Volunteer set to deliver 2,000 books to Tri-Cities, Southeast WA jails
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- Volunteer Bryson Fico will deliver over 2,000 paperbacks to four Southeast WA jails
- Pages of Redemption sources books from garage sales, libraries and community donations.
- Fico says reading cuts jail incidents and boosts postrelease job prospects.
Bryson Fico, 27, collects and donates books to jails and prisons across Washington, aiming to improve inmates’ reading skills and setting them up for success after they are incarcerated.
Fico has his largest book donation yet coming up in Southeast Washington.
Over the weekend, he’ll deliver more than 2,000 paperback books to the jails in Benton County, Franklin County and Yakima County, and the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.
A majority of the books will go to the state penitentiary. About 250 books will go to each of the jails.
Setting inmates up for success
Through his organization, Pages of Redemption, Fico makes a difference in the lives of people who are incarcerated, one book at a time.
“When we do this we’re not just helping the inmates, but we’re helping the community at large.”
He cited a statistic from the National Adult Reading Survey — 70% of all incarcerated adults cannot read at a fourth-grade level.
“If we can’t educate them, give them opportunities for jobs or increase their reading comprehension level, they don’t have much of a chance,” he said.
“If we can give them the tools to go back out and get a job with decent benefits, speak, read or write in Spanish or just have a better comprehension level than when they went in, we’re setting them up for success.”
There also is a benefit to correctional officers to have books in jails. Fico said inmates are less likely to commit a crime in jail when they are reading or writing.
Typically working by himself, Bryson sources books from garage sales, libraries and donations from authors and community members.
He likes donating holiday books, educational books including the “For Dummies” series, and books from some of his favorite authors like James Patterson.
Inspiration for donating books to inmates
Pages of Redemption combines three of Fico’s interests — reading, service and criminal justice.
Fico is from Las Vegas and remembers completing various service projects while growing up. He said he’s been an active volunteer since he was 16.
He now works for the Okanogan County Superior Court as a judicial assistant, jury coordinator and therapeutic court coordinator.
When he started college at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, he began volunteering at the local food bank.
As a law and justice student, he toured the prison in Walla Walla and learned about the daily lives of inmates.
It was the inspiration he needed to start his own service project.
He visited book stores in Ellensburg, collected around 90 books and made his first donation to the Kittitas County jail in October 2023.
Things quickly scaled up from there. He made a donation of 1,400 books to the Spokane County jail in October 2025.
Usually, he doesn’t get a response from inmates, though he’ll occasionally get messages from former inmates who read books he donated and find him through his LinkedIn page.
Each book is stamped with the Pages of Redemption logo.
