Camden Tadhg, the State Library’s consultant to the youth correctional facilities, just returned from a site visit to Adams Youth Services Center, a detention facility where the average length of stay is less than two weeks. The teacher who oversees the library does an excellent job of creating a reading culture among the teens. So much so that an urban legend has taken root at AYSC: If you don’t finish a book before you leave, you will come back. A young man who is being released tomorrow was in a panic. “Ms. P – is there a really short book I can finish reading tonight?”
Tag Archive for 'prison libraries'
On June 29th, the American Library Association adopted the Prisoners’ Right to Read: an Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights. This important action by the association asserts basic information access rights to all incarcerated individuals. Diane Walden, senior consultant in the Institutional Library Development unit of the Colorado State Library, was the primary drafter of this exceptional document. A year-and-a-half in the making, she guided the document through its many drafts and the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee’s approval process. Diane crafted a powerful document that will support those working in libraries serving the incarcerated for years to come.
Erica MacCreaigh, also a senior consultant in the Institutional Library Development unit, states, “I think The Prisoner’s Right to Read will prove itself the single most powerful document in the English language for correctional librarians. It carries a weight of authority not found in other writings about correctional libraries. As such, it should prove a substantial asset to anyone striving to uphold the fundamental principles of librarianship in an environment designed to oppose them.”
Correctional librarians work in a unique environment where, similar to school and some special libraries, “appropriate content” is mandated by a non-library parent agency. Most guiding professional documents are outdated, insufficient, or not applicable.
To fill that gap, Diane Walden, member of the Institutional Library Development team at Colorado State Library, and Ray James, Research Specialist (Texas) have crafted “Prisoners’ Right to Read: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights.”
“Prisoners’ Right to Read” will provide correctional librarians with an intellectual freedom values statement tailored to their unique work environment and guidelines for aligning program outcomes and goals with those values.
Continue reading ‘Seeking Input: Prisoners’ Right to Read Statement’
Not to worry; they were released the same day! The Colorado State Library’s Institutional Library Development team – Diana Reese, Diane Walden, and Erica MacCreaigh – recently sponsored a tour of the Sterling Correctional Facility libraries and education programs for CDE Commissioner Dwight Jones and his staff. Warden Kevin Milyard led the group on a tour of the 2,500-bed facility – an environment few get to see. Highlights of the tour were learning about two State Library programs within the Colorado Department of Corrections: the “Out for Life” and “Read to the Children” programs.
Sterling Correctional Facility Program Manager Ken Wildenstein, CDE Commissioner Dwight Jones, Colorado State Library Institutions staff Diana Reese, Diane Walden, and Erica MacCreaigh, and CDE Assistant Commissioner Gene Hainer visit the Sterling Correctional Minimum Center Library
Continue reading ‘CDE Commissioner Jones and Assistant Commissioner Hainer Go to Prison’
Colorado’s youth and adult correctional facility libraries are the information centers for their residents. The State Library’s Institutional Library Development team works hard to ensure residents have quality materials to:
support efforts toward self-improvement and successful reintegration into society- increase literacy levels
- promote reading as a constructive use of leisure time
- teach effective use of libraries
Assistance in helping us meet these goals is greatly appreciated. To help the public donate useful materials, there are new guidelines for Department of Corrections libraries.
For more information about how you can donate to any state institutional library, contact Teresa Allen, acquisitions and youth institutions consultant at the State Library.
Colorado State Library correctional library consultants Diane Walden and Erica MacCreaigh conduct a formal library orientation program for new Colorado Department of Corrections library staff. Gena Carini’s report on her library orientation experience provides an insight into the unique challenges and reward of correctional librarianship.
“I found dedicated, professional, and creative staff at all these facilities. I observed veteran library staff interact with offenders tactfully, confidently, and professionally, but also with real interest in them as library patrons. I saw different ways to make a library a welcoming place without sacrificing security.
I think the most moving library experience for me was visiting CSP. As this is a maximum security facility, the library staff must deliver materials to and retrieve them from the offenders daily. Our group was able to follow [the librarian] as she made her morning unit rounds. I was able to see a very organized, professional, yet calming and supportive staff member interact with offenders in a very unique and potentially dangerous situation. I learned that staff can be security minded and still provide great customer service, even when communicating through a tray slot. I was also impressed by her positive interaction with security staff, something very necessary in any corrections environment.
I also learned that, as programs staff, we are as important in maintaining a safe work environment as officers are. [The librarian] explained how her interaction with the offenders could affect their behavior the rest of the day. A harsh approach to an offender with an overdue book in the morning could lead to a confrontation with an officer that afternoon. [Her] approach to the CSP offenders reminded me how staff behavior and attitudes are reflected back from the offenders we work with. It reinforced how [library services] are a part of the whole corrections environment, not just a way for offenders to “kill time.”
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