Library Services to Disadvantaged User Groups. Library services to adult prisoners in the United States

Abstract

Prison Library BackgroundState and Federal prisons house convicted inmates who are incarcerated for longer periods than inmates in jails and detention centers.Offenders in jails and detention centers are either waiting judicial determination or serving short-term sentences.State and Federal prisons provide services, including libraries for individuals in their prisons, while jails and detention center inmates receive services from their local counties.This article will focus primarily on library services in State prisons.Prisons were first established to banish and confine the offender, subjecting him or her to hard labor.Reading was confined to the Bibles and similar religious material aimed at inculcating morality, the guardian of this genre was the prison chaplain, whose responsibility was to assure the reader's penitence.The establishment of groups like The American Library Association, The American Correctional Association, and the American Prison Association, nurtured the movement towards developing standards for new and improved library services.This resulted in the publication of Prison Library Handbook that was still aimed at "moral therapy", but by 1992, Library Standards for Adult Correctional Institutions was drafted by Correctional Institutions librarians and State library consultants. 1 Over time, many factors contributed to the development of prison libraries to provide the improved breadth and quality of services that exist today.Changes were fueled by: the prison reform movement that advocated rehabilitation over punishment, education for a successful reentry to the community, the rights of prisoners, and the 1977 landmark court case, Bounds vs. Smith mandating that prisoners have law libraries and access to legal help. 2 States interpreted Bounds in a variety of ways -some established law libraries in the prisons, providing the required core collection of legal materials and the hours of access, others hired legal firms, yet others using the Library Standards as guidelines and supported services that were established on the model of public libraries.Since the 1980s, public and political attitudes have reverted to favoring punishment, and in 1994, The United States Supreme Court in Lewis vs. Casey placed restrictions on inmates' rights of access to the courts.3 Consequently, many states have reduced their educational and library services while increasing their expenditures on security.

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