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Preparing
Inmates for Life After Prison
Libraries
and outreach programs focus on reentry
American Libraries: 6.27.2016 by Terra Dankowski
Jacquie
Welsh was looking to undertake a project during her two-year residency at Los
Angeles Public Library (LAPL), so she
asked herself the question: “How can we innovate to make our libraries more
accessible and more just?” What resulted was Pathways, a program designed to provide
resources to those reentering the community after prison.
With
more than 2 million adults incarcerated in federal, state, and country prisons,
more and more librarians and outreach workers are asking themselves the same
question and looking to administer similar services. “Literacy Inside and Out:
Services to Incarcerated and Newly-Released Adults and Their Families,” a
session sponsored by American
Library Association’s Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services on Sunday at the Annual Conference and
Exhibition in Orlando, Florida, highlighted some of the work being done at
detention centers, correctional facilities, and beyond—and the challenges and
obstacles this work presents.
The
library decided Pathways would have the most impact if it tried to reach those
who had been released for less than six months. It partnered with federal and
local programs STAR (Supervision to Aid Reentry) and EPIC (Empowering People,
Illuminating Change) to find sites and participants. The program focused on
digital skills and family reunification, and helped to provide library cards,
brochures and explanations of resources tailored to newly released people, and
books specific to reentry.
Susan Woodwick, who leads the Hennepin County (Minn.) Library Outreach Department, runs a program that serves a county correctional facility. Hennepin’s
program—which Welsh borrowed inspiration from in creating her program—visits
the facility every Tuesday and has goals to meet reading and information needs,
increase print motivation, stock onsite libraries, fulfill requests, and
educate residents.
Leo Hayden, director of reentry with the Orleans Parish (La.) Sheriff Office, is not a librarian but has a partnership with Portland State
University’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program and knows these
challenges well. He has taught digital skills in a corrections setting and
“established this program where none existed,” he said. READ MORE @
Reading on the Inside
Programs help incarcerated parents connect with their children through
books
American Libraries: 12.08.2014 by Megan Cottrell
Tips for Starting an Intergenerational Reading Program for Incarcerated
Parents
1. Connect with someone in jail administration. The most important part
of starting a program in your local correctional institution is to find someone
who works there who will support it, Hennepin County Library’s Dan Marcou says.
Establish a relationship with that person and ask for advice about how to move
forward. Listen to everything he or she has to say and use that as your guide
to the system, he says. In addition, it’s important to “work with the facility
administration to let them know that [your program] is not going to impact the
function or safety of the facility,” Marcou says.
2. Remember the setting. NYPL’s Sarah Ball says librarians shouldn’t be
afraid of working in a corrections setting, but librarians do need to remember
that the security of the facility will come before anything else. Often
programs have to be canceled or changed at the last minute because of security
concerns.
“Programs have to come second,” says Ball. “Corrections administrators
understand that programs do support their goal of safety and security, but
security always comes first.”
3. Find volunteers or staff and train them. While some programs like Read
to Me use community volunteers for help, Marcou says he also recruits Hennepin
County librarians to run the programs to help build connections between the
inmates and their local libraries. He notes that anyone brought into the
corrections setting may need to go through training and background checks to
comply with federal and state laws.
4. Think about your budget. Marcou says a program like Read to Me can be
relatively low budget, depending on how it is run. Funding for Read to Me comes
from the Friends of the Hennepin County Library and Target Corporation.
The cost depends on the program’s size and frequency. Marcou estimates
that the cost for each child is about $5 to buy one to two books apiece, plus
another $5 per envelope for postage to send the books and recordings home.
Other costs include staff pay for the three program hours that they spend
on-site, plus roughly two hours of orientation training. One-time workshops at
the jail are also a low-cost option, Marcou says.
5. Stick to the rules. Prison rules may seem imposing or difficult to
work with, but Marcou says every rule is there for a reason, and it’s important
to work within the system. “We always have to be mindful of the fact that it’s
their house,” he says. “Our good intentions are important, but they don’t trump
prison regulations. If you believe in helping incarcerated parents, you also
need to be willing to go through all of the extra steps to do it.” READ MORE @
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