HAMPTON — For about two years residents in this city have participated in a volunteer program where they deliver books to the inmates at Hampton’s main jail and annex.
Inmates can purchase books through the jail but they are notoriously overpriced and the selection is not great, said Victoria Mitchell, owner of Dog Eared Books.
The library book cupboard is a program that allows inmates to choose two books per week to read.
Mitchell has been collecting paperback books to stock up the library at Hampton’s main jail and annex.
The jail allows her and other volunteers to come in and help deliver the books on two of their book carts once a week.
She said they visit the main jail and annex on alternating weeks.
A few concerns she has about the program is that the books that are available are outdated and not very interesting.
“People want to use this time to better themselves,” she said.
Inmates have requested books on everything from science, finance, history, thrillers and even self-help.
Mitchell is in need of more donations of these types of books because a lot of the donated books are way outdated.
Also needed are dictionaries, puzzle books and Spanish books.
A lot of the time dictionaries are hard to come by in donation piles so Mitchell said if people want to donate money she can use that to buy dictionaries.
The other thing that Mitchell would really like to see is more volunteers.
Right now since there are only two volunteers who bring in the books they are limited to however many people they can reach that day.
They have two book carts and if there were more volunteers they could split up into teams to cover more ground.
“Reading is a healthy distraction for them,” she said.
She’s gotten all sorts of requests from the inmates for different types of books, whether that be romance, nonfiction, thrillers, etc.
While she tries to fulfill as many requests as she can, she said more book and money donations would go a long way.
The books donated have to be soft-covered.
To learn more about how you can volunteer and donate, visit Dog Eared Book’s website for contact information or follow their Facebook page.
