Books4Rikers Fundraiser

Please join us for our first Books4Rikers fundraiser! Our goal is to raise money for reading materials for the 7,500 people incarcerated on Rikers Island. We will be crafting, drinking, and hanging out from 6-10 pm :)

Books for Rikers was founded in 2025 by a group of library workers who have experience providing library services on Rikers Island. We started this initiative in response to the overwhelming need for information resources on the island. The public library systems that provide these services only reach a small fraction of the over 7,000 people who are incarcerated, mostly in a pretrial context. We have seen that people consistently face abuse and neglect as a result of inadequate resources, and rely on books to navigate physical and mental health, human connection, the legal system, care for those dependent on them, survive extreme isolation, and to make sense of their circumstances. We believe that restricting access to information is a tactful way to divorce people from their histories, communities, and political consciousness to manufacture consent for the continuation of racial capitalism. With this understanding, our mission is to provide life-saving information materials to the thousands of people who do not see library service. We hope that everyone interested in helping this mission holds the same understanding that we are not coming from a place of saviorism but fighting back against the oppression of working people.