Polish with a Purpose

 

Building Connections and Educating 

Since 1994, the Women’s Prison Book Project (WPBP) has provided women and transgender persons in prison with free reading materials covering a wide range of topics from law and education, to fiction, politics, history, and women’s health. We are an all-volunteer, grassroots organization. 

Eighty percent of incarcerated women are imprisoned for non–violent crimes, such as shoplifting, prostitution, drug-related convictions, and fraud. Of the women convicted of violent crimes, the vast majority were convicted for defending themselves or their children from abuse. More than half of all women in prison are women of color, and two–thirds of women in prison have at least one child under age eighteen.

WPBP is one place where women/transgender persons in prison can obtain information that is often unavailable from any other source. WPBP works to support prisoners; and through that solidarity works to empower prisoners themselves and build connections through prison walls.

A portion of every Taupe Coat order will go towards the purchase of books for incarcerated women, that will be donated to the Women's Prison Book Project.