Topic: Everything Education / Need to measure success of offender programs?

Satnica;
Here are a list of web sites to guide you in establishing a system of prison libraries in Croatia. It is a rough map, but these are the standards, resources and inspiration I have followed to maintain and strengthen prison libraries to prevent them degenerating into “books on shelves”.

Professional Standards for Prison Libraries (start here)
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/ascla/asclaissues/librarystandards.cfm

Example of Maryland Correctional Libraries
(maintaining success through challenging circumstances)
http://www.dllr.state.md.us/ce/lib/

Example of Colorado Correctional Libraries (inspirational)
http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdelib/prisonlibraries/index.htm

Changing Lives Through Literature, an alternative sentencing program
http://cltl.umassd.edu/home-flash.cfm

Wild imagination inspiring research into the role of reading to learn social connection:
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/imagination/ Applying this research to reading in prison would open the flood gates of political goodwill and support for prison libraries. http://philpapers.org/sep/imagination/ (bibliography of article)
Good luck interpreting the data to relate specifically to reading.

Major Seed Work: Hakemulder, F. J., 2000, The Moral Laboratory: Experiments Examining The effects of Reading Literature on Social Perception and Moral Self-knowledge, Amsterdam: Benjamins. (Scholar)

Topic: Everything Education / Need to measure success of offender programs?

Prison librarian from Croatia, Satnica wrote:
“….I want to promote reading among the prisoners, yes, but I strongly want to promote establishment of regular, equipped and professional prison libraries, which today are not yet present in the prison system. The reasons are many, no money, no professional staff, no political will…”

Here is the web site for “The Prisoners Right to Read: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights”: http://www.ifmanual.org/prisoners

I personally do not agree with allowing inmates access to the public through the Internet but the public library profession was adamant because of their professional training in Freedom of Speech. Most of the people who actually work in prison libraries have a greater focus on public safety and maintaining the prison walls between inmates and the general public. Public librarians primarily focus on access to information. There are ways to satisfy both but the debate is heated enough to degenerate to elaborate “straw man” accusations.

Topic: Everything Education / Need to measure success of offender programs?

“I want to promote reading among the prisoners, yes, but I strongly want to promote establishment of regular, equipped and professional prison libraries, which today are not yet present in the prison system. The reasons are many, no money, no professional staff, no political will. Neither side (libraries or prisons) recognizes their interest for increased engagement in order to make a change in the present bad situation.
However, it should be mentioned as a bright spot…. Statistics: prisoners read more than free users.”

I believe inmates around the world who know how to read, read much more than their counter parts of the same age in the free population. Here is an article I wrote for Corrections Today that may help in promoting prison libraries in your country:

“…reading is beneficial to the prison population in many ways and inmates enjoy reading books. Even though their reading skills measure lower than those of the general public, 50 percent of inmates read books daily, much more often than people in a similar age group outside of prison.”
http://www.corrections.com/news/article/19578

I am presently writing a proposal for providing eReaders to inmates. I found one from Germany that has no access to the Internet or any wireless capabilities. Each eReader can store a library full of books. The idea is to provide an eReader for “rent/deposit” to inmates who have a record of good behavior. Paperback books pose problems with hiding contraband and spreading germs. They also seldom last a year if they are a popular title. The pilot project will assess how long the eReader will last. If each eReader will last more than 3 years, we will load several eReaders with different ebook titles and have access to thousands of books without the need to provide paper book shelf space or repair them with tools such as scissors and tape.

Topic: Everything Education / Need to measure success of offender programs?

“….This pilot project of the guided reading is an attempt to establish cooperation between public libraries and prison staff, which would, hopefully, show that the library services can be used within the treatment programs. Further intention is to raise awareness of the importance of the modern, equipped and functional prison library and library services among the prison authorities, and among the librarian community in the same time. To put it simply, it’s two-direction advocacy….”

I am having trouble imagining your world which will become more evident by my questions as well as my suggestion. Please forgive me my ignorance.

During the 1991-1995 war the libraries in eastern, central and southern Croatia were destroyed, especially the libraries in the city of Dubrovnik. How interested is the prison staff and prison authorities in the public library? Do you want to promote reading or research? In my world, a “guided reading” could have an academic goal such as educating a group on a topic of their shared profession. It could also be finding one book for everyone in a group to read and then discuss. Do you imagine the book for the guided reading would be fiction or non-fiction? Here are resources I dare to suggest in either case:

A survey of Croatian bibliographies, compiled by Branko Franolić, Croatian Information Centre (Zagreb, London, New York, Toronto, Sydney), 2004, ISBN 953-6058-30-8

www.genordell.com/rickwalkerPI/Croatian.htm
The Rick Walker Detective Novels Published in Croatia. cover of the Croatian edition of “Backlot Requiem” by G.E. Nordell,

http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9108/1/Dr-Ruggero-Cattaneo-and-his-work-on-Croatian-literature/Dr-Ruggero-Cattaneo-our-dear-friend-from-Milan-Italy.html
http://www.graphis.hr/knjige.php?kateg=1&sub=3&subsub=2

Population: 4,489,409 (July 2009 est.)*
Languages: Croatian 96.1%, Serbian 1%, other and undesignated 2.9% (including Italian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, and German) (2001 census)*
Literacy: 98.1%*
Internet users: 2,244,400**
Internet penetration: 50.00% *
Internet growth: 1,022.20%*
Estimated number of public libraries in the country: 257

Topic: Everything Education / Need to measure success of offender programs?

“Hello, my name is Zeljka. I am a librarian from the Croatia. Along with rehabilitation staff, I am just preparing a pilot project of guided reading and discussion in one Croatian prison, semi-open type. Has anyone experience with similar projects in your institution? I would appreciate any useful information. Thank you.”

Zeljka – I am a prison librarian in Oregon. I assume your inmates will not be reading English, however there are some guidelines I can share that could cross cultures.

First Question: In the U.S. there are studies done for the last 60 years attempting to identify the existence and define the characteristics of “the criminal mind”. Would the criminal mind be different in another culture? Maybe yes, but maybe not. Would some cultures facilitate “criminal thinking” better than another. I would say a resounding yes.

Second Question: Assuming there is a criminal mind (and not merely the addictive triangle of “Persecutor,Victim, Rescuer”), there are 3 approaches to change the criminal mind. One approach is psychological, another is coercion (punishment & reward), and the third is pro-social identification.

The Oregon Department of corrections has the lowest rate of recidivism in the U.S. The department administration has accepted the idea that there are characteristics of criminal thinking as researched by Samenow and Latessa. Also, the focus has been on Evidence Based Practice to identify programs that reduce recidivism. They are Drug & Alcohol anti-addiction programs, Mental Health support and increasing job skills (confined by the public to high school graduation).

I am not a psychologist, I am not a drug counselor and I am not directly connected to managing education classes. I am a librarian and as a librarian I have researched the effects of reading on the reader and how it might enhance pro-social emotional investment in society. I discovered literacy programs in various states often entitled “Changing Lives through Literature”. These programs have lists of books used for group discussion. The common thread in all the books has an element of pro-social group identity. Therefore I suggest you consider books that will fit a homogeneous book group.

The hardest group identity would be focused on race or religion. In the U.S. often race becomes anti-social group identity in the form of gangs. Usually the correctional officer response to gangs is prevention rather than re-directing racial group identity to a healthy group based on pro-social norms. The easiest group identity would be either readers, writers, artists, athletes, homeless, unemployed, etc. However, there are not many stories that tell a story of a team overcoming adversity, usually the story is about one particular hero.