Off to jail
Friday afternoon, my friend Tanya & I went to the Edmonton Institution. She knows one of the program officers, and they had heard about the project that librarians do at the women's prison, where they audiorecord inmates reading storybooks to their kids / grandkids. Then the book and recording are packaged up & sent off to the kids. A few EI inmates had heard about this and requested to have this kind of program. So we are going to do it!
It was a really interesting tour -- way more 'jail' looking than the women's institution. Like TV jail. They gave us all kinds of information about the setup, the programs, they showed us the library, we met some of the teachers... we are going to start in April. I think it'll be super interesting.
It was a really interesting tour -- way more 'jail' looking than the women's institution. Like TV jail. They gave us all kinds of information about the setup, the programs, they showed us the library, we met some of the teachers... we are going to start in April. I think it'll be super interesting.
Labels: librarians, prison, volunteering
posted by Allison at 9:32 AM
10 Comments:
Did you collect $200 for passing Go?
$200 might buy you the Park Place of cells.
So are you "Beyond Scared Straight" What a cool program, so interesting.
I meant the program you are involved in not the TV one. Although I do like the TV one, one of my guilty pleaures.
Do you actually go and set things up? It would be interesting but how do you chat with inmates?
The program staff will organize much of it -- finding the inmates who want to do this, figuring out where we will do the recording, etc. We do some volunteer training with them. I imagine that we'll talk about the functional things, most -- what book do you want to read, maybe they'll talk about their kids a bit....
I'm not totally sure what to expect -- I know it's been a really good experience for friends who are doing it in the women's prison -- and the fact that these will be men who want to make that connection with their kids will make it really focused on what we are doing for those kids.
cons with hearts of gold. whimper
cons who want to be in touch with their kids, anyway.
Whenever I hear librarians and prisons in the same sentence, I think Shawshank Redemption.
In the box of books we brought, someone had donated The Green Mile!
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