New Quick Reads — Jail and Prison Library Service
Get Inside: Responsible Jail and Prison Library Service 
by Nicholas Higgins
Free download for PLA members!
73 pages
ISBN: 978-0-8389-8829-9
In the fourth installment from PLA’s “Quick Reads for Busy Librarians” series, Nicholas Higgins, director of outreach services at the Brooklyn (N.Y.) Public Library, shares wisdom gleaned from years of experience providing library service to incarcerated persons. But Higgins doesn’t just provide nuts and bolts information, he also considers the shortcomings of the American Criminal Justice system including embedded racism and harsh sentencing laws that have led to statistics like one in fifteen black men over the age of eighteen is incarcerated in this country. Higgins provides all this background as a framework in the hopes that readers will become more conscious of how they think and talk about prisons and prisoners.
Chapters include:
- American Prisons are Booming
- How We Talk About Jails and Prisons
- So, What Are Jails and Prisons Really Like?
- Best-Laid Plans
- The Critical Distance
- Getting Into Jail
- Corrections/Civilian Staff Relations
- Lending Libraries in Jails and Prisons
- Program Models
Get Inside: Responsible Jail and Prison Library Service offers a thoughtful perspective on the American criminal justice system as well as concrete advice and information for providing the best possible service to this population.
Free to PLA Members – Download Your Copy Today!
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Tags: library service to jails, library service to prisons, Nicholas Higgins, public library services to incarcerated persons, quick reads for busy librarians
