Crusader gets books to prisons
Posted on Sunday, June 25, 2006
Charles Chastain’s literary touchstone is Don Quixote, Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes’ tale of an addled knight crusading for lost causes.
He has a soft spot for people who remind him of the idealistic and flawed nobleman protagonist.
“I like the kind of person who fights the fight that might already be lost, but does it anyway,” he said.
Some might say Chastain, 64, has his own quixotic streak. Since the late 1990 s, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor of criminology has collected books to donate to state prison inmates — people society largely has scratched from the list of those worthy of charity.
But Chastain has pleaded, cajoled and driven over most of Arkansas on a mission to give inmates something valuable to do with their time. At last count, he has collected about 30, 000 volumes, everything from psychology textbooks to gothic romance novels.
Occasionally, he weeds out controversial titles.
“They might get uptight if I gave them too many books on terrorism or Playboys,” he said jokingly.
Chastain knows his way around prison. A former member of the Arkansas Board of Parole, he has visited lockups around the state, listening to stories, promises and regrets.
A lifelong reader himself, he believes in the redemptive power of literature. As a college student, he went from professor to professor asking for recommendations on books he should read. Decades later, he still has the list of 65 books or so. Don Quixote, the first part of which was published in 1604 and the second a decade later, was one of the recommendations.
Ironically, Cervantes himself spent his share of time behind bars, “once for failing to produce vouchers for official moneys spent,” according to J. M. Cohen, who translated Quixote for Penguin Classics.
The list, in part, motivates Chastain to keep collecting books, even though recent illnesses have made the work of boxing and hauling harder than it used to be.
His effort has been well worth it, said Dennice Alexander, prison library administrator for the Department of Correction. Prison libraries hold about 200, 000 books spread among the state’s 18 lockups. About 75 percent of them are donated. This year, Alexander had just $ 20, 000 to spend on new reading material for the state’s 13, 500 prisoners.
“It helps us tremendously,” Alexander said. “It keeps our collection going.”
The idea started modestly: a few books for the library at the women’s prison at the McPherson Unit, which had recently opened. Chastain asked a couple of women’s studies professors if they had any books to spare. Gradually, word spread. Now, nearly 1, 000 names are on the computer mailing list that Chastain periodically sends out to solicit donations.
Some donors deliver a few books. Others empty libraries. One southwest Little Rock woman gave 3, 000 books, he said.
James Puckett is a major contributor. Three years ago, Puckett and his wife, Carol, opened BookTraders, a used bookstore in Conway. A former U. S. marshal, Puckett had spent his career visiting Arkansas prisons and got to know many inmates.
“I know they’re not all terrible people. They have a lot of time on their hands, and they need something to do,” he said.
Puckett has given away thousands of books.
He said women prisoners generally prefer romances while the men prefer action-packed thrillers.
“We don’t give them any true crime novels. No serial killers or anything like that,” he said with a laugh.
Usually, Chastain picks up books himself, then sorts them into boxes. When enough boxes accumulate, he calls officials at the Wrightsville Unit. An inmate and correctional officer crew pick up the books on campus.
From there the books go to Pine Bluff, where Alexander logs them in and decides where to send them based on each prison’s needs. Some prisons want psychology texts, others biographies. But nearly every book finds a grateful reader.
“They tell me all the time how much they appreciate it,” she said.
Chastain has never gotten a thank-you letter and he couldn’t care less. To him, passing along books to inmates should be more of a service to the giver than the recipient.
“It’s worth it just to know they gave something to someone who really needed it.”
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