Join My Campaign to Get Free Books into Prisons

Help Me Reach Incarcerated Readers by June 24

Prison can feel like a time warp. Life outside moves fast—technology evolves, clothing styles change, your family and friends get older—while inside, everything slows down. One of the ways this disconnect shows up is through the availability of books. Most prisons don’t permit hardcover books, which means people inside often have to wait a year or more to access new releases—if they ever reach the prison library at all.

When I started working on The Jailhouse Lawyer, I knew I didn’t want incarcerated individuals to have to wait to receive it. My best idea was to buy a stack of books and cut the hardcovers off one by one so I could mail them in. But when I explained this to our publisher, Penguin Press, they came up with a better solution.

I’m excited to announce that, for the first time ever, Penguin Press and Penguin Random House will print a special softcover edition of The Jailhouse Lawyer specifically for incarcerated readers. They’ve also pledged to donate the first 1,000 copies so the book can reach prisons as soon as possible after its release.

Here’s where you come in!

Penguin has agreed to send an additional 1,000 softcover copies to prisons and jails through a matching campaign:

For every 3 hardcover books you pre-order by June 24, they’ll donate 1 softcover to someone in prison.

Thanks to those who have already pledged their support, we’re almost there!

Please join my campaign by pre-ordering The Jailhouse Lawyer for yourself or for someone else (we’re accepting donations—see below). And if you’re buying for a group, organization or an event, Porchlight Book Company is offering an awesome discount on 25+ copies (up to 43% off). Nonprofits can email proof of their tax-exempt status and won’t be charged sales tax.

If you’ve already pre-ordered, don’t worry! Send a copy of your purchase receipts to our Books to Prisons Campaign manager, Marly Williams, at books@calvinduncan.com or post a photo with it and tag @jailhouse_lawyer using #TheJailhouseLawyer on Instagram or Facebook and your order will be counted.

If you’d like to receive donated copies, let me or Marly know at books@calvinduncan.com - we are teaming up with generous donors to underwrite copies for individuals and organizations who can’t purchase their own.

If you want to donate copies to help us get hardcovers to eager readers while also helping us get softcovers into prisons, follow the links at the bottom of this page to donate by mail or online. So far we’ve been able to direct donated pre-orders to

• high school students

• youth vocational programs

• community organizations

• criminal justice reform advocates

Help us spread the word by posting this on your social media or your Substack, sending it to a work listserv, and emailing your friends using this handy one-sheet.

Questions about anything above? Ask Marly at books@calvinduncan.com.

Stories helped sustain me while I was incarcerated. I hope The Jailhouse Lawyer can do the same for others—and that together, we can create a model for making books more accessible to readers behind bars.

Thank you for being part of this. Together, I know we can make it a big success.

Calvin

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