Institutional Library Services

We ask inmates in Washington State to tell us how our libraries make a difference in their lives. Here is a response we just received from an inmate at Clallam Bay Corrections Center:

When I first started working in a correctional facility I asked myself, what do I wear? I knew that it was not feasible to wear a sack cloth and ashes, but I also did not want to draw attention to myself. There were several false starts, as I worked my way through trying to figure it out. As it was a pretty casual setting I was comfortable wearing jeans. But then the question came on what to wear with them. In the everyday world v-neck t-shirts are the norm and really don't draw attention but they can be a little too revealing in a prison setting.

This webportal maintained by the Library staff at the University of Memphis, has links to a variety of federal government agencies that provide forms. Many of the forms are useful for the general public, and this is a great place to start looking if your library doesn't already have a particular form on hand.

Last Thursday night we were lucky enough to be together to celebrate Virginia's retirement; today is officially her last day. At the party we had her family, friends, and of course, coworkers to celebrate and remember the good times. We are all sad to see her go, but it was great fun to show her how much we have appreciated her over the years.

After 24 years of service at the Washington State Reformatory Unit of the Monroe Correctional Complex Virginia is being released. She has plans for her release and they include an impressive collection of crafts that there was just no time for during her imprisonment. We will all miss her when she goes, but we know that she will not be back and her re-entry will be a success. Seriously though Virginia has been a fixture over the years at the Reformatory and it will be hard to see her go.

[caption id="attachment_456" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Jill accepting her award from Bob"][/caption] At our Quarterly Meeting last week we honored Jill Merritt as the ILS Employee of the Year 2008.

Jeannie is a remarkable woman who I have had the pleasure of working with for about 3 1/2 years. In that time we have formed a great working relationship, but also a wonderful friendship. Jeannie has 15 years of experience in prison libraries and I have found her a valuable resource. I remember when I first started working in the prison library Jeannie was the one person I could count on to make me laugh, and to resure me that it would all be ok.