Canadian Federal Prison Libraries: Results of a National Survey - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 49
About This Presentation
Title:

Canadian Federal Prison Libraries: Results of a National Survey

Description:

Purpose & scope of survey. Brief history of Canadian prison libraries ... Governor General Metcalfe gives a sizable collection of non-religious books to ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:80
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 50
Provided by: leeann92
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: Canadian Federal Prison Libraries: Results of a National Survey


1
Canadian Federal Prison Libraries Results of a
National Survey
2
Outline
  • Purpose scope of survey
  • Brief history of Canadian prison libraries
  • Profile of inmate population
  • Correctional Service Canada (CSC)
  • Standards for Prison Libraries
  • Survey Results

3
Purpose Scope of Survey
  • Purpose To gain an overall picture of Canadian
    prison libraries and their collections, as no
    general assessments had been done.
  • Scope Mailed survey to all 51 Canadian federal
    prisons

4
Focus of Questions
  • Collection size
  • Collection content
  • Collection policies
  • Prisoners preferences
  • Prisoners access
  • Factors influencing collection decisions
  • Budgets

5
Overall Purpose
  • Exploration of how Canadian prison librarians
    balance their professional ethics regarding a
    patrons rights to information with the reality
    of prison regulations.
  • Inside prison you sense the old struggle. How is
    it possible to confine, punish, and repair at the
    same time?
  • Stewart, B. Macleans 114 (April 9), 34-8.

6
Canadian Prisons A Brief History
  • Early 1800s Prisoners held in common gaols
    attached to courthouses
  • 1835 First large prison opened in Kingston,
    Ontario
  • 1836 John Macaulay donates books to create a
    small prison library at Kingston
  • 1844 Governor General Metcalfe gives a sizable
    collection of non-religious books to the library,
    forming the nucleus of a real collection

7
History
  • 1869 Good conduct prisoners allowed a coal
    oil lamp so they can read in their cells until 9
    p.m.
  • 1872 Acquisitions list shows many religious
    books and a surprising number of armchair travel
    books
  • 1875 Prisoners begin to work in the Kingston
    prison library

8
More Prisons Completed
  • St. Vincent de Paul, Quebec (1873)
  • Stony Mountain, Manitoba (1877)
  • New Westminster, BC (1878)
  • Dorchester, New Brunswick (1880)
  • Prince Albert, Saskatchewan (1911)
  • productive labour during the day, solitary
    confinement during leisure time, rule of silence
    at all times..

9
Profile of Canadas Inmates
  • 151,000 adults in federal, provincial,
    territorial jails
  • Of these, 12,700 are in federal prisons serving
    sentences of two years or more
  • Prison population is 97 men and 3 women
  • Incarceration rate 118 per 100,000

10
International Rates of Incarcerationper 100,000
persons U.S. 699
11
Profile
  • Very multicultural and multilingual population
  • At least 17 languages spoken in addition to
    English French
  • First Nations (Indian) people over-represented
  • 17 of prison population, but only 3 of general
    Canadian population

12
Profile
  • Frequently learning disabled
  • High level of illiteracy
  • Require basic educational programming
  • 82 have less than grade 10 education
  • 65 have less than grade 8 education
  • Require vocational programming
  • 75 have unstable job histories
  • Require independent and distance education

13
Correctional Service Canada (CSC)
  • Responsible under the Ministry of the Solicitor
    General of Canada for prisoners serving 2 years
    or more
  • Provinces/territories assume responsibility for
    those serving lesser sentences
  • Administration divided into 5 regions Atlantic,
    Quebec, Ontario, the Prairies, and Pacific

14
CSC Responsibilities Fifty-one federal maximum,
medium, minimum, and multi-level correctional
institutions
  • BC 8 prisons
  • Alberta 7
  • Saskatchewan 4
  • Manitoba - 2
  • Ontario 13
  • Quebec 12
  • New Brunswick 3
  • Nova Scotia 2

15
CSC Website www.csc-scc.gc.ca
  • About Us
  • Regions and Facilities
  • National Headquarters
  • Our Role
  • Our Values
  • How We Operate
  • Our History
  •  

16
Role of the CSC
  • to contribute to the protection of society by
    actively encouraging and assisting offenders to
    become law-abiding citizens, while exercising
    reasonable, safe, secure and humane control.

17
CSC Directives
  • Commissioners Directive 764
  • Access to Material Live Entertainment
  • Objective is to ensure that material which
    could jeopardize the security of institutions or
    the safety of persons is not available in
    institutions and to ensure that the living
    conditions of offenders and working conditions of
    staff members are free from practices which
    undermine a persons sense of personal dignity.
    Examples of prohibited material are given.

18
CSC Directives
  • Commissioners Directive 720
  • Education of Offenders
  • Reasonable effort shall be made to ensure
    that material is available to support
    institutional programs and to meet offenders
    needs for recreational, cultural, educational,
    and informative materials. Where feasible, access
    to the services of community libraries shall be
    encouraged.

19
CSC Directives
  • Directive 720
  • - States that the institutional head is
    responsible for ensuring that the library has
    up-to-date copies of key legal, regulatory, and
    official documents, both in English and French
  • - Specific titles are given, including the
    Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the
    Criminal Code

20
Standards for Prison Libraries
  • U.S.
  • ALA Library Standards for Adult Correctional
    Institutions 1992
  • U.K.
  • LA Guidelines for Prison Libraries 1997
  • International
  • IFLA International Guidelines for Library
    Services to Prisoners 1993

21
Survey Results
  • Surveys mailed in 2001 to person in charge of
    library
  • French-language surveys mailed to Quebec prisons
    surveys in both official languages mailed to New
    Brunswick prisons
  • Response rate 73 (37 of 51)
  • Responses recd from all provinces

22
Size of Canadian Prisons
23
Library Users
  • In addition to prisoners using the library,
  • 80 of respondents said administration staff
    guards use the library
  • 6 reported use by inmates families or visitors
  • teachers, tutors, volunteers were mentioned as
    other library users

24
Library Staff
  • 30.5 have a library qualification
  • 8 (3/37) have an MLIS degree
  • 22 have a library technician diploma
  • Other staff qualifications teacher, general B.A.
  • 83 of respondents report that prisoners work in
    their libraries

25
Collection Profile
  • All libraries had books
  • 81 - magazines
  • 81 - newspapers
  • 38 - audio cassettes
  • 19 - videos
  • 14 - compact disks
  • None had Internet access

26
Collection Profile
  • Legal Materials (Statutes)
  • Included in 62 of respondents libraries, but
    included in all maximum security prisons.

27
Inmate preferences
(in descending order)
  • Fiction
  • Current events (newspapers, newsmagazines)
  • Legal materials
  • General interest magazines
  • General non-fiction (true crime very popular)

28
Collection Size Age
  • Half of collections had 10,000 or more items
  • One-quarter had 3,000 or fewer
  • Half of respondents noted that only 25 of their
    collection had been acquired after 1990
  • General assessment collections are of adequate
    size but contain much out-dated material. Library
    staff are very hesitant to weed

29
Selection Policies/Practices
  • Only 30 had a written selection policy
  • 86 acquire materials by gift/donation, in
    addition to purchasing material
  • 36 use inter-library loans to obtain requested
    material

30
Budgets
  • Budget amounts vary widely by size of institution
    and by region
  • Four libraries had no materials budget at all,
    while another had 12,000/year
  • Average acquisitions budget 4,051
  • Typical comment about library budgets
  • We are drastically under-funded and
    under-staffed.

31
Subject Areas
  • Over 90 include general fiction, mystery,
    horror, science fiction/fantasy, and westerns
  • 83 have materials of First Nations interest
  • Over 70 have historical fiction and romances
  • 25 have gay/lesbian fiction

32
Languages
  • 50 have materials in languages other than
    English and French
  • Examples Vietnamese, Spanish, Chinese,
    Punjabi, Hindi, German, Mohawk, Cree, Italian,
    Polish, Arabic, Icelandic, Catalan, Estonian,
    Czech, Welsh, and Norwegian

33
Access to Information
  • Administrators must prevent escapes and ensure
    the safety of both staff and prisoners
  • They must strive to find a balance between rigid
    and over-reaching censorship that isolates
    inmates, and open access to all information, some
    of which prisoners may abuse

34
Access to Information
  • The greater commitment to deprivation of
    liberty, the tougher the censorship the more the
    prison was seen as an apparatus for transforming
    individuals, the more control was likely to be
    exercised on the prisoners reading as part of
    that apparatus, unless reading was itself
    recognized as having transforming power.
  • Janet Fyfe. Books Behind Bars The Role of
    Books, Reading, and Libraries
  • in British Prison Reform 1701-1911

35
Prohibited Materials
36
Prohibited Materials
  • Many respondents referred to the philosophy,
    wording, and examples of prohibited material in
    Commissioners Directive 764
  • Material that gives detailed information on
    making weapons or the commission of a criminal
    act
  • Material that advocates or promotes genocide or
    hatred of an identifiable group
  • Sexually oriented material involving violence or
    children

37
Prohibited Material
  • Under Directive 764, the Institutional Head may
    also prohibit material that portrays excessive
    violence and aggression, or prison violence, and
    also sexually oriented materials that promote any
    form of criminal act, if the Head believes that
    that inmate may commit a similar act.

38
Prohibited Material
  • Examples of subjects or authors prohibited
  • by policy in some libraries

39
Prohibited Materials
  • Survey question Have specific materials been
    challenged or banned from your library in the
    past 5 years?
  • No 39
  • Unknown 39
  • Yes 22

40
Prohibited Materials
  • Do library staff members have access to an
    appeals process when materials are challenged?
  • Yes 41
  • No 24
  • Unknown 30
  • No answer 2

41
Library Performance
  • How well (on a 5-point scale) does your library
    meet Directive 720?
  • 1not well 5very well
  • 58 - 4 or 5
  • 33 - 3
  • 9 - 1 or 2

42
Overall Conclusions
  • Some positive comments about recent improvements
    in floor space, collections, and staffing
  • Majority of respondents say there is much room
    for improvement in funding for staff and
    collections

43
Conclusions
  • Staff are weary of the constant public relations
    battle to obtain recognition of the educational
    and psychological roles their libraries play.
    Many feel undervalued
  • There is no environment where the need is
    greater and the commitment less.

44
Conclusions
  • Staff hope that major development work can be
    done soon on filters and firewalls so that their
    libraries can provide safe, acceptable Internet
    access to prisoners. Providing secure access in
    the library would be easier to monitor and less
    expensive than providing access in each cell.

45
  • Hopefully we can work toward ensuring that those
    who relinquish most of their freedoms and rights
    while incarcerated are not also denied rights
    that ensure dignity and assist with
    rehabilitation, such as access to good library
    service.

46
Research completed by
  • Dr. Ann CurryAssociate ProfessorSchool of
    Library, Archival and Information Studies
    (SLAIS)The University of British Columbiaemail
    ltann.curry_at_ubc.cagtWith the assistance of MLIS
    Graduate studentsSandra BoutilierHelen
    ChanKris Wolfe

47
Publication
  • Journal of Librarianship and Information Science,
    Fall 2003
  • Website www.slais.ubc.ca under the heading
    Research after July 15, 2003

48
The researchers gratefully acknowledge the help
of
  • Denis Barbe - CSC Headquarters, Ottawa
  • Nancy Hannum Legal Resource Centre, Vancouver
  • Jennifer Joslin Mission Institution, BC
  • Rob McCreary CSC Pacific Regional Headquarters
  • Wally Peake Matsqui Institution, BC
  • Julia Schneider - Corcoran Substance Abuse
    Treatment Facility and State Prison, California

49
Thank you.
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com