This Kitchener high school student collects books to donate to prisons and jails across Ontario
Most high schoolers are bracing for another grueling school year, but a Kitchener, Ont., teenager has a different thing on his mind: Getting books into the hands of inmates.
Feiyang Luo, who is set to go into Grade 12 at Cameron Heights Collegiate in September, has collected hundreds of books to help more than 500 inmates across the country.
“There is an unfortunate strong correlation with a lower socio-economic status and lack of access to education and in turn, high offense rate in these areas,” he said in an interview on CBC Kitchener-Waterloo’s The Morning Edition with guest host Josette Lafleur.
Luo said he hopes to address that by making it easier for inmates to access educational resources like books.
“We want to allocate books that just collect dust on people’s bookshelves and then make it more utile within these correctional systems and allow these inmates to have access to these literature,” he said.
The mission began through Bright Pages, a project he started with a friend over the past year, to ensure prisoners could get access to books in libraries across Ontario.
As student trustee at Waterloo Region District School Board, the importance of education is a big factor behind Luo’s motivation for providing inmates with better books to read.
“I’ve always seen education as one of my main priorities — as something I see as crucial importance for students,” he said.
“So through debate tournaments, I met a friend of mine called Anthony,” he said. “And we started discussing ways in which we can integrate education more into this world and places where education was perhaps lacking a bit.”
Discussions around wealth disparities and different socio-economic classes led them to the idea of providing more literature to correction facilities.
‘Means a lot’ to inmates
Collecting and donating books to prisoners is not a new idea. Jane Crosby, co-chair of Books 2 Prisoners Ottawa, has been doing similar work for about a decade.
Although it can be a challenge to run the program, Crosby says it’s worth it. She works full-time at a halfway house and her dad once worked in prisons when she was growing up, so she feels like helping people has always been her vocation.
“It’s just the fact that a complete stranger cares enough to send you a book,” Crosby said. “That means a lot.”
She says isolation is a huge part of being incarcerated, and “reading takes up a large part of a person’s day.”
Crosby says inmates often have to re-read the same books due to budget restrictions by Corrections Canada.
“We try to keep the selection of books available a variety,” she said. “The funding isn’t there for the books. And they’re reading the same books they’ve been reading for 20 years or 30 years.”
A diverse range of books
Through Bright Pages, Luo has amassed a wide array of literature. But what kind of books are being sent out?
Depending on preference, different jails recommend different book donations, Luo says.
“It’s a very big range,” he said. “For the Stratford Jail, they gave us recommendations of books that their inmates requested, like Percy Jackson, NYPD Blue. And then if we were to go over to the North Bay Jail, they would request things like textbooks, self-help and rehabilitation books.”
Perhaps the most rewarding part of his involvement is hearing how inmates have benefited from the influx of books from Bright Pages.
Lou has recieved messages and thank you notes from inmates. One note that said: “The books take our minds beyond where we are,” and another said: “Our days become easier because of you.”
“The feedback has been nothing but wonderful,” Lou said.
“It moves my heart when I see the messages from the inmates who have received these books,” Lou added. “This gets me up in the morning. This is what I do this for.”
