Welcome to the user guide for BTP Testament, a free online records management/shipping tool for books-to-prisons (BTP) programs. Testament was developed by Andrew Badr from Urbana Books to Prisoners and Geoff Hing at Midwest Pages to Prisoners and is maintained by Andrew. Bonnie from Louisiana Books 2 Prisoners created this guide.

This guide works pretty well on phones in case you would like to have it on hand as you navigate the Testament site.

FAQ

What can Testament do?

Testament has two main functions: Shipping packages and serving as a database for prison information across the US. Testament can help you ship packages of books very fast and keep track of where you send them, as well as manage pending book requests.

Testament’s shipping functions allow prison book programs to:

For more information about shipping packages with Testament, click here.

Testament is also a database that stores data on prisons such as their addresses and book restrictions, as well as user notes on facilities. This database is a powerful tool which uses input from Testament users to keep the records up-to-date with useful, accurate information. The Testament database is only for use of the BTP community, and the information it holds is based only on user input. This database is not linked in any way to any state or federal organization or DOC, so if a prison enacts a new book restriction, Testament will not reflect that information until one of us enters that information into the database. It’s the responsibility of users from BTP groups to update and maintain this database, which also is a way for us to share confidential information within the BTP community. As a crowdsourced database, Testament becomes more useful when more people use it. 

Even if your group has another shipping method you prefer and doesn’t want to log packages in Testament, you can still use these database features to track book prison restrictions (and other info) and share them with other BTP groups.

Testament’s database functions allow users to:

For more information about the database functions of Testament, click here.

Has Testament achieved its glorious and ultimate final form?

No, based on input from mostly me and also other users at a few different book programs, Andrew is currently implementing some improvements aimed at increasing the accessibility and utility of Testament. The manual will be updated along with those changes. If you have any ideas for improvements to Testament or this manual, you can email me, Bonnie, at admin@LAB2P.org.

How do I get started with Testament?

You can email Andrew, the admin, at andrewbadr@gmail.com to request a new account. When the updates are complete, we will do a Zoom skillshare and add a link to the recording here. For a walkthrough of the basic Testament processes, you can start with reading about the prisons in the database and about logging packages to be shipped out.

Our group has unique needs and processes. Can the Testament tool be useful for us?

Yeah, probably! We all have unique things at our different groups, but Testament is pretty flexible. Email me and I will think of something. E.g., what if your group only has one computer? What if some of your prisons have wildly different requirements from the others? What if you already have an established shipping procedure with some weird software that makes labels? What if you don’t have a printer? What if you do some work at home? What if you already have your own database on file? I already have ideas for those things. As #1 Testament fan, I can come up with more ideas for more problems.

Why the name “Testament”?

From the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary:

testament

2 a: a tangible proof or tribute b: an expression of conviction

Testament is a tool for storing information about books being sent to people in prison. However, prisons are already closely tied to record keeping. People are reduced to tracking numbers, the years they have left to serve, a thing that can be moved from place to place to optimize efficiency, a statistic that can be calculated into a budget. Most states and the federal government have public online databases where people can search for information about any incarcerated person, the search returning an intentionally sinister -looking mug shot, the person’s criminal record and nothing more.

Testament is a technology that can make the work of those sending free books to incarcerated people a little easier. However, we did not want it to only mirror the record keeping of the prison system or to otherwise reduce lives and experiences to data. Choosing the name “Testament” for the software tool helps us remember that every record in our software system is tied to a person in the prison system. Each record in the database is a testament to an incarcerated person’s struggle for knowledge or freedom, the hard work of a volunteer acting as an ally to that struggle, the generosity of a community member contributing resources, and an attempt by people to connect across some of the most substantial boundaries of our world.