On behalf of everyone with 21st Street, thank you all for another fantastic year (our 17th). Without any paid advertising, and barely any social media presence, we are still able to remain one of the literary industry’s leading service providers. This is because of the support and constant referrals we receive from our awesome clients and the dedicated work that our editors provide. Because of you, we have managed to stay relevant for almost 2 decades and I want to thank you all for your hard work and/or support. We will always provide quality service that shows how much we appreciate the work. Your referrals and loyal support allow us to continue to contribute positively to the literary world and simultaneously advocate for the constitutional right to read, particularly for the incarcerated reader.
With 21st Street’s position first and foremost being one of positive effects, teamwork, support and meaningful collaboration with others, 2024 has brought a lot of insight and planning on how we will move forward in 2025. Whether via legal means or by building new tables for indie authors/publishers to sit at, we are very excited and prepared to charge forward into the new year and what’s to come for everyone we team with. Thank you all immensely for encouraging and supporting us on this literary journey. Since there may be some not so feel-good communications in 2025, I wanted to be sure this ‘open end of the year letter’ spreads positivity and encouragement. I’d like to highlight some really awesome people we’ve come across this year. They deserve their flowers now for the positive impact they are having on mass incarceration.
I want to start with Ally, a librarian with the Hawaii DOC. Ally works tirelessly to get paperback donations to the incarcerated readers in Hawaii’s DOC. She knows what her readers want to read, what they have read, and what they will and won’t like. Ally has no problem reaching out to meet their literary needs. I love that for the incarcerated readers on our US islands. The way Ally cares about the inmate’s right to read “what they want to read” as the inmate’s library bill of rights states, is beautiful and her passion is contagious. ALL jail/FBOP/DOC librarians are great, (you ALL rock!) but Ally’s passion is remarkable. I hope the incarcerated readers as well as upper management of HIDOC know that Ally is their biggest advocate and cheerleader.
Successfully helping even one facility to expand their library for inmates as a non-punitive way to fight recidivism or getting one county jail to make access to voting possible for eligible voters being detained, is a tremendous win for society and is what 21st Street works toward all year long. There are many angels like Ally, that show up out of nowhere, the blessings they are, and help us achieve our goals. Like Carrie with Hachette Book Group.
I want to thank Carrie, who reached out to us on behalf of Hachette Book Group and so generously offered to collaborate with us with paperback donations in 2025 to jail/FBOP/DOC inmate libraries. Since 2007, 21st Street has always made sure to donate more books to incarcerated readers than we sell. With 21st Street not having a non-profit extension (21st Street Group Foundation coming in 2025) we have always provided these donations, including author royalty, print and shipping costs for every donation, at no cost to the facility, inmate or taxpayer as our philanthropic mission.
Historically, there has always been an ‘us vs them’ mentality between the indie literary world and the Big 5. We all know Hachette is one of the rulers of the publishing world, and from a global throne. However, the fact that Carrie took time and gathered a team to reach out to us to collaborate on how to get more book donations into jail/DOC/FBOP libraries, to me is a remarkable testament to Hachette having executives who are genuinely interested in doing something to alleviate economic challenges as it relates to access to reading for the incarcerated. They are generously helping us knock down historical barriers like only one of the largest literary entities in the entire world can. Carrie’s interest in this project is refreshing. Not to mention, a global giant like Hachette choosing to collaborate with 21st Street because of our historical record of providing new, free paperback books to inmates makes my heart happy, warm and very proud of our mission.
Since 2020, we’ve seen a lot of new hires and catch word positions created within the Big 5 that included fascinating titles and good ideals in theory, at best. But Carrie reaching out (when they certainly didn’t have to with their connections) because they wanted to genuinely facilitate direct access to new paperbacks for incarcerated readers is a beautiful thing and a testament to an authentic desire to facilitate reading for the incarcerated. A big thank you to Yona and Kisha for facilitating this connection. And of course, our sincere thanks to Carrie and her team for initiating contact and genuinely caring about the inmate’s access to books. We are so grateful for your support. I can’t wait to share how many new paperbacks we get in the hands of incarcerated readers together in 2025.
I normally appreciate and rather prefer privacy and confidentiality regarding our work. I am not at all a fan of public shaming or the rally cry method to try to impose change. I personally find private, one-on-one meetings to be more effective. However, there is a large group of people I would like to PUBLICLY THANK who have been instrumental in making our progress happen.
Thank you to the many legislators and lawmakers from states all over the country who always make time to meet and answer our questions and the wonderful connections they’ve helped us make. A big thank you to LEO who take time(!) to give us suggestions and insight on how to provide our service the best way possible to their incarcerated readers. Thank you so much to my fav judges/attorney friends who always help me when I say, “Hey – can you take a look at… what about… do you know if…” I am thankful for you all, from the bottom of my heart. I thank Him every morning for the loyal authors/publishers who keep us going. You are all so important and we wouldn’t be able to do this without all of your work, connections, direction, advice, positive influence and support.
My most humble gratitude goes to the Book Dragon all the way over in the United Kingdom, and in the US, Wahida Clark and team. You ladies (and your awesome authors) have displayed the patience of saints, and I can’t express my appreciation in words enough for the grace and support. I am so grateful for you ladies hanging in there with me while we figure this inmate tablet stuff out. I’m also grateful for the hundreds of indie authors who have stuck with us over the years while the inmate tablet providers says, F us, F the indie literary industry and F what their consumers, the incarcerated readers, want to read. I promise I and others are working diligently to create this access and I appreciate all of you patiently standing with us, year after year. Know in 2025, the gloves are off.
Since unfortunately I only see negative articles/posts/info about tablet providers, jail conditions, sheriff’s, jailers, etc., I wanted to be sure to share some good we’ve come across this year. One of the projects we’re working on has led us to researching county jails all over the US and the sheriffs who run them. I’ve personally spoken with hundreds of Sheriffs all over the US this year, and hundreds more over the past five years, many whose position on access to reading for their inmates in my opinion is uninformed and frankly, appalling. (I haven’t had time to circle back to them yet, but no worries, I have my detailed spreadsheet for when I do.) So right now, I want to highlight some sheriffs that deserve our attention for positive reasons.
These Sheriffs, our elected officials, deserve our support(!) now, and we should all remember them at election time. Supporting them is easy - send them an encouraging note to let them know they are seen and appreciated, make a donation to their campaign, $20 to a sheriff campaign is appreciated as much as $2,000 donation is, share their campaign’s platform on your social media - it costs you nothing to send a message of support to someone doing good work, and it can pay you and your community back, indefinitely. Support can be free. Voting is free. Good community leaders are priceless. This is the most impactful and effective way WE ALL can reduce recidivism and fight the decades long epidemic of mass incarceration in our local areas. Your sheriff sets the tone in your community for so much beyond traffic stops, and their leadership has a huge impact on your local recidivism rates and reentry success.
I want to name a few sheriffs, who through research, (thank you, Shiela!) we find to be incredibly inspirational. We hope that other sheriffs consider their leadership style, and facility’s programming access for effective, humane detainment for inmates. These leaders also seem to positively encourage their correctional staff - an important, often overlooked way to also effectively reduce recidivism - everyone impacted by mass incarceration mental health matters. So often, resources and support for detention staff is overlooked as part of the solution for reducing recidivism.
Sheriff Marian Brown of the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department in Texas, Sheriff Nicole Morrissey O’Donnell at the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department in Oregon, Jailer Mike Lewis at the Hopkins County Jail in Kentucky, Sheriff Floyd Bonner JR and Chief Jailer Kirk Fields of Shelby County, Tennessee, Sheriff Russ Skinner and Captain Nolte in Maricopa County, Arizona (God bless them) and last but not least, if you’re a prayer warrior, pray for Sheriff Kent Martin and Chief Deputy Tyler Heleine in Coles County, Illinois to do good work. You have to Google these sheriffs. (If you know them, tell them we’re praying and cheering for them!)
1 in 36 people in the US are impacted by incarceration and 1 in 100 people in the US have been, or will be, intertwined in the criminal justice system at some point in their life. There are so many different views and such varied positions and experiences of people affected by the criminal justice system. Inmates, loved ones of those incarcerated, justice reform/prison advocates, LEO/correctional staff, lawyers, judges and even my own personal experiences over the years have really created a lot of passion and perspective for the direction of 21st Street in 2025. I’m so excited about the positive impact we will have and the change we will facilitate along with looking forward to all of the new titles our literary family will bring us.
Not only do I want 21st Street to continue to always provide the best quality of literary service possible to our clients as well as offer the largest selection of independent titles directly to our incarcerated readers, I also want 21st Street to always be a positive and effective voice for everyone impacted by mass incarceration, through literacy. We are only as good as a society as the most unfortunate in our communities, and oftentimes, those are our fellow citizens impacted by the justice system. In 2025, let us love, pray and advocate for all of them. Thank you all again for a wonderful 2024. I look forward to all things literary that we will do with your help and support, and I can’t wait to update you all next year end. On behalf of everyone with 21st Street, I wish you all a safe, happy, and healthy 2025 filled with lots of love, happiness, prosperity and good books!
Sincerely,
Niccole Simmons
21st Street Publishing Group.