Dan Rodricks and an Ex Offender

In a recent article in The Baltimore Sun, Dan Rodricks featured an ex offender who is back in society after 30 years.   Reentry is often difficult for many inmates.  For those with long sentences as Mr. Grant, in Dan's article, when they return they face changed roads, cities, streets, housing, family changes and  or estrangement.
  Perhaps the only stable for many  is the poverty or run down areas that they left behind.  It is tough to be successful, especially when in prison they little or no access to technology that is so necessary to even apply for a job.
Often their most realistic lifeline to the outside is the information they get from their  Prison Libraries.  My hope is that once they are outside the fence,  they will visit  public libraries to help them in their quest for jobs, housing, and community resources.

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:

• ·   http://wdr.doleta.gov/research/FullText_Documents/Preparing_for_Life_Beyond_Prison_Walls_The_Literacy_of_Incarcerated_Adults_Near_Release.p  

•  National Resource Center

http://www.nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/

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

Value of Prison Libraries

One thing that stuck with me during my recent  interview with NPR.  I asked the prisoners how many of them visited their public libraries when they were outside the fence.  Only one person held up his hand.  He said, " I only visited the library because I was homeless and I could stay there and no one bothered me.  In the day it was like a shelter.  I really didn't know about searching for information.  Now that I am in prison, I have learned to use the library to look for information to help me when I get out."

What is the difference between working in a prison library and a public library I was asked?  I replied that I knew all the visitors in the prison library and security was there to escort them outside if they  got out of line.
When I worked in the public library, there was the constant reminder, "My taxes pay your salary." so public librarians had challenges of a different kind.