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Major development in the long-neglected prison library service is on the
cards - partly thanks to strong advocacy by librarians.
Vehement protests greeted a report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers,
commissioned by the Prison Learning and Skills Unit and released in April
2003. PWC saw libraries as part of a package with education for outside
tendering, when according to librarians, they should be like college library/resource
centres.
In November 2003, the PLSU (a partnership between the Home Office and the
Department for Education and Skills) agreed to separate libraries from education
- contract-wise anyway. And it wants to know more about prison libraries.
The PLSU is conducting a mapping exercise of current provision, which should
lead to 'good practice guidelines' being drafted by March 2004. The would
be followed by agreed minimum standards and specifications by the end of
the year, plus - is it hoped - a permanent steering group.
The fact that so little is know about prison libraries is one of the 'special
problems' they face, according to a Wider Information and Library Issues
Programme (WILIP) report also released in November 2003. A survey commissioned
by the Prison Libraries Group in 2002 was banned from publication because
of 'security concerns'.
For similar reasons, prison governors severely limit (or ban) internet access
and even physical visits (20 minutes a week is typical). Stock, staffing
budgets and the reading skills of many inmates are all poor.
But staff told the WILIP researchers that there are two over-riding problems.
First, "the most pressing need is to convince prison governors of the
value of libraries in prisons". Second, there is a damaging split of
responsibility for libraries between the PLSU, the Home Office, the Office
of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Department of Health and the Department
for Culture, Media and Sport. The PWC study did not even consult the DCMS.
(Library and Information Update, December 2003)
A PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) review of education in prisons has been
criticised for its "fundamental misunderstanding about the role of
the prison library service", in a response by the Chartered Institute
of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP).
CILIP, along with the Society of Chief Librarians, calls for a "more
extensive review of the prison library service and how it can best meet
future needs ... including the drafting of a specification for the range
of library services required".
CILIP highlighted the weak evidence base behind sections of the report
on prison libraries and the library community's "virtual exclusion
from the evidence-gathering stage of the report". "The PWC report
wants to restrict the role of the prison library service to that of learner
support," wrote Guy Daines, CILIP's principle policy adviser. "A
library service narrowly focused on educational provision within the prison
service will fail to support and sustain more informal approaches to learning,
often the first steps to greater self-realisation and achievement, and
perhaps to enrolment on more formal courses."
Review of the funding and procurement of education and training in
prisons: final report to the Prisoners' Learning and Skills Unit,
PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 2003.
(Library and Information Update, April 2003)
The Big Book Share
at Nottingham prison is the winner of the 2002 Libraries Change Lives
award, it was announced in June 2002. The scheme enables inmates to sample
and talk about children's books (including their own past experiences)
with children's librarians. They then pick stories to read to their own
children (or other young relatives) on tape, often adding a personal message.
The scheme is run
by LaunchPad (the children's reading development agency now part of new
organisation The Reading Agency), Nottingham City Library and the prison,
with support from Marks and Spencer, East Midlands Arts and publishers.
"Nottingham Libraries are wonderful. They have done all the work for this,"
said prison officer Barry Conlin at the award ceremony at the Library
and Information Show, which sponsors the award.
Running a library
in a busy local prison is not easy, he explained, with budget cuts and
a rapid turnover of men who are "usually shocked, often sad and quite
often disturbed". Self harm "or worse" is a constant risk.
LaunchPad is developing
resources to roll out the scheme nationally, including a good practice
guide - and is lobbying for substantial funding.
The announcement
was made at the Library and Information Show at ExCel in east London.
The other shortlisted projects were Patients' Library in Lanarkshire,
which provides reading facilities for people suffering from depression,
and the Reading and You scheme in Calderdale ad Kirklees, which operates
in a mental health hospital.
(Library and
Information Update, August 2002)
Prisoners with access to personal
television sets are turning into "cell potatoes" who would rather watch
the box than take exercise, shower or visit the library, according to
a report by the Board of Visitors at Wandsworth Prison in south London.
It said a high proportion of the wing's inmates had previously
made use of the prison library, with 173 out of 200 men visiting on one
day last year. But these numbers dropped alarmingly from November once
televisions had been introduced into wards.
(The Independent, 31 May 2001)
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