A third party may also purchase books so long as the items are sent directly from the following approved vendors (Books N Things and Edward R. Hamilton Books), and the third party sender is an individual with whom the incarcerated individual is allowed to correspond per IDOC policy.

To sign up to be a mentor for an IOWA prisoner, complete the Mentor by Mail request and place the word "IOWA" in the "COUNTRY" field at the end of the form. SWOP Behind Bars will send you the prisoners information so that you can write to them and request to be placed on their Corrlinks Secure Email Account. Once this has been completed, you will be able to purchase books from the approved vendor and have them sent directly to the prisoner.

Alternatively - Publications/books received directly from the Human Rights Defense Center shall be approved. These items cannot be sent from a third party sender.

The Human Rights Defense Center publishes Prison Legal News. Prison Legal News is also the longest-running prisoners' rights publication in American history, and in 2013 received the First Amendment Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. In December 2017, HRDC launched Criminal Legal News (CLN),a new monthly that complements the content of the long-standing PLN. CLN covers the criminal justice system and system reform, outside of the prison system. Content includes case analysis, news stories, opinion pieces, and book reviews on constitutional rights, the expansion of the police state in America, criminal law and procedure, police brutality, prosecutorial misconduct, abuse of power, habeas corpus relief, ineffective assistance of counsel, sentencing errors, militarization of police, surveillance state, junk science, wrongful convictions, false confessions, witness misidentification, paid/incentivized informants, search and seizure, Miranda, and due process.