightening, and utterly inspiring personal story of how one man found Buddhism—and real, transformative meaning—despite being in one of the world’s harshest environments.

Some of these stories are hilarious, some are harrowing, but all express Buddhist wisdom as vividly as any practitioner could hope to do—in the unlikeliest of places. In prison, the choice of staying true to principles often requires jeopardizing life, safety, and the few small comforts available to try to do what’s right.” https://amzn.to/41RNRnf

Das, Ram. Be Here Now. From Amazon. “Beloved guru Ram Dass tells the story of his spiritual awakening and gives you the tools to take control of your life in this “counterculture bible” (The New York Times) featuring powerful guidance on yoga, meditation, and finding your true self.

When Be Here Now was first published in 1971, it filled a deep spiritual emptiness, launched the ongoing mindfulness revolution, and established Ram Dass as perhaps the preeminent seeker of the twentieth century.

Just ten years earlier, he was known as Professor Richard Alpert. He held appointments in four departments at Harvard University. He published books, drove a Mercedes and regularly vacationed in the Caribbean. By most societal standards, he had achieved great success. . . . And yet he couldn’t escape the feeling that something was missing. 
 
Psilocybin and LSD changed that. During a period of experimentation, Alpert peeled away each layer of his identity, disassociating from himself as a professor, a social cosmopolite, and lastly, as a physical being. Fear turned into exaltation upon the realization that at his truest, he was just his inner-self: a luminous being that he could trust indefinitely and love infinitely.

And thus, a spiritual journey commenced. Alpert headed to India where his guru renamed him Baba Ram Dass—“servant of God.” He was introduced to mindful breathing exercises, hatha yoga, and Eastern philosophy. If he found himself reminiscing or planning, he was reminded to “Be Here Now.” He started upon the path of enlightenment, and has been journeying along it ever since.

Be Here Now is a vehicle for sharing the true message, and a guide to self-determination.” https://amzn.to/4gP2tbo

Millman, Dan Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives. From Amazon website. “A book that could change your life: When Dan Millman was a young man, he expected that hard work would eventually bring a life of comfort, wisdom, and happiness. Yet, despite his many successes, he was haunted by the feeling that something was missing. Awakened by dark dreams one night, Dan found himself at a gas station with an old man named Socrates, and his world was changed forever. Guided by this eccentric old warrior, and inspired by a young woman named Joy, Dan began a spiritual odyssey into realms of light and shadow, romance and mystery, toward a final confrontation that would deliver or destroy him.” https://amzn.to/4gSfZv2

Herievel, Tara and Wright, Paul  (Author), Paul Wright  (Author). Prison Nation. From Amazon. “Prison Nation is a distant dispatch from a foreign and forbidden place–the world of America’s prisons. Written by prisoners, social critics and luminaries of investigative reporting, Prison Nation testifies to the current state of America’s prisoners’ living conditions and political concerns. These concerns are not normally the concerns of most Americans, but they should be. From substandard medical care the inadequacy of resources for public defenders to the death penalty, the issues covered in this volume grow more urgent every day. Articles by outstanding writers such as Mumia Abu-Jamal, Noam Chomsky, Mark Dow, Judy Green, Tracy Huling and Christian Parenti chronicle the injustices of prison privatization, class and race in the justice system, our quixotic drug war, the rarely discussed prison AIDS crisis and a judicial system that rewards mostly those with significant resources or the desire to name names. Correctional facilities have become a profitable growth industry, for companies like Wackenhut that run them and companies like Boeing that use cheap prison labor. With fascinating narratives, shocking tales and small stories of hope, Prison Nation paints a picture of a world many Americans know little or nothing about.” https://amzn.to/49Yjqy2

Jackson, George and Genet, Jean, Jackson, Jr., Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson. “The power of George Jackson’s personal story remains painfully relevant to our nation today, with its persistent racism, its hellish prisons, its unjust judicial system, and the poles of wealth and poverty that are at the root of all that. I hope the younger generation, black and white, will read Soledad Brother.”  —Howard Zinn, author, A People’s History of the United States

A collection of Jackson’s letters from prison, Soledad Brother is an outspoken condemnation of the racism of white America and a powerful appraisal of the prison system that failed to break his spirit but eventually took his life.
Jackson’s letters make palpable the intense feelings of anger and rebellion that filled black men in America’s prisons in the 1960s. But even removed from the social and political firestorms of the 1960s, Jackson’s story still resonates for its portrait of a man taking a stand even while locked down.https://amzn.to/3VYmUdR

Roth, Alisa. Insane: America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness. From Amazon website. “An urgent expose of the mental health crisis in our courts, jails, and prisons

America has made mental illness a crime. Jails in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago each house more people with mental illnesses than any hospital. As many as half of all people in America’s jails and prisons have a psychiatric disorder. One in four fatal police shootings involves a person with such disorders.

In this revelatory book, journalist Alisa Roth goes deep inside the criminal justice system to show how and why it has become a warehouse where inmates are denied proper treatment, abused, and punished in ways that make them sicker.

Through intimate stories of people in the system and those trying to fix it, Roth reveals the hidden forces behind this crisis and suggests how a fairer and more humane approach might look. Insane is a galvanizing wake-up call for criminal justice reformers and anyone concerned about the plight of our most vulnerable.https://amzn.to/3VW71oa

Jordan, June. Poetry of the People. From Amazon website. “work has a far-reaching impact on all poets and readers of poetry today. A dedicated and inspired teacher, her innovative and highly successful poetry program, Poetry for the People, has recently emerged as a national phenomenon.” https://amzn.to/3BTERn2

Helpful links and resources

NAMI Report, “Divert to What? Community Services that Enhance Diversion”

NAMI Ask the Expert Series, Help Not Handcuffs

NAMI Infographic, Mental Illness and The Criminal Justice System

NAMI is a supporting partner of the Stepping Up Initiative, which works to divert people with mental illness from the criminal justice system.NAMI public policy positions related to Crisis Response, Extreme Risk Protection Orders, and National Hotline For Mental Health Crises And Suicide Prevention.

Prison Library Project

The Claremont Forum

https://www.claremontforum.org/about

586 W 1st STREET

Claremont, CA 91711

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(909) 626-3066

info@claremontforum.org

Request a book for an incarcerated friend or loved one 

Online Request Form

Please know that we are unable to send books to county or city jails.

Prison Library Project
915-C W. Foothill Blvd, PMB 128

Claremont, CA 91711

Download a Request Form

Please download this form or write to us at the address provided above. Ensure that your facility permits books, and inform us of any relevant restrictions. Please refrain from requesting books if you are currently incarcerated in a state or county jail, or if you anticipate being released or transferred within the next six months.