Library Services and Incarceration: Recognizing Barriers, Strengthening Access

Read an interview with the author and listen to a podcast about the book now!

"Jeanie Austin’s Library Services and Incarceration: Recognizing Barriers, Strengthening Access leads librarians through the stark landscape of carceral realities that affect nearly 50 percent of people living in the United States—either directly for those confined in prisons and jails or supervised by e-carceration, or their family and friends whose interaction with the imprisoned constrains all aspects of contiguity . . . The path to helping people in prison know what good they can be is shown to us in [Austin’s book] with its focus on restorative justice and recognition of the humanity in each person caught in the carceral systems.”
— from the Foreword by Kathleen de la Peña McCook

This book provides librarians and those studying to enter the profession with tools to grapple with their own implication within systems of policing and incarceration, melding critical theory with real-world examples to demonstrate how to effectively serve people impacted by incarceration.

As part of our mission to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all library patrons, our profession needs to come to terms with the consequences of mass incarceration, which have saturated the everyday lives of people in the United States and heavily impacts Black, Indigenous, and people of color; LGBTQ people; and people who are in poverty. Jeanie Austin, a librarian with San Francisco Public Library's Jail and Reentry Services program, helms this important contribution to the discourse, providing tools applicable in a variety of settings. This text covers practical information about services in public and academic libraries, and libraries in juvenile detention centers, jails, and prisons, while contextualizing these services for LIS classrooms and interdisciplinary scholars. It powerfully advocates for rethinking the intersections between librarianship and carceral systems, pointing the way towards different possibilities. This clear-eyed text

• begins with an overview of the convergence of library and information science and carceral systems within the United States, summarizing histories of information access and control such as book banning, and the ongoing work of incarcerated people and community members to gain more access to materials;
• examines the range of carceral institutions and their forms, including juvenile detention, jails, immigration detention centers, adult prisons, and forms of electronic monitoring;
• draws from research into the information practices of incarcerated people as well as individual accounts to examine the importance of information access while incarcerated;
• shares valuable case studies of various library systems that are currently providing both direct and indirect services, including programming, book clubs, library spaces, roving book carts, and remote reference;
• provides guidance on collection development tools and processes;
• discusses methods for providing reentry support through library materials and programming, from customized signage and displays to raising public awareness of the realities of policing and incarceration;
• gives advice on supporting community groups and providing outreach to transitional housing;
• includes tips for building organizational support and getting started, with advice on approaching library management, creating procedures for challenges, ensuring patron privacy, and how to approach partners who are involved with overseeing the functioning of the carceral facility; and
• concludes with a set of next steps, recommended reading, and points of reflection.

Examination copies are available for instructors who are interested in adopting this title for course use.