Library services to incarcerated adults: What exists and what we can do to move forward

Abstract

Incarcerated adults are a special population whose information needs and information use environment are undeniably unique to the population. In thoroughly examining the Information Transfer Process and barriers to information that inmates face in prison libraries, as well as critiquing the existing prison library programming and other sources of information on this group, we are able to note programming deficiencies and make suggestions for addressing these shortcomings.

Introduction

The incarcerated face isolation and are constantly struggling with the limitations of personal choices and freedoms. The prison library is one of the few places where prisoners are able to exercise control over a portion of their routine and highly monitored lives. In this report, we will explore the information needs of prisoner library patrons and review the services and resources that provide information about this special population. In thoroughly examining this group, we will be able to pinpoint areas lacking services and provide a proposal to address this deficiency.

The Group Identity

In the United States, our national population has increased by twenty percent in the last two decades while our national prison population has increased by something close to four hundred percent (Campbell, 2006). There are over one and a half million people currently in state and federal prison systems (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2006). Prisoners face a series of unique challenges and barriers that make them a population very much in need of attention and specialized programming.

Demographics

Most prisoners are male; female prisoners make up less than 10% of the entire community, although recent numbers suggest that this gap is decreasing quite rapidly (Bureau of Justice, 2006). In 1997 almost 9% of the African-American population of the United States was “under some form of correctional supervision”; this is compared to 2% of the white population and over 1% of other races and ethnicities (Bureau of Justice, 2008). The median age of an incarcerated adult is 34 (Campbell, 2006). It follows that the information transfer process of this group is not entirely homogenous, as the group itself varies.  There are a myriad of barriers to match the great variety of information needs within the group.

Statistically, prisoners come from poorer, less-educated backgrounds. As a result, literacy can be an issue that is both a barrier and a stigma against its own removal. Spanish is now spoken by one quarter of inmates (Bureau of Justice, 2008); it is the first and only language for many. There is not the equity of representation in the collections that might be expected for such a large subsection of this community.

Interpersonal Relationships

The psychology of information seeking is magnified by the intensity of the prison setting. Strict hierarchies among inmates and an avoidance of relationships with those outside the inmate group, including librarians, means that the search for information is likely to be dependent on superior positioning within the group and the level of trust and respect earned. Another possible barrier is the Librarian’s own concern about a conflict of interest between ALA ethics and guidelines and the restrictions put in place by virtue of the setting (J. Pitchford, personal communication, March 26, 2008).

Environmental

As far as barriers go, the elephant in the room involved in the information transfer of incarcerated adults is the physical environment. As well as the restricted nature of cells, the environmental fact of incarceration and prison safety restrictions limit the type of material that is made available to inmate patrons. Material concerning weaponry, drug making and gangs are often prohibited. Concerns about physical contact can sometimes be a concern with the prevalence of Hepatitis and HIV in prisons (J. Pitchford, personal communication, March 26, 2008). One barrier that is unique to the prison population is a strict control on the time allowed in library facilities. The ALA recommends that prison librarians spend at least five hours per week of direct service for the general prison population and one hour per week for limited-access inmates (ALA, 2007). Time limits leads to less successful searches and less face time with librarians, and thus a less successful transfer of information for both educational or entertainment purposes.

Programming and Sources of Information

The services and programs prison libraries provide not only advocate for viewing prisoners as real people by giving faces to the statistics, but greatly impact the lives of patron inmates. Programming, academic journals, interviews with professionals and electronic mailing lists (listservs) are a few methods of gathering information about inmate demographics as well as painting a portrait of the information needs of this population.

Programs

One issue prison libraries are attempting to address through programming is the unpreparedness of inmates upon leaving the prison. Prison libraries in Colorado have addressed this by creating an innovative program called Out for Life. With the support of an LSTA grant, Colorado prison libraries are able to provide books and other materials to assist inmates in reintegrating into society outside of the prison (S. Keefer, personal communication, March 10, 2008). In addition to the financial assistance for collection development, the program is accompanied by an instructional DVD, which teaches prisoners how to use the prison library as well as preparing them for public library use upon release.

Glennor Shirley, Library Coordinator for Maryland State Department of Education Correctional Education Libraries, has created an amazing CD-ROM entitled “Discovering the Internet @ Your Library.” Due to safety concerns, most prison libraries do not allow prisoners to have access to the internet, so Shirley has created a simulated version of the internet that allows inmates to learn these computer skills, which can be integral to finding a job and continuing their personal development once they are released from the institution (Darby, 2004). Library and computer-skills programs are crucial for the success of former inmates, and could reduce rates of recidivism if computer skills translate into job skills.

Many prison libraries also have programs that focus on fostering parenting skills. In Fort Lyon Correctional Facility’s Read to the Child program, inmates are taped reading books aloud and the resulting audio material is sent to the participating inmates’ children (S. Keefer, personal communication, March 10, 2008). The San Quentin Correctional Facility in California has combined parenting education with literacy programs in the form of Fathers as Teachers: Helping, Encouraging, Reading, Supporting (FATHERS). FATHERS utilizes children’s literature to discuss the sometimes difficult subject of values in a support-group format (Darby, 2004). This allows the participants to create bonds with other inmates in the group, as well as helping them to transition into the ”father-figure” roles they will need to assume once they are released. These programs are important, as they not only build reading skills but also foster the opportunity for prisoners to participate in parenting activities.  The success of these and other programs utilizing children’s literature showcases the desire of inmates to foster a bond with their children and transition into positive parental role-models upon release.

Book talks and discussion groups such as Arapahoe County’s Choose Freedom Read (in which public librarians give book talks along with distributing the book to inmates) addresses the number one reason inmates visit the prison library:  For fun. According to T.S. Bowden (2003), approximately 94% of incarcerated people utilize the library to meet their recreational needs. Book talks are important for inmates, as they can provide the opportunity for inmates to discover books and genres that they would have otherwise not invested their time in.

Lack of funding for the library, as well as limited time on the part of the often sole prison librarian, means that exceptional prison library programs are scarce. Luckily, there are many non-profit and outside organizations that exist to supplement the library’s thinly-stretched resources. Some of the most popular outside programs focus on putting books in prisoner’s hands. Book donation programs such as the Prison Library Project, Books to Prisoners, the Prison Book Program and Books Through Bars work to augment the prison library’s oft lacking collection. Some programs send books to the library, while others focus on providing prisoners with books they can keep. Books Through Bars is an innovative program in which inmates actually write in to request specific titles. Through book and monetary donations, BTB locates the materials and ships them to the individuals rather than to the library (Darby, 2004). Although this does not help to boost the library’s collection, it does provide individual prisoners with ownership over a book, which may lead to an appreciation of materials and a personal connection with book that the prisoner-patron may not have discovered in a borrowed book.

Programming provides some insight into the information needs of the general prison population, but it does not tend to shed any light on the needs of those who are even further marginalized within the institution’s walls. Disabled inmates, inmates with mental health issues and homosexual inmates are just a few examples of invisible populations that are not being targeted for prison library services. As much as 75% of women and 55% of men may be suffering from some form of mental illness while incarcerated, which may affect the way they access information (Greenway, 2007). Currently, the ALA does not have any guidelines regarding providing services to patrons with mental health issues, which may be representative of the way society views the mentally ill as a special population undeserving of resources. It is vital that this deficiency is redressed if prison librarians are to adequately serve a large percentage of the inmate population.

The existence of ESL services bear witness to the rapidly rising population of Spanish-speaking inmates, but only those who are comfortable enough to enter the insular library world are taking advantage of the services; libraries can seem very western and Anglo-centric, so for those who don’t feel as though they fit into the existing model, it can be a struggle just feeling confident enough to enter the library. Providing bilingual signage and translation services could be a good start in getting non-English readers into the library.

Academia

Much of the research on issues affecting the incarcerated has been written by practicing prison librarians. As time restraints are a major issue affecting prison librarians, finding the time and energy to devote to writing academic articles can be difficult, but it is vital that active prison librarians be leaders in the academics of prison librarianship, as they are involved in the information search process and are privy to insider knowledge of this very isolated population. Because they are able to explore an issue in great detail, academic works are an excellent way of delving into the issues affecting prison librarianship. The Maryland Correctional Education Library’s website, which was put together by Glennor Shirley, strives to fill the dual purpose of aiding other prison librarians and providing outsiders interested in prison librarianship with knowledge of contemporary prison library issues. Approximately fifty percent of the articles on this site are written by Shirley; the remaining is contributed by other prison librarians. Time constraints definitely limit the viewpoints expressed, but with more than twenty years of experience in prison libraries, Shirley definitely has clout in the field.

Prison-L Listserv

The American Library Association’s prison library listserv, or Prison-L, is a rare semblance of a prison library community, providing a forum for prison librarians to bounce ideas off other professionals and get feedback about issues and program ideas. Prison librarianship can be a very isolating profession, so this is an effective way of creating and being involved in a community. Prison-L focuses mostly on the struggles prison librarians face rather than the information needs that are already being fulfilled, but this venue could be a great way to gather basic information for those new to prison librarianship, as long as the inquirer can communicate their needs. Electronic mailing lists are extremely effective, as prison librarians are more than willing to answer any questions one might have.

Information Use Environment

Individuals living in the prison industrial complex are under-served due the essential nature of their condition, its isolation, and its inherent sense of powerlessness. This condition is exacerbated by the larger society’s beliefs regarding appropriate consequences for criminal behaviors. The information transfer process within the prison industrial complex is impaired not only by the residential culture, but also by that of the administration and the guards. Security is paramount in a correctional facility and it is generally established through the physical isolation of inmates. Communication with loved ones, exercise, and access to internal services, including the library, are revoked as punishment and dispensed as privileges for violation of security measures and excluded behaviors. Also, time is a primary barrier to accessing services while in custody; although inmates may have a lengthy stay within a correctional facility, their time accessing information services may be severely limited.

While life in the prison industrial system is culturally distinct from any other, it simultaneously represents a microcosm of life which could be found in any small insular community where concerns are focused internally onto its members and in meeting their own needs.  In her article ‘A theory of life in the round’ Elfreda Chatman (1999) outlines the information transfer environment in the American prison industrial system as an isolated culture that is defined by its members’ disconnect from their traditional support systems and its essential lack of privacy. Impacted by the constructs of the correctional facility and its internalized world-view, information seeking is often negative. Chatman (1999) argues that “People will not search for information if there is no need to do so. If members of a social world choose to ignore information, it is because their world is working without it” (p. 214). Just as in the larger community, if an individual has an established manner of receiving their information and does not perceive a need for their situation to change, they have no incentive to seek out alternative sources. Although outsiders of the culture may see a great need for change in the lives of prisoners, when one is established in that culture, potentially with a high degree of status within that community, there is little motivation to incite change. This reality presents a monumental challenge to librarians practicing within the prison industrial system in working to bring inmates into the library who may be very resistant to alternate information resources. Reaching out to disinterested potential prison library patrons requires creatively thinking about the purpose of the library.

Vibeke Lehmann (2000) explains that it is the very barriers and stresses that are a daily part of the prison industrial system that may lead an inmate to become a library patron; she explains that the prison library can be a sanctuary for prisoners where they are able to exercise personal choice and decision making which is otherwise unavailable to them within the confines of the correctional facility. Just as within a traditional public library, the patrons of a library within the prison industrial system must believe that it is an effective use of their time to go to an alternate information source and believe that they will find the information they are looking for by going to the library, as well as trusting that they will receive appropriate services from the staff; as Lemon (1997) states, “For the library to be essential to the inmates, it develops a reputation for having the information they need and desire.” (p.37)

To this end, it is imperative that prison libraries are provided with the funding to increase technological resources and the security required to administer them appropriately within the confines of the correctional institution.  Singer (2000) advocates that due to its ability to provide immediate and effective information, current technologies, including the internet must be incorporated in the prison library. In another profound similarity between traditional public libraries and prison libraries, the degree that a culture is under-served is in direct correlation to the institutions financial resources. Funding for traditional materials has been limited for prison libraries, and funding for technological resources is even harder to receive due to the perceived higher cost and security concerns.

When prisoners walk into a straitjacketed pretense-of-a-library and find the authors they appreciate absent, their requests for information screened by someone who is judging how they might pervert it, and their needs filtered through a test of state-determined goals, they will know that this take-it-or-leave-it library is not taking them seriously. Any chance for honest interchange and rapport will be seriously limited, along with any real hope for change.

Proposal

In collaboration with prison librarians from other states, we propose to design and implement a program of extended inmate access to the Internet over the next five years in the state of Oregon. This program is designed to give inmates a sense of autonomy and familiarity with modern technology, while maintaining the highest degree of security to all involved. The prison system is, for adequate reasons, focused on the safety and security of its staff and the outside community. The insular nature of this program will provide inmates with expanded access to information sources while simultaneously maintaining a system locked from the outside world.

In order to create a secure and sheltered Internet experience, we plan to build on the previous work of Glennor Shirley in creating a simulated Internet program. Rather than using traditional blockers that censor the web content, or an “opt-out” method, we propose creating a system that allows you to “opt-in”. Websites deemed as acceptable will be entered into the system, allowing librarians to have control over which sites are accessible in the library. This would be similar to the Librarians Internet Database, in which librarians add websites deemed to be valid, with the exception that the intended audience would be prison inmates and the server bar them from accessing sites outside of the system. Borrowing from Shirley’s program will also cut down on the amount of initial work to be done, as the sites from her simulated Internet will be utilized in this secure Internet experience.

In addition to furnishing this service, we must also provide the training that would allow inmate patrons to take advantage of their newly acquired access to the Internet. Librarians will conduct presentations, which would both promote the existence of this service to the inmate patrons and provide basic training, which will be followed up with one-on-one assistance.

This plan has many benefits that elevate its usefulness over prior efforts such as Shirley’s revolutionary program. Firstly, as this will not be confined to CD-ROM format, it will be much easier to update; the Web is constantly being modified, and the exemplary sites we depend upon now may not be such in the near future. This will allow inmate patrons the ability to keep up to date on the newest information as well as not becoming dependent upon outdated sites. Secondly, not being confined by disc space will open up the potential to add sites that will meet the information needs of those groups whose needs have previously been neglected, such as the long-tail and the burgeoning Spanish-language population.

As the majority of prison inmates will one day return to the larger society, providing them with additional tools to cope may reduce recidivism and thus ease the financial burden of supporting a system of incarcerated individuals. As Glennor Shirley notes, the yearly cost of supporting a single inmate can be near $27,000 (“Connecting Inside,” 2003). It is natural to feel overwhelmed by changing technology, but allowing inmates the opportunity to take steps towards rehabilitation can potentially reduce crime rates and the risk of recidivism, which is beneficial for society for both public safety and economic reasons.

Conclusion

There is a profound stigma against prisoners in the corrections system that is reserved for adult inmates. As the accursed guilty, inmates embody our fears about the evil of mankind. Western society preaches the possibilities of redemption and forgiveness while simultaneously crucifying those who stray from societal norms. Correctional institutions are a place for the “unwanted” members of society to be locked up out of sight; as a special population, incarcerated adults have higher incidences of mental health issues, lower education levels and are disproportionately people of color. There has also been an influx of two somewhat newer populations: Female and Spanish-speaking inmates. With the exception of issues surrounding incarceration, the information needs of prisoners are generally similar to that of the outside population.

Prolonged incarceration can prevent inmates from developing the computer skills that are essential to the pursuit of enriching one’s life in a Web2.0 world. Increasing technological services within the prison library will create additional incentives for inmates to become library patrons, increase an individual’s ability to integrate into the larger society upon release, and develop legal resources for prisoners. Providing access to the resources the Internet has to offer would address eight out of nine basic needs that prison libraries must confront, as set forth by the Library Standards for Adult Correctional Institutions.

Prison libraries are constantly struggling to provide programming that will aid prison library patrons in pursuing personal development as well as developing skills that will potentially reduce rates of recidivism. Battling the social stigma that inmates experience and working with the oppressive nature of corrections institutions make prison librarians’ struggles to provide adequate programming a difficult task. In looking towards a rehabilitative approach, it is vital that librarians think outside the prison walls in providing services. As eloquently put by one professional and one inmate, respectively:

Do we want them released the way they came in or do we want them to get their GED or learn to read or learn a trade, so that they can contribute to society? (Jahnke, personal   communication, 2008).

“Our little library is our window to the world, our link to the past, present, and future. Life’s bleak inside, to say the least, but [the librarian]…does her best to provide us with worlds to explore and information to keep our spirits high.” (Darby, 2004, p. 8)

References

American Library Association, (2007). ALA library standards for adult correctional institutions. Retrieved April 6, 2008, from American Library Association Web site: http://www.ala.org/ala/ascla/asclaissues/librarystandards.cfm

Bowden, T.S. (2003). A snapshot of state prison libraries with a focus on technology. Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian, 21(2),1-12.

Campbell, D.K. (2006). The context of information behavior of prison inmates. Progressive Librarian. No.26, Winter 2005/2006. http://www.libr.org/pl/26_Campbell.html

Chatman, Elfreda A. (1999). A theory of life in the round. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 50, 3, 207-217.

Connecting inside – Glennor Shirley. (2003, March 15). Library Journal, CA281692.

Darby, L.T. (2004). Libraries in the American penal system. Rural Libraries, 24(2), 7-20.

Dixen, Rebecca, Thorson, Stephanie. (2001). How librarians serve people in prison. Computers in Libraries, 21, 9, 48-53.

Greenway, S.A. (2007). Library services behind bars. Bookmobile and Outreach Services, 10(2) 43-64.

Knudsen, Mark. (2000). How my library affects my life in prison. Education Libraries, 24(1), 20-21. Retrieved April 1, 2008 from Wilson OmniFile: Full Text Mega Edition.

Lehmann, V. (2000). The prison library: A vital link to education, rehabilitation, and recreation. Education Libraries, 24(1), 5-10. Retrieved April 1, 2008 from Wilson OmniFile: Full Text Mega Edition.

Lemon, M. (1997). Prison libraries change lives. Information Outlook, 1(11), 36-38.

London, J.D. (2000). Conduit for restoration: The prison library. Education Libraries, 24(1), 11-16.

Medina, L. (2000). The importance of prison libraries. Education Libraries, 24(1), 25-38.      Retrieved April 1, 2008 from Wilson OmniFile: Full Text Mega Edition.

Pitchford, J. (1999). Prison libraries: a light in the darkness. Alki. 15(3), 8 & 11.

Singer, G. (2000). Prison libraries inside out. Education Libraries, 24(1), 11-16. Retrieved April 1, 2008 from Wilson OmniFile: Full Text Mega Edition.

U.S. Department of Justice, (2008). Bureau of justice statistics home page. Retrieved April 6, 2008, from Bureau of Justice Web site: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/welcome.html

Vogel, B. (1989). Prison libraries: Escaping the stereotype. Wilson Library Bulletin, 64, 25-38.

Links to Programs Websites:

The Prison Library Project: http://www.claremontforum.org/prison.html

Books Through Bars: http://www.booksthroughbars.org/

Books to Prisoners: http://www.bookstoprisoners.net/

Maryland Correctional Education Library:http://ce.msde.state.md.us/library/libraryarticles07.htm

Prison Book Program: http://www.prisonbookprogram.org/

Shirley, G.L. (2004). Prison libraries and the internet. Behind the Walls @ Your Library:

Library Service in Prisons, 2. Retrieved March 22, 2008 from: http://www.ala.org/ala/olos/outreachresource/prisoncolumn2.cfm