“Prison Libraries - Working Together”: My experience at CILIP’s Prison Libraries Training Day

I’m interested in the work of prison libraries but know very little about how they actually operate so I was incredibly grateful to be given a student bursary to attend the CILIP Prison Libraries Group Training Day. 

Excited but a bit unsure of myself when I showed up, I quickly discovered how kind, dedicated, and knowledgeable the people engaged in this work proved to be. We heard from professionals on a range of topics including literacy and creativity, helping prisoners access legal information, neurodiversity, family projects, as well as a report on the results of a large study of UK prison libraries conducted by the School’s own Dr Jayne Finlay. 

I quickly discovered how kind, dedicated, and knowledgeable the people engaged in this work proved to be.

Something that really stood out to me from the presentations, roundtable discussions, and my conversations with other attendees was how many partner organisations are involved in the work of prison libraries and helping prisoners to have access to information, books, and other resources. The National Literacy Trust, the Reading Agency, Arts Council of England, Prison Reading Groups, Give a Book, Borderline Books, Shannon Trust and many other charities contribute to this work in substantial and inspiring ways.

Another big takeaway for me was the importance of approaching prison library work and literacy in this setting from a ‘reading for pleasure’ and creativity perspective, rather than just as an educational objective. In my conversations, several people mentioned that many prisoners are immediately turned off by anything to do with education, where they may have had past negative experiences. In offering books, activities, writing programs and other, broader, resources, prison libraries are uniquely poised to help in other, less threatening, but no less significant ways.