Prison Reading Groups

Prison Reading Groups (PRG) was set up in 1999 to help start, fund and support reading groups in prisons. Since 2017 it has been part of Give a Book. PRG promotes reading for pleasure in prisons and provides support and funding for those who run them. The groups are informal, voluntary and they encourage reading and develop discussion skills and sociability. There are no tests, no certificates and no right or wrong answers. The groups are open-ended so prisoners join at any time and remain members as long as they choose.

In 2022 we supported 48 groups in 43 prisons with over 3500 books.

“One of the few things I look forward to so I look forward to it for a month.   One day where one can have an intellectual discussion and no-one gets worked up when disagreeing … one of the few places where we feel our opinion is valued.” (Reading group member, HMP Brixton)

“Who’d have thought we could spend all this time just talking about a book?” (Reading group member)

“I had thought one of our regular members would go to the landing meal – when I said this to him he replied ‘no way, it’s book club night.” (Reading group facilitator, HMP Warren Hill)