Christi Sevits

LIS 600
Ethics/Advocacy and Action Research Combo Projects

Part 1: Ethics and Advocacy: Serving Books While

Serving Time The Need for Prison Libraries
INTRODUCTION
People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book. Malcolm X
When it comes to prisoners, library services for them are
profoundly lacking. Prisoners tend to be forgotten about once they are
thrown behind bars, no one bothering to take their educational needs
into account. We expect them to be functional, rehabilitated,
productive model citizens once they are released, but do very little
to ensure there is no recidivism. Prisoners deserve more educational
services to re-enter society. I argue that library services to
prisoners of all stripes accomplish the following positive goals:
reduction of recidivism and an increased probability that the
prisoners will re-enter society with better educational and employment
prospects once they are released. It is important to punish offenders,
but it is more important to rehabilitate them so they can create
better lives for themselves. Libraries should be the key to this
success.

THE WHY

Prisoners have the right to read. The Supreme Court Justice

Thurgood Marshall wrote in the 1974 Procunier vs. Martinez decision
that, When the prison gates slam behind an inmate, he does not lose
his human quality; his mind does not become closed to ideas; his
intellect does not cease to feed on a free and open interchange of
opinions; his yearning for self-respect does not end; nor is his quest
for self-realization concluded.

If anything, the needs for identity

and self-respect are more compelling in the dehumanizing prison

environment (Prisoners' Right to Read: An Interpretation of the
Library Bill of Rights). It is a matter of ethical concern when a
persons intellectual needs are neglected or forgotten if he or she is
serving time. While in prison or jail, a prisoner no longer has many
of the freedoms guaranteed to everyday citizens. Their lives are
structured and closely monitored, cut off from the outside world to
varying degrees. Libraries can provide a sense of normalcy, a mental
escape from prison life. In addition, there is a dire need to improve
the literacy rates and job prospects of prisoners.
One in nine prisoners in the United States is serving a life
sentence, so it is safe to say that most prisoners are going to be
released (Nellis and Chung 1). The U.S has twenty-five percent of the
worlds prison population, the amount of people in our prisons
increasing 700% since 1970 (ACLU). The ACLU reports further that one
in ninety-nine people in the U.S is serving time right now, creating
the crises of overpopulated prisons, broken families, and overspending

on punishment instead of investing in rehabilitation. Not all

prisoners have the same interests or educational level, but what most
prisoners have in common is that they will most certainly need
assistance with re-integrating themselves in society upon being
released.
According to the Correction Education Data Guidebook, education
significantly reduces the rate of recidivism, with literacy being a
big concern for inmates (Literacy Fact Sheet: Correctional
Education). The Federal Bureau of Prisons also reported in a study
that the more actively the inmates successfully participated in
prison education programs, the less likely they were to recidivate
(Literacy Fact Sheet: Correctional Education). Authors Vibeke
Lehmann and Joanna Locke of the International Federation of Library
Associations and Institutions (IFLA) state that, the prison library
can be the vital information resource that makes the difference of
whether or not a newly released ex-offender fails or succeeds on the
outside (5). Clearly, many library professionals share my sentiment
that prisoners are less likely to be behind bars again if adequate
library and educational services are provided in prison.
According to Lehmann and Locke, [t]he prison library...becomes
an important part of the entire prison environment in its support for
educational, recreational, and rehabilitative programs (4) and
presents a window to the outside world and can provide much useful
information for those preparing for release to the outside world (5).
This is yet another convincing reason that library services are vital
to prisoners.

The prison population is highly underserved. There is a higher

proportion of illiteracy in the prison population, studies showing
that prisoners are illiterate at a rate three times higher than the
general population (Rubin 2). The rate of prisoners with less than a
high school education is a staggering forty-one percent (Harlow 2).
There is a clear need for educational and literacy services within
prisons to improve these rates.

THE WHAT
Now that the need for prison libraries has been established, it
is worth discussing what types of materials best serve prisoners as
well as educational programs that prepare inmates for life after
release. Glennor Shirley, the library coordinator of correctional
education libraries at the Maryland State Department of Education,
states that a prison library collection should include a broad range
of materials for self-help, self-education, community resources,
housing and job availability, and vocational training opportunities
(Shirley 2006). He further reports that a few topics typically wellreceived by prisoners include preparing for job interviews, GED
completion, family relationships and planning, and ethnic interests.
Fiction titles are also frequently requested, but due to censorship
rules at different institutions (depending on the security level of
the facility as well as the discretion of the librarians), many titles
never make it to a prisoners hands. Censorship will be covered more
in detail later.

The ways in which prison libraries can be useful are not limited
to circulating the books within them. Educational programs are a great
way to prepare inmates for release. Education is not just limited to
teaching illiterate prisoners how to read teaching basic usage of
the internet, partnering with educational institutions to help
prisoners get their GED or complete a degree, and recording an inmate
parent reading to their children are all possibilities.
It should not come as a surprise that imprisonment can be a
stressful time on a family. A 2007 report shows that, slightly more
than 1.7 million children under age 18 had a parent in state or
federal prison, representing 2.3 percent of the total U.S. child
population (Christian 1). Most of the offenders are the male parent,
about 1.5 million. When an inmate is a parent, both parent and child
can feel anxious and disconnected. One program that seeks to bridge
this gap is the Read To Me Daddy (Mommy) project by the Refined by
Fire Ministries in Louisiana, implemented in 2008. The way the program
works is that incarcerated parents record themselves on video reading
a book to their child. The recording is made into a DVD and both the
DVD and the book the parent read are mailed to the child (Read To Me
Daddy [Mommy] Project). Similar programs in other states have
reported that they are well-received. The goal is not just to
reconnect families, but to unravel the connection between
incarceration and illiteracy (Read-To-Me Program).
On a smaller scale, the Jail Literacy Program in the Walworth
County Jail in Wisconsin offers English as a Second Language,
literacy, basic education, and math classes. These classes have been

offered since 2008 by the countys Literacy Council. The inmates in

the program and the staff running it report many positive results. An
inmate who completed the program said that, had I not had the extra
help with reading and comprehension, I would not have passed my GED
(Jail Literacy Program). Education instills esteem and power
power to leave their criminal ways behind them, to stop making
excuses, and to create a brighter tomorrow, said Brigitte Kutschma, a
former Public Defender of the county that has represented murderers to
petty thieves (Jail Literacy Program).
Programs like these are making real differences in the lives of
prisoners and their loved ones. Denying prisoners their rights to
education and reading only exacerbates the vicious cycle of
recidivism.
OBSTACLES
Setting up a prison library is no simple task.

The funds to do

so are often very limited and librarians run into a host of issues not
frequently encountered elsewhere. For example, prison librarians have
to answer to the prison wardens, who may or may not be skeptical about
the benefits libraries bring to prisoners. Open-minded wardens have
reported that, in addition to raising morale, books helped to lessen
escape plots through preventing boredom, releasing strain, and
creating gratitude (for the libraries) (Rubin 5). Prison
librarianship is unique in that the person the librarian reports to is
often not another library professional, making it harder to convince
the person of a librarys potential.

Another major issue for prison libraries is censorship. Security

is of prime importance in any facility, and any materials that make it
into the prison or jail must meet certain criteria. Rubin reports that
examples of materials commonly banned in prisons are newspapers
because they focus on crime, sexually explicit magazines, Westerns
because they teach antisocial behavior and lack of respect for law
and order, and detective books because of they teach ingenious ways
to plan crimes (Rubin 6). What is deemed acceptable varies from
facility to facility and it can be challenging for a prison librarian
to balance the need for prison security via censorship and the right
for prisoners to read. The issue of censorship is not exclusive to
prison libraries and can be found in public, academic, and school
libraries, but the biggest difference is that security is not at stake
in these types of libraries. The occasional disgruntled parent upset
that a gay character appears in a childrens book pales in comparison
to a potential prison riot, breakout attempt, and other safety risks
that must be taken into consideration in prisons and jails.
The Library Bill of Rights is a set of guidelines published by
the American Library Association (ALA) that establishes standards for
library services. It clearly states that, Libraries should challenge
censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide
information and enlightenment, with no exceptions being written after
this clause (Library Bill of Rights). Prison librarians must grapple
with this policy to determine what prisoners are exposed to. The
Library Bill of Rights also says that, A persons right to use a
library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age,

background, or views, which covers prisoners (Library Bill of

Rights). The Supreme Court determined that prisoners have the right
to read, and the ALA feels the same way. However, what, when, and
where prisoners can read are left up to the discretion of individual
prison librarians and their interpretations of The Library Bill of
Rights.
CONCLUSION
Prison libraries do so much more than help prisoners pass the
time while serving their sentences. The libraries serve as an
educational facility, teaching job skills, parenting skills, drug
rehabilitation programs, literacy, math, and sometimes GED completion
and higher education classes. With these services, prisoners are less
likely to return to lives of crime.
Prisoners do not lose their rights to an education or to read
because they are behind bars, as established by the Supreme Court.
Their access to certain types of materials may be restricted if the
librarians deem them a safety risk, but the Library Bill of Rights
must be applied to the best of the librarians abilities to ensure
that prisoners still have as much access as is allowed.
To deny prisoners their right to read is a serious ethical
violation that both directly and indirectly perpetuates the problems
of prison overcrowding, recidivism, violence, illiteracy, and divided
families. Through prison libraries, prisoners have a chance to reenter society as productive citizens. It is up to us to be their

advocates and remember that prisoners are, first and foremost, people
with intellectual needs just like the rest of us.

Part 2: Action Research Interview of Prison

Librarians
OVERVIEW
To supplement my Ethics and Advocacy project, my goals were to
interview five prison librarians and evaluate the practices of their
libraries. The project began on October 21st, 2014 and concluded on
November 28th, 2014. My success was very limited because I was unable
to land an interview with even one prison librarian despite numerous
phone calls and emails, which will be discussed more in detail later.
METHODS
I devised a list of ten questions to ask prison librarians. I
attempted to conduct the interviews by phone first, email being my
back-up plan. The questions were as follows:

1. What is your position/title at your institution? How long have

you been there?
2. Why did you choose a prison library career?
3. What is the predominant subject matter you hold in your
collection?
4. What type of materials do prisoners in your library check out the
most?
5. How many books and other library items are in your collection?
6. What educational and literacy programs are in place at your
institution?

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7. What type of books do you believe to benefit prisoners most?

8. What are some goals you have for better serving the prisoners at
your institution?
9. Why do you believe prison libraries are important?
10.

What are some differences from regular (i.e, school,

university, public) libraries when it comes to serving patrons?

DATA COLLECTION
Here is where my hopes and dreams for the project went to die. I
was not successful in securing a single interview. That was the one
consistent happening in the entire project; no one provided any data
for me to evaluate in the first place.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Prison librarians are a small, elusive bunch. For more than a
month, I was repeatedly disappointed by unanswered phone calls and
emails. Scheduled interviews were forgotten about and rescheduled,
only for the cycle to be repeated. Some of the prisons listed on the
official list of North Carolina prison libraries fell through, being
told by the prison officials that there was neither a library nor a
librarian that worked there. This happened four separate times.
Clearly this contact information is not updated by the North Carolina
government often. Another interesting fact about that list of contacts
was only phone numbers were listed as contact information, no email
addresses.
The two librarians I successfully contacted never followed up
with me despite phone calls and emails a couple times a week. They

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both agreed to an interview, but little progress was made after that.
The most promising interviewee was contacted by email and rescheduled
a phone interview with me four different times and then stopped
answering my emails. While I am sure this was nothing personal, it was
quite frustrating nonetheless.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I had certainly planned on accumulating more responses when the
project started (or in my case, results at all). I was full of
optimism and confidence that starting weeks in advance would give me
enough time to conduct all my interviews, organize the results, and
evaluate them. I waited until days before this project was due before
relinquishing all hope of scheduling a last-minute interview, but I am
proud that I managed to learn a lot through my own research about
prison libraries along the way.
Having some input from professionals would have given me the
project a more complete feeling. The glaring, most important lesson
I learned was not related to the project specifically, but still a
valuable lesson nonetheless: even with an early start, a well-thought
out plan, and persistence, some things will not work out the way you
intended. I am going to remember this the next time I conduct
research.

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Works Cited
Christian, Steve. "Children of Incarcerated Parents." National
Conference of State Legislatures (2009): 1-17. National
Conference of State Legislatures. Web. 28 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.ncsl.org/documents/cyf/childrenofincarceratedparents.
pdf>.
Harlow, Caroline. "Education and Correctional Populations." Bureau of
Justice Statistics(2003): 2-11. Bureau of Justice Statistics. U.S
Department of Justice. Web. 28 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ecp.pdf>.
"Jail Literacy Program." Walworth County Literacy Council. Walworth
County Literacy Council, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 27 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.walworthcoliteracy.com/?page_id=17>.
Lehmann, Vibeke, and Joanne Locke. "Guidelines for Library Services to
Prisoners." IFLA Professional Reports 92 (2005): 1-24.
International Federation of Library Associations and
Institutions. Web. 7 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/hq/publications/professionalreport/92.pdf>.
"Library Bill of Rights." American Library Association. American
Library Association, 23 Jan. 1996. Web. 28 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill>.

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"Literacy Fact Sheet: Correctional Education." Oklahoma Department of

Libraries, 2013. Web. 7 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.odl.state.ok.us/literacy/statistics/corrections.htm>.
Nellis, Ashley, and Jean Chung. "Life Goes On: The Historic Rise in
Life Sentences in America." The Sentencing Project, 2013. Web. 7
Oct. 2014. http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/inc_Life
Goes On 2013.pdf
"Prisoners' Right to Read: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of
Rights." Intellectual Freedom Manual 8 (2010). ALA Council. Web.
27 Nov. 2014. <http://www.ifmanual.org/prisoners>.
"Read To Me Daddy (Mommy) Project." Re-Entry Benefiting Families. ReEntry Benefiting Families, 1 Jan. 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.rbf.la/programs/read-to-me-daddy(mommy)-project>.
"Read-To-Me Program." Indiana State Library. Indiana State Library, 9
June 2014. Web. 27 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.in.gov/library/RTM.htm>.
Rubin, Rhea. "U.S. PRISON LIBRARY SERVICES AND THEIR THEORETICAL
BASES." Occasional Papers 110 (1973): 1-21. University of
Illinois Graduate School of Library Science. Web. 27 Nov. 2014.
<https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/3853/gslis
occasionalpv00000i00110.pdf?sequence=1>.
"The Prison Crisis." American Civil Liberties Union. American Civil
Liberties Union, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 28 Nov. 2014.

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<https://www.aclu.org/safe-communities-fair-sentences/prisoncrisis>.
Shirley, Glennor. "Censorship and Prison Libraries." OLOS Columns. 2
Feb. 2007. Web. 27 Nov. 2014.
<http://olos.ala.org/columns/?p=100>.
Shirley, Glennor. "Prison Libraries Help Inmates Get Over The Fence:
Reducing Barriers To Reentry." OLOS Columns. 2 Aug. 2006. Web. 27
Nov. 2014. <http://olos.ala.org/columns/?p=102>.
Shirley, Glennor. "What Do Prisoners Read? Prison Libraries and
Collection Development." OLOS Columns. 2 Sept. 2004. Web. 27 Nov.
2014. <http://olos.ala.org/columns/?p=113>.
X, Malcolm, and Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. 1st ed.
New York City: Grove, 1965. 400. Print.

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