See how a book purchase helps.
Books4Books publishes books with a purpose. A portion of book-sale proceeds supports our prison commissary initiative, turning a simple purchase into meaningful support.
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Buy a book
Choose an ebook or a printed edition.
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Book-sale proceeds
Your payment becomes proceeds from a book sale.
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30% allocated
30% of those proceeds is allocated to the commissary initiative.
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Commissary support
Allocated funds go toward commissary support for incarcerated people, initially in U.S. prisons.
How many people are behind bars, and what they go without.
Soap, food, writing paper, stamps, sanitary pads. Inside, these are commissary purchases, and a commissary account with nothing on it buys nothing. The figures below are drawn from named public sources, not from us.
1,254,200
people in U.S. state or federal prisons
At yearend 2023, correctional authorities had jurisdiction over 1,254,200 people in state or federal prisons, a 2% rise on the year before.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 2023 (NCJ 310197, Sept 2025)5,530,300
people under adult correctional supervision
Counting prison, jail, probation and parole, an estimated 5,530,300 adults were under correctional supervision in the United States at yearend 2023.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Correctional Populations in the United States, 2023 (NCJ 310413)Food
nutrition inside is a documented problem
Peer-reviewed nutritional assessments of prison and jail meals and commissary offerings have repeatedly found provision falling short of dietary guidelines, leaving people to buy food from the commissary to make up the gap.
Source: Journal of Correctional Health Care (2025); BMC Nutrition (2022); Center for Science in the Public Interest, Private Food, Public HarmDignity
menstrual products are not guaranteed everywhere
A federal audit found that while most Bureau of Prisons institutions make menstrual products accessible, some do not fully follow policy, and non-specific detention standards limit oversight elsewhere. Research on carceral period poverty describes women buying pads and tampons out of commissary funds they may not have.
Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-26-107694; Anjum & Moss, Priced Out of DignityBooks4Books does not publish estimates of its own. Every figure above is attributable to the source named beside it; we link them so you can check.
Everyday needs, met plainly.
Commissary is the store inside a prison. It is where people buy the ordinary things a facility does not supply in sufficient quantity, soap, toothpaste, writing paper, stamps, food items.
Without money on account, those items are simply out of reach. Support on a commissary account is practical and undramatic: it covers everyday needs and lets people stay in contact with family.
We describe this work plainly and without spectacle. No one's circumstances are used as marketing, and nothing is claimed here that the press cannot stand behind.
What 30% means, stated carefully.
What is allocated
30% of book-sale proceeds is allocated to the prison commissary initiative.
What funds the press
The remainder covers editing, design, typesetting, printing, shipping, digital delivery, payment processing and the day-to-day running of the press.
How support is delivered
Support is delivered as commissary funds for incarcerated people, beginning with U.S. facilities.
Reporting
Allocation figures are published on this site once they are verified. We would rather report late than report loosely.
Books4Books is a publishing house. It does not claim charitable or nonprofit registration on this site. The 30% allocation of book-sale proceeds to the prison commissary initiative is stated by Books4Books; verified allocation figures and reporting will be published here as they become available.
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