Prison Library Advocacy Research Paper

From digmovements

Emily Beanblossom

Digitizing Movements

Unsel

Spring 08

Prison Library Advocacy

It is controversial as to whether or not the existence of a prison library assists in the rehabilitation process for incarcerated people. For the purposes of a research project, I am attempting to discover a correlation between access to information for prisoners and an accelerated rehabilitation period during incarceration.

Access to information paired with literacy plays a vital role in the personal, spiritual and educational development of all people. The mission of Prison Library Advocacy is simply to provide books, magazines, and newspapers to incarcerated people so they can then rely on their education as a tool to make permanent their rehabilitation. This ideology also includes the assertions that, in accessing information, prisoners will be more likely to develop an appreciation for reading, a pursuit of knowledge, and engage in behavior that is self-improving, and socially beneficial.

A segment of the research paper will be dedicated to fact-checking and statistics based on the institutions that provide books to prisoners; figures that show how many prisoners are served by one library, how many librarians per prison, etc., are all integral numbers when considering the use and legitimacy of a prison library program.

By listening to requests from prisoners and responding to them, prison book programs are achieving this goal by sending prisoners free books. This movement’s activism also includes library advocacy, literacy advocacy, and fundraising. Much of this movement is able to function online, and many online organizations run almost completely by depending on the internet. Others that are interested in this movement but play a more informative role, rather than directly contributing, often post articles to blogs that center around raising awareness and providing access to information and resources.

Along with fact-checking and movement-watching, one must consider potential problems or conflicts that may arise to disrupt or hinder prison library advocacy. Some very large, weighty issues such as tax and funding cuts, or censorship, all come into play when discussing whether or not prison library programs effectively rehabilitate prisoners. For the purpose of this research paper, I will argue using statistical analysis and regard for rational, potential conflicts within the movement to reach a conclusion on the effectiveness of prison library advocacy.

Ideology
In her research paper titled “U.S. Prison Library Services and Their Theoretical Bases” for the Illinois Graduate School of Library Science, Rhea Joyce Rubin quoted Herman Spector, a San Quentin prison librarian as stating,

The Correctional Library can contribute directly to the meaningfulness of the overall therapeutic program. . .It can and does help men in their ultimate adjustment in the free world, and frequently, men do gain insight into their personal problems through the instrumentality of books.

To fully understand the prison library system, we must understand first the ideology that was originally implemented with the creation of a prison library. Bibliotherapy is a commonly used term when discussing prisoner rehabilitation, and is defined as “The use of selected reading materials as therapeutic adjuvants in medicine and in psychiatry; guidance in the solution of personal problems through directed reading.” This formula was applied with the idea that prisoners could be influenced and humanistically changed into upstanding, religious citizens while they served time.

The first prison that contained books was founded in Nantucket, Massachusetts in 1676, and contained nothing but Bibles and hymnals (Rubin, 13). Though the prison was not considered to host a library, the access to these books for prisoners was the first example of the use of bibliotherapy in aid of their rehabilitation. Then, the first legal prison library was created in 1820 in the Kentucky State Prison, but in keeping with the humanitarian approach, the library contained only religious texts, no practical or mechanical knowledge material (Rubin, 14). During the depression era when there was a decline in industrial prison work, there were riots stemming from inmate boredom, and even larger libraries were created to pacify prisoners. Librarians with more training and education were hired, and schools were beginning to show up in conjunction with libraries.

By 1950, the humanistic library was replaced by a more work-centered, punitive library system that focused on practical reform that hoped to set prisoners free as skilled workers, trading on the idea of creating moral, upstanding citizens and using prisoners as unpaid workers that received no benefit from their time in prison. Then, within ten years, Rubin states that this poorly budgeted plan led to a “lack of funds in the average prison, worn out titles, unwanted titles, outdated titles, and untrained personnel.” Finally, by the 1990s, the lack of funding led to a lack of educational programs, and in 1994, Congress declared Pell Grants, which allowed for college programs in prison and occupational books to be purchased for libraries, to be unavailable to US inmates (Wetherbee, 1). This leaves us where we are today, exiting a period of time where the government “cracked down” on crime and cut off funds for professional counseling and higher education, and entering a period where many are beginning to understand the benefits and necessity of bibliotherapy but are left with few resources and support from the government.

Those who are currently working for the Prison Library Advocacy Movement believe there are three main needs of prisoners that must be fulfilled in order for for them to be released as well-adjusted, socially responsible citizens: Informational needs, Educational Needs, and Recreational Needs (Advocate & Nelson, 1). By fulfilling inmates’ informational needs, advocates and prison librarians provide information that include consumer skills, employment skills, and prerelease skills that allow prisoners to gain personal and professional judgments that assist with life decision making.

A library cannot single single-handedly provide this, however - educational programs must be available as well, which allow prisoners to seek out career options and interests, and accentuate professional skills they may already have. Also, because prison creates an environment for inmates that is very unlike that of the real world, there are periods of dead time with which inmates would have absolutely nothing to do. This seems like it would be easy, but is in fact very grating and actually depletes prisoner social skills and reasoning.

In The Context of the Information Behavior of Prison Inmates, Diane Campbell suggests that one of the biggest concerns with Prison Library Advocacy is not just to prepare prisoners to reenter the world as regular citizens, but also to make sure their time in prison is not detrimental to their psychological health and social well-being. With one of the only other options being weightlifting or fighting, inmates may find reading to be a healthy, constructive, alternative form of recreation (Advocate & Nelson, 2].

Institutions
In Canada, the rate of incarceration in the federal prison is 118 per 100,000, and while this is fairly substantial compared to many countries, it is not nearly as high as the U.S. rate of 699 per 100,000 (Curry, 6]. Also, a survey in 1999 reports that 363 inmates per 100,000 were juveniles (Andersen, 1). It is reported that less that one third of prison libraries in Canada have a professional librarian on staff, only 8% have a MLS or MLIS degree, 22% have a two year degree, but 83% of the staff are made up of inmates (Curry, 14).

In prison libraries, the most requested text from prisoners are dictionaries, thesauruses, African American history and fiction, Native American studies, legal material, GED materials, and languages (particularly Spanish.) Other common requests include fiction, vocational-technical manuals, politics, anthropology, art and drawing, psychology, and health and fitness (Shethar, 363). In most prisons, however, between 50 - 75% of books requested are fiction(Rubin, 4). This makes sense, considering the nature of collections available and the literacy level of the average inmate: despite the fact that illiteracy among prisoners is about three times greater than the average US population, inmates read five times more the amount of books, and the amount of prisoners that are regular readers are double that of people that are not in prison (Rubin, 5).

In his article, “The Great Escape: In a Maximum-Security Prison, There’s a Place Where Shakespeare Gets Stolen, Poets are Kings, and Books Still Matter,” published in City Limits, Holbrook Sample, a reference librarian, states “Now that keeping inmates quiet is more of a priority than keeping them pure, catalogs are organized on the ethos of the public library: Give the customer what he wants.” Because prisoners are often times illiterate and/or uneducated, and would many times prefer a fictional paperback to pass the time, or a basic education book, librarians must use this information when deciding what to purchase or accept for their library. Because prisoners are such hungry readers, their drive to consume knowledge must be met and is taken into much consideration when librarians are planning not just their budget, but also their library structure. With about $20 per inmate per year allotted for books and other learning materials in the New York State Budget (after which many prison libraries model their budgeting structure), a librarian has almost free reign in deciding what to purchase for the inmates, but cannot include certain titles that are deemed inappropriate or potentially dangerous. For instance, titles such as “How to Build a Simple Bomb”, “Road Maps of the USA”, or “Kung-Fu for Beginners” would be censored and not fulfilled upon prisoner request (Sample, 3). And manuals or how-to books on electritionship studies are often excluded, as most prison locks operate on a power grid (Crimaldi, 1). Prison librarians must take measures to ensure the safety of not only themselves and other inmates, they must keep a collection that protects against escapes and doesn’t promote violence simultaneously keeping a collection that strives against unnecessary censorship that may isolate inmates and act as a deterrent to their reentry into society.

Space and layout is also a concern for safety. Cameras and mirrors are often used as a deterrent against theft, and officers and staff must supervise inmates as they browse the stacks, and oftentimes only allow short, ten minute visits at a time. This obviously impedes against inmate privacy and creates a hurried environment. In an article entitled “Making Prison Libraries Visible and Accessible,” Brenda Vogel stresses that location and layout are key aspects to a prison library’s effectiveness and functionality. For instance, the prison library should be preferably on the first floor or near an elevator not only to assist inmates with disabilities, but also to allow easier transport of books and other materials in a timely manner. The library would increase it’s effectiveness if it were located in the same proximity of other resource programs like education or human service programs (Vogel, 1).

Size is also something that seems like an obvious benefit, but it is often impossible to expand a library’s reaches. This would, however, ensure more seating size, which means more inmates can use more resources at a time, which means the library could have longer operation hours. And oftentimes, there could be a single librarian or staff member working for an entire prison, which could range in population from five hundred to two thousand inmates at a time (Curry, 14).

Movement
Many online organizations are developing as of late to raise awareness of the important role that books and information access to prisoners play in their rehabilitation. Online blogs for prison librarians, web sites designed for book donations, and support pages with information for prison library staff can all be found easily with an internet search, and there are many U.S. based organizations to choose from. For instance, the Books Through Bars Program is not an online based program, as it was started in 1980, but has a very strong basis on the internet. Their mission, which is “to address the paucity of educational resources and programming made available to prisoners hoping to use the time of their imprisonment to effect positive change in their lives.” On their page, there are links that include their history and accomplishments, programs they organize (including youth, book distribution, public education, and movement building programs), information on how to get involved, and resources for those interested. There’s also a page dedicated to accepting donations online, as well as a store to buy canvas bags with their logos on them, books of art created by prisoners, poetry by prisoners books, and awareness raising posters for libraries.

The Prison Book Program that started in 1972 is a grassroots program based out of Quincy, Massachusetts that now utilizes the internet to distribute information on volunteering, how to donate, news, and prisoner responses to the program. One could also join a e-mailing list to stay updated, and can download an official National Prisoner Resource List. The “Prisoners Speak” is an interesting link - in response/gratitude to the Prison Book Program, prisoners send their artwork, poetry, thank you’s, and quotes from prisoner book requests. While this program uses the internet as a tool to enhance it’s capability of outreach, it is not a solely internet based program.

Other programs are, however, completely run on the internet. Libr.org is a program designed to be a support structure for librarians since 1998, and its mission is

“To provide communication services to librarians and library workers, individually and in groups, who believe in libraries as a social good and as an ideal pattern for the exchange of knowledge and ideas, and who wish to promote progressive thought and action and a concept of social responsibility within the library world and in the world at large.”

While it is not specifically a prison book program, it offers links to progressive journals such as Library Juice, Progressive Librarian, Information for Social Change, and Librarians for Peace, all of which include articles posted at some point regarding the plight of inmates and their access to information.

As for online blogs, they’re countless. A quick Google search of “Prison Librarian Blog” results in 3,490,000 results, including “Inside: Librarians Serving Those Serving Time,” a blog that is completely online based, and is much more of a cognitive blog, as opposed to an action-taking blog or web site that provides links for volunteering, events, and donations. This blog discusses who should be choosing books for prisoners, prison library policies, and other theory-based matters for prison libraries.

Webjunction, an online community for library staff, is mainly based on information distribution, but also is a site where community members can network with other community members in their own town or state, and contemplate how technology “can enhance and expand library services” in their tangible area. In the sidebar, I noticed a “Groups” section that includes how to get involved, Spanish language outreach, a site for rural and small libraries, and government information. Below that, a “Tools” link is easily found, offering information on technology planning within the library, management tools, a Webjuntion Wiki, and a “Webinars” page, which is basically a seminar-like conference that is done completely online. Also, under the “Community” tab, there is access to discussion boards, a question of the week, a library of the week, and an advice column where anyone can ask a question to George Needman, an author and speaker in the field of Library Science for over thirty years.

Before the internet became an integral tool for Prison Library Advocacy, there were many experiments and innovative programs that were being researched for the sake of library restructuring. The Stanford University Prison Experiment by Philip Zimbardo is an example of how a prison alters the environment to such an extent that typical social mores are replaced by behavior that is seemingly more appropriate for the new environment. For this experiment, college students at Stanford University were hired to play either authoritarian officer roles, or prison inmate roles. The experiment was halted after only six days instead of the intended fourteen because the “officers” were becoming sadistic and violent within the new social confines, and “inmates” were becoming antisocial, subordinate, and troubled. The results of this experiment concluded that, in an environment that is abnormal and socially unsound and unequal, inmates will lose any motivation, interest, and intellectual endeavors (Campbell, 1). How is a prisoner expected to return to society as a well adapted, upstanding citizen when they are socially maladjusted and feel intellectually inferior?

In the early 1980’s, Doug Griffin, the Chief Academic Education with Corrections Canada, believed that inmates were experiencing problems with basic education or job-training because they did not know how to learn in the first place. Experimentation in this area included the implementation of university programs in prisons, with an impressive success rate. However, these experiments were cut short due to the lack of funding, and no further action was taken (Palmer, 1).

An organization called Windows to Freedom, a library that runs out of a Chicago women’s prison, was created in 1996 and offers assistance to the 90% of female inmates whom, as a staff member said, couldn’t make bail and were stuck waiting around. Windows to Freedom offers radical feminist and lesbian based books and other materials, poetry workshops, and support for those who were victims of domestic abuse (Mantilla, 1). This was originally an experiment, but with its undeniable sucess rate, it was quickly implemented and made permanent, and is open five mornings a week from 9:00am to 12:00pm (Mantilla, 1).

Many tactics are used in this movements, but research and information distribution seems to be the key ingredient that furthers the movement. For example, the Books Through Bars program distributes a seasonal newsletter that include surveys and segments of book requests from prisoners so that more people may become aware of the accomplishments made in the field and challenges they face. They gathered information from 157 different prisons over a six-month period in the US, and kept lists of quotes from request slips, thank you letters, and whether or not educational programs were available, accessible, and serviced by quality trained staff (Books Through Bars, 1.) One thing they found that all state prison systems are required to offer GED programs to combat the issue that most U.S. prison inmates are without a high school education, which in theory should be a prison’s priority (Books Through Bars, 2). However, the eligibility of these GED programs are sometimes limited to those under 18, which leave most inmates out of luck (Books Through Bars, 2). Hopefully, with research like this conjoined with publishing a newsletter regarding the findings, awareness can be raised and measures can be taken to alleviate the problem.

Keeping track of prisoner requests, noting how many librarians serve a certain prison population, keeping updated blogs, organizing resources - people devote their lives to retrieval of this information and making it accessible. The internet has been vital in the movements’ spread over the passed ten years. Also, by looking at this information, organizations can create quality programs to benefit prisoners.

Potential Problems/ Issues
All of these ideas are proven to be effective and beneficial for the most part - however, there are roadblocks that many of these programs that work within the movement face. For instance, as I mentioned earlier the issues of space within the library, restricted area doesn’t just allow for shorter visiting periods for inmates. It also means longer circulation periods, which means that prisoners are not allowed to switch their books as often. This, in turn, leads to hoarding, theft, and potential mutilation of books the longer each prisoner has them. Law books especially are returned after a long check-out period with pages missing - the inmates feel that they will not have access to the information again very soon, so they keep what they think they need (Spector, 366).

Especially in the case of “writ-writing” or jailhouse lawyering, inmates who are more educated or legally inclined will do research for other inmates’ cases in return for favors or goods. Because prisoners will many times not even see their lawyer but thirty seconds before their trial, it is important that they be aware of their legal rights and responsibilities ahead of time (Mantilla, 1). Because this lawyering is treated as a commodity, jailhouse lawyers will sometimes expect special considerations from the library and library staff, making exhorbitant demands, or writing frequent and annoying requests to wardens and officers to visit the library. This disrupts circulation flow, and makes librarians less inclined to help aggressive patrons.

Because of circumstances similar to this, it’s very difficult to even hire librarians to work in a prison library in the first place, let alone get them to stay. Michael McGrorty, a writer for Library Juice says in an article called “Prison Library” that the prison librarian is not just a provider of information and intellectual enlightenment - they are also responsible for keeping the patrons docile and detect and report misbehavior. They are there, despite budget cuts, to help inmates change their lives, but they are also there to stand in at one step below the role of an authority (Sample, 2).

Conclusion
There is remarkable data that suggests the assertion that, with books and other forms of information, prisoners would be interested in self-improvement and development into an upstanding citizen. Somehow, prison libraries manage to continue operating, even with budget cuts and lack of funding from the government. Based on the assertion that books and education can change a person’s life, prison libraries have only recently started administering this ideal again since the beginning of the 20th century. Does it make a difference? Is is practical, or is it a waste of tax money? Does it create a prison country club, or does it create a healthy environment for continuing education? We’re still in a stage that points either way.

However, we can see that, even if there isn’t enough money from the state to pay for a librarian to work there, prison libraries are still a required institution. Prisoners still need access to legal information, and we can almost hear the franticness in their requests for more books and resources. Surveys are being taken more and more, and research has grown significantly over the passed thirty years, thanks to advocacy groups. Considering advocacy outreach and information distribution, it’s undeniable that, with access to quality and relevant titles, prisoners will be better able to reinvent themselves upon their return to society. Hopefully, persons in positions of authority will take some cues from Prison Library Advocacy, and apply the findings to policy -making, fund allocation, and regulations for prison libraries.