Canadian Federal Prison Libraries: Results of a National Survey

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Canadian Federal Prison Libraries Results of a
National Survey
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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

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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

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Focus of Questions

• Collection size
• Collection content
• Collection policies
• Prisoners preferences

• Prisoners access
• Factors influencing collection decisions
• Budgets

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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.

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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

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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

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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..

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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

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International Rates of Incarcerationper 100,000
persons U.S. 699
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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

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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

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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

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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

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CSC Website www.csc-scc.gc.ca

• About Us
• Regions and Facilities
• National Headquarters
• Our Role
• Our Values
• How We Operate
• Our History
•  

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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Size of Canadian Prisons
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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

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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

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Collection Profile

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

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Collection Profile

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

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Inmate preferences
(in descending order)

• Fiction
• Current events (newspapers, newsmagazines)
• Legal materials
• General interest magazines
• General non-fiction (true crime very popular)

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Prohibited Materials
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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

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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.

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Prohibited Material

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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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• 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.

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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

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Publication

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

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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

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Thank you.