In this Q&A with Prism, the Appalachian Prison Book Project’s Lydia Welker discusses the barriers prisons place on books and why access is worth fighting for

August 28th, 2024

For two decades, the Appalachian Prison Book Project (APBP) has mailed books to people in prisons and jails across six states in Appalachia. More than 70,000 reference, nonfiction, and fiction books have reached people behind bars who would not have otherwise had access to them.

Lydia Welker is the digital communications coordinator for the project, which is run by an all-volunteer team in Morgantown, West Virginia. In 2021, the Appalachian Prison Book Project expanded by creating a pen pal program, facilitating book clubs, and supporting an associate’s degree program at a prison in Pennsylvania. In December 2024, the organization will publish a book of art and letters by incarcerated people with West Virginia University Press.

On the 20th anniversary of the project, Prism’s Ray Levy Uyeda spoke with Welker by phone about the work that has—as she said—changed her perspective on everything she encounters and her outlook on her “entire life.”

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Ray Levy Uyeda: What does it take to send a book to someone in prison?

Lydia Welker: Sending anything—especially books—to people who are incarcerated is extremely difficult. Federal, state, and county governments each have different rules about what can be mailed inside. Individual wardens also have a say, and then it often comes down to the discretion of someone working in the mail room.

The Appalachian Prison Book Project keeps very detailed records about different prisons and jails in the region that we serve. We keep careful records about what books have been rejected and why. Most prisons won’t accept hardback books and won’t accept books that aren’t in “good” condition. If a book has a ripped cover, torn pages, pencil or pen marks, it will get rejected. There are also content-based reasons for rejection. We’ve learned that violence, nudity, and maps are all reasons books won’t be accepted, which can include action books or art books like Michelangelo’s David.

What’s in the package is just as important as what’s on the outside. You have to include the person’s name and their ID number and then their mailing address, and then inside we include a note that says, “This book is free and yours to keep.” That is a very important language that we have to include in each package so it’s not seen as an exchange where someone would need to pay us for that book.

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Since its founding in 2003, the legal services and advocacy organization If/When/How has been working to fight back against state intervention in people’s reproductive lives. In addition to training lawyers, working with law students, and maintaining a legal defense fund, the organization also operates a free and confidential helpline designed to help callers navigate legal emergencies and pose questions regarding their right to access abortions and other forms of reproductive care.

... Since Dobbs, If/When/How has received more than 5,000 inquiries, with more than half of them pertaining to the caller’s legal rights to use abortion pills, the risks of using pills, or judicial bypass, which allows minors to petition a judge to grant them permission for an abortion without telling their parents.

The report, “State Violence and the Far-Reaching Impact of Dobbs,” ... also focuses on calls from those currently under carceral control, whether detained in jails and prisons or on probation or parole.

Barriers to care

Abortion access varies depending on where incarcerated pregnant people are detained. Even prior to Dobbs, some states did not allow incarcerated people to have abortions, while many others only allowed abortions during the first trimester. Pre-Dobbs, only four states had laws ensuring abortion access to incarcerated people; just 23 states had some standard or regulation regarding abortion access for incarcerated pregnant people.

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picture of burned excavator

in Atlanta early Wednesday at a construction site of a company previously targeted in similar incidents over its role in the building of Cop City

City officials said earlier this year site prep work was almost finished and that actual construction of the facility would soon begin.

They have targeted December of this year for completion of the project. Schierbaum said Wednesday morning a ribbon-cutting ceremony in December is still in the works.

picture of garden beds with plants or seeds, St Andrew’s Cross bush, a tree branch, and a berm

Nitrogen-Fixing Food Crops

1. "Iron and Clay" cowpea (ran out, so went back and scattered them out well)
2. Snap Pole Bean Rattlesnake 🫘
3. Snap Bush Bean Mountaineer White Half-Runner 🫛

Nitrogen-Fixing Cover Crops

1. Crimson Clover
2. Red Clover
3. Alfalfa
4. White clover

Cover Crop

Buckwheat. (couldn't get drought-tolerant. sold out)

Crops

1. Anasazi sweet corn (almost out. definitely need to save some of these seeds and the cowpeas)
2. sunflower (edible, not ornamental or bird seed)
3. Flat parsley - ran out, time for regular, curly parsley.
4. Red Ruby 🥬
5. Detroit Dark beet
6. Early Scarlet radish - I am not sure if I will like this, but I missed the daikon radishes so.
7. Southern curly mustard - doing well and always resembles a tastey dinner, happily soaking up the ☀️ from a pot.
8. Leek
9. Red Russian kale 🥬
10. Swiss Chard - like beet seed because they are in the same family, who are all drought tolerant. I got a clump of seeds the other day!

Crop for cat

Cat grass

It took a few hours to cut the grass in today’s garden bed. It was a bit daunting and a bit tedious sometimes, and sometimes, I just wanted it to be over with; but other times, I was lazily lying on my mat and trimming the grass.

I started with cat grass on the edge of the bed since it’s on the edge of the garden plot, so if the neighbor cat comes back over, they might figure out that there’s a snack there for them. I had some buckwheat, today. I’m growing that as cover and maybe some food/seed.

I found a little more grass as I was dropping the initial type(s) of seed. Of course, this grass-cutting might be unnecessary, and a controlled burn might be easier. Like, if there's enough room for a fire, just piling up limbs or sticks that I'm trying to get rid of and burning them on a permitted day with a water hose nearby might make a great garden bed.

Didn't put any food crops with cat grass but did put cover crops. I hope the cats don't poop on my food crops! But if they do, I will clean it out, and I could let those crops go to seed? Some animal has dug some more in my plot and a bed. Previously, they had dug in the mulch near a garlic plant.🧄

With the big seeds, I can space them out by hand.

Stare-at-sky break, some stretches. No, I am not praying.

Not much drought.

I just go by one of those seed schedules that I see in seed stores or seed swaps. Didn't do that until last autumn.

When I walk by my food, grown full of nutrients, it's easy to harvest them

St Andrew's Cross volunteer who gets yellow cross flowers, provides seeds for birds & pollen for bees and butterflies, and might nurse the crops with shelter and shade during the scorching summers.