The Tartan

From Feb. 7 to Feb. 21, Carnegie Mellon University’s Mortar Board operated a Prison Book Drive in hopes of collecting books to donate to those incarcerated in Pennsylvania state prisons. Mortar Board is a collegiate honor society centered around values of scholarship, leadership, and service.

Anna Cappella, a senior majoring in biological sciences on the neuroscience track with an additional major in professional writing, serves as the service chair on the Mortar Board executive board.

As service chair, Cappella thought of the Pittsburgh Prison Book Project when looking for a local organization for the Mortar Board to work with. 

The Pittsburgh Prison Book Project is “an all volunteer non-profit organization based in Pittsburgh that sends reading and educational materials to prisoners across Pennsylvania.” People in prisons will send letters to the organization requesting novels or books on law, or to learn about job opportunities available to them after leaving prison.

Cappella said that “volunteers will go around the library” where donated books are sorted and collected “and pick books based on the requests and pack them up.” Cappella noted that many prison libraries are not sufficiently stocked with books in high demand and “people who are incarcerated have the same right to information as the rest of us.” 

The Mortar Board set up seven boxes where books could be donated, “we put boxes in Baker, knowing that people have offices there, and they like to donate books that they aren’t reading or have already read.” The Mortar Board would empty filled boxes only for them to be filled to the top again with donated books.

Cappella said, “Lots of professors reach out to me and ask about specific books. Some of them drop off directly with me, and that’s come from the Psychology Department, English Department, all the way to the Computational Biology Department and people in MCS.”

Cappella said, “We just expected to get, like, maybe 100 books, probably less… but we have collected at least two red moving carts full of books, probably more, which is a lot of books.”

Cappella noted that a big contributing factor to the community’s engagement with the book drive was it being advertised in the Piper, which increased the reach of the drive.

One challenge that The Mortar Board is dealing with now is sorting the books for donation to the Pittsburgh Prison Book Project. Cappella said, “Usually they’re looking for similar things, like entertainment, novels, things about jobs and things about law. Often they’re looking to learn how they can better advocate for themselves, and more about the legal surroundings of their situation.”

Cappella continued by saying that the Pittsburgh Prison Book Project doesn’t “like to take books that aren’t going to be requested, because then they just take up space in the library.”

The Mortar Board then sorted through the books to try and isolate the ones they thought the organization would take. Cappella said that “one of the main volunteers from the Pittsburgh Prison Book Project actually came to us and sorted the books herself again. Then we took the SLICE van and drove all the books that they wanted over to them.” 

Cappella took a moment to thank those who donated a book and recommended that those who are interested in supporting the Pittsburgh Prison Book Project check out their website to see which texts they are currently requesting.

Cappella continued by saying that she’s “excited to see what happens with the rest of the books. I hope people aren’t too disappointed that they’re not all going to this prison book project. I think the best part of this was that they were able to select the ones that they wanted, and they were really excited about the ones that they got, and it was the right amount for them.” 

The Pittsburgh Prison Book Project is based in Hazelwood and has regular volunteer packing sessions at the Spartan Community Center of Hazelwood: 134 E. Elizabeth Street 15207 – room 22. Volunteers can sign up for packing sessions through the organization’s website and donate through mail or virtual wishlists.