Training and supporting small teams of folks
Who are Currently incarcerated
Since 2021, Maine Humanities has been training and supporting small teams of folks who are currently incarcerated in Maine Department of Corrections (DOC) facilities to facilitate book groups
Facilitators gather fellow-inmates when and where they can—in their units, pods, classrooms, libraries, or multi-purpose rooms— to talk openly and respectfully about books, poetry, and big ideas while fostering connection, agency, and engagement.
Facilitators choose the texts they use with their groups, often in consultation with their group participants. Groups discuss all sorts of texts: song lyrics, science fiction, graphic novels, all kinds of poetry, picture books, philosophy…you name it.
The cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) continue to impact us deeply. To help close the deficit left by the termination of our General Operating Support grant from NEH, we are reducing DOC programming by 50% during the 2026 fiscal year.
Maine DOC FACILITIES
Where we currently support trained facilitators
Strong support and assistance from DOC staff in each facility we work with not only make this program possible but have helped it to thrive.
– Maine State Prison
– Maine Correctional Center
– Womens Center
– Mountain View Correctional Facility
– Bolduc Correctional Facility
– Southern Maine Womens Reentry Center
We don’t currently have an active program at Downeast Correctional Facility, or at Long Creek Youth Development Center.
What Do Prison Book Groups Read?
Facilitators use a wide variety of texts: novels, essay anthologies, memoirs, graphic novels, poetry collections, music & song lyrics, philosophy.
A few things folks have used since the program began are:
- Felon: Poems by Reginald Dwayne Betts
- Dune by Frank Herbert
- They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
- Tweak by Nic Sheff
- Wild Seed by Octavia Butler
- Night of the Living Rez by Morgan Talty
- Philosophy in 40 Ideas from The School of Life
- My Life as a Foreign Country by Brian Turner
- American Journal edited by Tracy K. Smith
- Sigh, Gone by Phuc Tran
- The Rose That Grew From Concrete by Tupac Shakur
- The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
- How to Ruin Everything by George Watsky
- There There by Tommy Orange
- The Heroin Diaries by Nikki Sixx
- Great Transition by Nick Fuller Googins
- An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
- Two Old Women by Velma Wallis
In Their Own Words
It proved to me that there’s no value in being closed-minded. And being open to just show up, right? Show up, find out, try it.”
—Brian, PARTICIPANT & Facilitator
While incarcerated, Brian participated in a number Maine Humanities book group programs and later helped facilitate them. Hear him discuss the impact of the groups he was part of.
On the change he recognized in himself and others:
On the value of opening up:
On the impact of being empowered:
On the lasting effects of Maine Humanities programming:
News
In the News: DOC Programming
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Inside & Out
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