Every month, NYPL Jail & Prison Services receives over 90 letters from incarcerated people requesting reference information on a wide variety of topics. With volunteers, and in collaboration with library science graduate students from Pratt Institute, we answer the reference requests with care and expertise. The resources and templates on this site can help provide background information on frequently asked questions. We will also mail Connections 2024 for free to anyone who asks.

Color drawing and cover of Connections 2024. In the foreground, two people are sitting down, cross-legged, facing each other. One has a beard, is dressed in a red shirt and green pants, and is holding a camera, taking a picture of the other person. The second person is in a blue shirt and red pants and is posing with their hand on their chin. In the background is a bridge with a gray bus driving on it, and right below is a bright blue subway going in the opposite direction. Books with different colored spines, including red, blue, green, and yellow, are holding up the subway rail. Dark gray buildings are in the background, while the yellow sun is setting behind the ones on the left.

A Note on Language

Please be mindful of the language you use in your letters. Always refer to the writers of letters as people, and not as inmates/ offenders/ convicts, etc. They are people who  are incarcerated, or people who were formerly incarcerated. Please be aware that many government agencies still use these terms, however. 

The Center for NuLeadership has an Open Letter on language, the following comes from them:

"One of our first initiatives is to respond to the negative public perception about our population as expressed in the language and concepts used to describe us. When we are not called mad dogs, animals, predators, offenders and other derogatory terms, we are referred to as inmates, convicts, prisoners and felons. All terms devoid of humanness which identify us as “things” rather than as people. These terms are accepted as the “official” language of the media, law enforcement, prison industrial complex and public policy agencies. However, they are no longer acceptable for us and we are asking people to stop using them. In an effort to assist our transition from prison to our communities as responsible citizens and to create a more positive human image of ourselves, we are asking everyone to stop using these negative terms and to simply refer to us as PEOPLE. People currently or formerly incarcerated, PEOPLE on parole, PEOPLE recently released from prison, PEOPLE in prison, PEOPLE with criminal convictions, but PEOPLE."