Prison Books still going strong

By Wendy Hounsel

Although it hasn’t received much press lately, the Prison Books program of Asheville is still alive and well, having recently moved from its space on Broadway St. and set up shop in the basement of a volunteer’s residence. Each week, members of the all-volunteer organization steadily chip away at the growing mound of book requests from inmates throughout the southeastern United States. The purpose is twofold: to provide prisoners with a chance to educate themselves on a variety of subjects, and to help alleviate some of the boredom, alienation, loneliness and sense of abandonment felt by many behind bars.

Each Sunday at 8:00, volunteers gather at the program’s library, read letters, and package books for each inmate on the basis of what he or she has requested. Prisoners’ resource lists are included with each package, as well as a handwritten response from a volunteer.

Prison Books, with the generous help of Reader’s Corner Bookstore, sends books to the inmates of more than 20 prisons throughout the southeast. Unfortunately, however, the program is prohibited from sending books to the inmates of the prison nearest to Asheville – Craggy Correctional Center, a medium security state penitentiary in northern Buncombe County. In January, the Asheville Citizen-Times interviewed George Holley, a chaplain at Craggy, for an article on the inception of the Prison Books program. Although he said that he agreed on the importance of making books available to prisoners, Holley told the paper that “the…prison already has a well-stocked library, including plenty of religious reading material, and likely will not benefit from Prison Books’ services” (Citizen-Times, Jan. 24). He did not mention the fact that Craggy already had regulations prohibiting prisoners from receiving any books from outside sources.

After the article appeared in the Citizen-Times, Prison Books received several indignant letters from inmates at Craggy refuting the chaplain’s claim.

“…(The) inmates at Craggy do not have a well-stocked library,” stated one letter. “They desperately need self-help legal books, books on religions other than Christianity, and other books besides the type of stuff [the prison] secures for them.” The same inmate revealed that, other than Christian literature, the books at Craggy “usually fall into two categories… pulp romances and… technical manuals from 50 years ago.” Other Craggy inmates have substantiated this claim by writing that they have no access whatsoever to the books they need to continue educating themselves.

Because sending packages to individuals at Craggy is prohibited, Prison Books has decided to periodically donate books to the prison’s library. Though this is certainly no substitute for fulfilling the needs of individuals, volunteers hope that the donations will be of some help to the inmates, who, for all practical purposes, seem to be virtually cut off from the written word.

The Prison Books Program relies completely upon donations to fund its work. Volunteers usually produce between 25 and 40 packages a week, and the cost to send each package is between one and three dollars. About 90% of all money donated to Prison Books goes directly to postage, with all remaining money spent on packaging supplies and copying costs for resource lists and other helpful pamphlets.

In order to continue its work, Prison Books is issuing a call for help from the public:

*The organization is dangerously low on funds, and money is urgently needed to continue sending packages.

*A new, preferably rent-free space is needed, as the group’s current space is not suitable for long-term occupancy.

*The group is currently in the process of applying for it’s 501(c ) (3) non-profit status. When the status is achieved, Prison Books would like assistance in applying for grants.

*More volunteers are needed to help package books.

*As always, books on relevant subjects are needed. The group has plenty of popular and classic fiction on hand, but the following subjects are in high demand and are always needed:

-GED materials
-legal manuals and legal self-help books
-dictionaries
-Spanish-English dictionaries
-books in Spanish
-Black, Latino, and Native American studies and history -meditation / yoga
-alternative spirituality
-women’s studies
-revolutionary / anarchist theory and history
-gay literature and studies

One of the books most often requested by inmates is a legal self-help manual for prisoners. A high- quality manual is available for $29.95 ($39.95 for non-inmates). Unfortunately, Prison Books does not have the resources to order this book for indigent inmates. If you would like to help an inmate directly, the gift of this book or one of the others published by Oceana would be of the utmost value. Contact Prison Books for more information, and /or contact Oceana at 75 Main St. , Dobbs Ferry, NY, 10522. Call in orders at 1(800)831-0758 or e-mail at orders@oceanalaw.com.

To contact Prison Books, call Sarah at 236-0949. Prison Books would like to thank Reader’s Corner Bookstore for it’s sponsorship of the program. In order for books to be sent to any prison, they must come through a bookstore or publisher, and Reader’s Corner has generously agreed to be the catalyst which allows the project to work. Visit the bookstore at 31 Montford Ave. in Asheville and show your support.

Officer of the Central Committee of Cuban Workers talks at UNCA

By Robert Brown

Manuel Montero Bistilleiro, Chief of the Americas section of the Department of International Relations of the Central Committee of Cuban Workers, talked at Karpen Hall on August first to an attentive audience of faculty, staff and students.

Sr. Montero is on one of the first legs of an extended tour of the US sponsored by U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange, a group that facilitates communication between the US and Cuba, with an emphasis on organized labor. He will also be talking to groups in Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, D.C., Ohio, Tennessee, California, Nevada and Michigan.

He began the meeting with a short review of recent Cuban history and Cuban - US relations. From the USA’s bizarre last-minute intervention in the Cuban war of independence until the recent imposition of the Cuban embargo, the major objective of every US administration has been the annexation of Cuba, said Sr. Montero. The island was, in fact, an economic satellite of the US during the Batista dictatorship, as evidenced by the fact of the removal of national assets to US banks, and unquestioned sanctuary provided to the looters. As leader of the victorious revolution, Fidel Castro called for a normalization of relations with the US, but his call for negotiations to be conducted with Cuba “as an equal” was interpreted as hostile.

The US cut off its purchase of Cuban sugar, (90% of Cuba’s production, in a one-crop economy), and cut off oil shipments. When Cuba found other sources for oil, US refineries in Cuba were ordered not to refine it. When Cuba nationalized the refineries, the US instituted the embargo. Cuba sought trade relations with the eastern European bloc of socialist countries, and the USSR.

With the economic collapse of the USSR and the socialist bloc, Cuba lost 85% of its foreign trade in one year, and its gross domestic product dropped by 34%. Sr. Montero pointed out that this disaster prompted one of the greatest civic responses in human history; the collective effort of the Cuban people to save the achievements of the revolution such as public healthcare, education, and the cultural programs of the socialist state. The Central Committee of Cuban Workers established lines of communication between seventy thousand workplaces and the Cuban parliament. Students, women, and other groups also formed committees for communication with the parliament, and within eight months, eight million Cubans and the Cuban parliament had hammered out the first response the this “special period”: the plan generated an orderly shut down of most light industry, with laid-off workers receiving 60% of pay, planned black-outs throughout the nation, and rationing of food and fuel. Not one cut was made in health care, education, or social services.

As the Cubans struggled for survival, the US Congress made plans to tighten the Cuban embargo; in fact, to make it a blockade, an act of war. An embargo is a unilateral policy affecting trade policies of the nation calling the embargo; a blockade is an attempt to isolate the target nation from all commerce– in effect, to starve it. This was, and is, the intent of the Helms - Burton Act, and the Torricelli Bill. This legislation targets other nations for retaliation for trading with Cuba. And what the legislation doesn’t cover, the CIA and the old boy network will. It has been very difficult for Cuba. Everyday commerce, the procurement of anything from outside Cuba’s borders has become an extraordinarily difficult process.

Recently, there has been some movement in the US – in the Congress, and the media — against the blockade of Cuba, and for normalization of relations. As a Cuban and a unionist, Sr. Montero is pleased that the AFL- CIO has called for food and medicine to be exempted from the blockade, and that there have been other indications of movement in the union leadership away from its historic anti - Cuban and anticommunist alliance with big business. Members of the International Department of the AFL-CIO have traveled to Cuba, and Sr. Montero had a three hour meeting with the AFL-CIO International Department on this trip. He says that many differences remain, but that both sides expect to continue these exchanges.

Over the past three years, Cuba has experienced economic growth of about 5%, even with the price of sugar and nickel at historic lows. Foreign investment, limited by contracts and the participation of the Cuban government, continue to provide a steady trickle of hard currency, employment is returning to previous levels, and most of the light industry shut down at the beginning of the “special period” has resumed operation. Ninety miles from the US, Cuba continues to make human happiness the aim of economic policy.