Ethan Anderson
LV Life Editor
The Claremont Forum Bookshop is among the gems tucked away in the Claremont Packing House. Home of the Prison Library Project, the bookshop emphasizes its philanthropic mission of educating inmates, as well as being a reliable, affordable place for Claremont and neighboring communities to buy used books.
“I love the idea of people being able to afford education,” Claremont Forum program director Mckenna Deluca said. “If you are looking to receive an education, you should be able to get one no matter what.”
The Bookshop is on the far west end of the packing house, and it receives hundreds of book donations a week. From there, volunteers and workers decide where the books go, depending on their quality and educational value.
In the back of the shop, a yellow rope sections off an area where Prison Library Project books live until ready to be shipped off to the incarcerated.
“Newer books are going to be back here, dictionaries, language books,” PLP director trainee Naomi Nembhard said. “When a donation comes in, we sort by genre and hardcover vs. paperback…But we also set aside things that we think will be great for PLP.”
The bookstore has a vintage quality, with rusted support beams lining the ceiling; all the bookshelves are wooden making the store feel homey.
“It’s not like the quietness of a library for studying,” frequent customer Shivani Adams said. “It’s more like a place you could meet people and have conversations openly.”
Customers continuously come back not only to buy books themselves, but to support the mission of PLP’s more spiritual approach to helping the incarcerated.
“It’s very cyclical, I try to explain to people: ‘not just are you buying books from us and that money goes to postage, that also goes to buying books that we need for people that are incarcerated,” Deluca said. “It pays for the overhead, it pays for our community outreach…on top of that, people that donate books aren’t just donating books to an inmate but donating funds to us so that we could continue the program.”
The program was founded in the 1970s in North Carolina by spiritual gurus, one of which being famous author Ram Dass, who is known for “Be Here Now” a book considered a sort of counterculture bible that influenced westerners to take up yoga and meditation.
Rick Moore, a good friend of Ram Dass, began building the program in California in the 1980s, where Moore operated out of a postal annex. Getting whatever donated books he could find, into the hands of inmates.
Moore continued on his spiritual mission into the 1990s where he opened the Claremont Forum Bookshop in 1993, as the new operating center for the Prison Library Project.
The Prison Library Project has served thousands in our prison system. They get countless thank you letters from inmates and prison officials. In one case, an inmate named Paul writes constant letters to the organization.
“He always wrote to tell us what we sent him…it was almost like a book report…it really meant something to him,” PLP board president Rachel McDonnell said. “I always remember ‘thank you for thinking of me when no one else does,’ and ‘what having a book in my cell means to me, it’s the only thing I own in the world.’”
Ethan Anderson can be reached at ethan.anderson@laverne.edu.
Ethan Anderson is a senior communications major with a concentration in public relations. He is the LV Life editor and a staff photographer for the Campus Times, and a staff writer and photographer for La Verne Magazine. He has previously been a staff writer for the Campus Times. As a lifelong student-athlete, he has picked up valuable skills that he seeks to apply in his career in public relations, and ultimately make an impact.
Rylee Fournier is a senior photography major with a marketing minor and a staff photographer for the Campus Times and La Verne Magazine. Outside of school, she runs her own photography business, specializing in weddings and portrait photography. You can find her work on Instagram or at ryleefournierphotography.com.
