Books Through Bars:
Creativity in Confinement

Mission
We believe a society of social and economic inequality leads to a cycle of crime and incarceration. We work to reverse the dehumanizing effects excessive punishment inflicts upon individuals, families and communities.

Books Through Bars sends quality reading material to prisoners and encourages creative dialog on the criminal justice system, thereby educating those living inside and outside our prison walls.

We pack every Tuesday,
From 7:30 - 10:30 pm and the 1st and 3rd Saturday from 11 am - 3 pm
Join us at: 4722 Baltimore Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19143
(215) 727-0882


The Contexts Collection
"Contexts" is a prisoner art project organized by members of the Books Through Bars collective. The exhibition is designed to provide a dramatic means for prisoners' voices to be heard. This creates a vital link to the world. Each prisoner in the show donated his or her work in exchange for the chance to be heard and seen by the public.

Equally important, we hope, is the effect on the viewer: that the negative stereotypes that most people have of prisoners will be altered. You will come to know that:

The words and pictures of "Contexts" give a glimpse of the conditions that prevail in prisons: crowding, frequent lock-downs and the dehumanization that goes on within this closed world.

Thanks for taking the time to look at what few people see, and fewer care about.