Reading on the Row

The book images featured on this page are just some of the books that have been requested by death row prisoners.

In November of 2022, DPAA launched Reading on the Row, a direct outreach program designed to provide relief to death row prisoners in Arizona seeking educational and entertaining reading materials.

Many prisoners enjoy reading but lack the resources to access new material from outside sources. Although the prison library service provides reading materials, it can have very limited availability or lack modern and relevant materials.

DPAA-requested books have helped prisoners process their trauma of incarceration and develop additional coping skills. Popular books processing trauma such as, "The Body Keeps Score" and "What Happened To You", provide explanations and tactics to identify triggers and manifestations of trauma. Adventure and fantasy are also popular genres. Reading has helped many prisoners alleviate the anxiety and depression that many with death sentences suffer. For some, reading is also a coping skill for their chronic health conditions.

DPAA acknowledges the power of books and aims to continue supporting those who request reading materials. However, books can only be purchased through distributors like Barnes & Noble, as discount books from Amazon are not accepted in Arizona prisons, resulting in higher costs for the organization to provide materials.

Since launching the program DPAA has provided more than 170+ books to those incarcerated on death row in Perryville and Florence Prisons. The program runs on 100% crowdsourced funds and 100% of these proceeds go directly to fulfilling book orders.

We greatly appreciate donations to support DPAA's mission and continued programming, all proceeds donated below are used to provide books and cover the shipping costs to incarcerated individuals on death row units.