FREE Prison Ministry is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation based in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. Our mission is to encourage, support and grow the community of believers within the penal system by providing resources for personal development, spiritual growth, and effective evangelism.
The ministry began years ago when a group of Christian women in the El Paso – Gridley, Illinois area sensed God leading them to collect used Christian books and Bibles for inmates. From these humble beginnings where books were stored in homes, a library has found a home at Grace Church on Hovey in Normal, Illinois.
FREE Prison Ministry offers free Christian books, Bibles, and reference material to inmates and chaplains in both federal and state institutions. We are supported entirely by donations. We purchase some books (e.g., Study Bibles) with donated funds, but most of the books we offer are donated. We publish a catalog six times a year and distribute it such that an inmate receives a catalog 3 times a year. A catalog will typically have a cover letter, some Bible word puzzles, and a list of roughly 1,100 titles across 80 categories. An inmate places their book order in the mail, and we ship them up to five books a month. The books are free and are not returned; many of them are passed around from inmate to inmate or make their way to the prison library.
FREE Prison Ministry relies entirely on volunteers to accomplish its mission. Volunteers perform a wide range of activities including data entry, collecting and cataloging books, processing orders, wrapping packages, and raising funds.