Time was when politicians who wanted to show their anti-crime bona fides would rail about how prisoners were watching color television -- or any television at all.
In Wisconsin these days they don't even want prisoners to read books.
At the state level, the Dept. of Corrections has made it as difficult as possible for a well-intentioned Wisconsin Books to Prisoners project to function, banning any used books. Since the project relies largely on donations of used books, that has crippled its ability to fulfill the many requests it gets from Wisconsin prisoners. It sends books to prisoners in other states, almost all of which allow that. That struggle continues.
Now, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke closed the county jail library on Nov. 1 and will do the same at the House of Corrections on Dec. 31. Clarke offered no reason and caught the Benedict Center and librarians who operate the program by surprise. Kit McNally of the Benedict Center, a WNPJ member group, explains:
The Benedict Center created the jail library in 1992 when the jail opened, after pushing a book cart through the old jail in the Safety Building for years. The Center then worked with administrators at the House of Correction to create a bright and spacious library at the House in former administrative office space.
Ellen Pellegrin established and ran the jail library for the Benedict Center until her retirement seven years ago when Eric Beaumont joined the Benedict Center staff to manage the library. At the South facility Sue Harrington started the library for the Benedict Center, ultimately contracting on her own to manage the library and oversee inmate workers delighted to be working in the library and helping residents of every dorm select books biweekly.
The former library spaces at both facilities have been emptied of purchased and donated collections exceeding 18,000 titles, with books shifted to locked rooms on jail housing pods and new shelving in the dorms at the south facility. Inmates will have to make do with whatever their housing collection holds and access will depend on the corrections officer’s will at the jail.
Although there is no more library at the jail, Benedict Center volunteer Elizabeth Vogt continues to keep inmates reading through the Jail Book Club (JBC), which she initiated in 2008.
Reading, discussing and writing about literature create the basis for shared ideas and multiple perspectives. Covering authors as diverse as Nelson Mandela, George Orwell, and Khaled Hosseini, the ever-evolving groups delve into historical works, fiction, and satire.
"Discussions at the JBC, frankly, easily rival those in my ladies' book club on the outside," Vogt says. "We debate the conflicts of individual and collective interests, the overwhelming nature of many challenges in life, and how similar human issues are around the world. We talk about the strange and dramatic turns that the paths of life can take -- leading to delight as well as disaster. These JBC discussions can be profound or profane, sometimes humorous--but are always interesting!"
Vogt is considering creating a network, via newsletter or Internet, to keep the conversation going after inmates leave the jail. Additional volunteers are now leading groups as the JBC stretches to reach Vogt’s goal of a club on every housing pod. Benedict Center volunteer Janet Martin offers non-threatening one to one small group discussion in another version of the JBC.
For more information or to volunteer for the Jail Book Club, contact Mary Pat Utech at 414-347-1774 x 205 or mputech@benedictcenter.org.
Does any of this seem a little counter-productive while we continue to talk about finding ways to get offenders back on the right track, back into society, and back to leading productive lives?
Of course, a little learning can be a dangerous thing.
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