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Saturday, April 14, 2012

Public Libraries and Ex Offenders

 Inside the fence,  the Prison Library is often the lifeline for  prisoners who need information   for their cases and for transition back into their communities. Most inmates say they never go to the public libraries when they are in the community.  Yet they have children who attend schools and other  family members who would benefit from the range of services in the libraries.

At the Maryland Library Association Conference in Ocean City in May, I will be one of the presenters for a workshop that will encourage public librarians to promote their services to soon to be released inmates and to ex offenders.

Title of the workshop is:
Returning Residents: Libraries and the Information Needs of Ex-Offenders.

My co presenters will be an employer of ex offenders and an ex offender who has successfully transitioned back to society and is working with at risk youths.  
 
I will be highlighting the great model from Hennepin County Library    FREEDOM TICKET

Some of the sites featured will include:
  •  National Resource Center
http://www.nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/

  • Sites for housing, drug addiction, job hunt, family relations, community resources., etc

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I am Leonardo Sai and I am from Argentina. I work for a national state programme of education at prisons. We are building libraries in 150 prisons of our country. We have already built 50. I contact you to let you know that I have published your experience in our blog.

http://bibliotecasabiertas.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/el-trabajo-de-una-bibliotecaria-es-una-prision-norteamericana/

Hugs from Argentina,
Leonardo Sai

Glennor said...

Thanks Leonardo. Good luck.

Heidi Jensen said...

I would love to hear more about this. I am heading into one of our local county jails today to talk about public library services and why they should not be afraid to go but look forward to going.

Peggy said...


Hello Heidi

Check an earlier blog where I have FAQ. Hope that answers some of your questions.

http://prisonlibrarian.blogspot.com/2008/02/faqs.html

Glennor