Studies from Unesco show literacy in prison can make an important contribution to improving the lives of prison inmates, their socialisation and the feeling of empowerment through education.
With this in mind, the Invercargill City Libraries and the Invercargill Prison have started a ground-breaking initiative to increase literacy within the inmates — and librarians from both organisations have already noticed a change in the culture, about 50% of the prison inmates reading and taking advantage of the prison library.
In May 2021, Invercargill City Council set an initiative to support increasing literacy for prison inmates where, once a fortnight, a librarian visited the prison with a tailored set of books.
Due to the Covid pandemic and the restrictions around health and safety protocols, the programme was paused, and returned in full force last year.
Invercargill City Libraries community connections co-ordinator Tessa Smith — who shares the work in the prison with Saniya Thompson — said inmates then had a face-to face interaction with them where they could recommend and help them to find book and magazine options.
With each visit, they noticed increased interest in the service and more people taking advantage of it, she said.
"I have been involved with various types of prison work in a number of capacities so it’s always been kind of an interest of mine. How can we reintegrate the inmates? How can we think about recidivism and what can help prevent recidivism?
"And education is obviously a huge one and I think self-motivated learning that reading can offer is really, really important — and I am stoked to be able to kind of share that within the prison and see the difference it’s making," Mrs Smith said.
The initiative was so successful that last year, the prison allocated funds to employ a librarian for 10 hours per week.
Invercargill Prison regional volunteer co-ordinator and librarian Jane King was excited with the potential of the initiative as, since November last year, she had noticed an increase in literacy.
"We are issuing over 100 books a month now to the prisoners — of which we have about 160 prisoners. So I reckon that’s probably getting to probably 50% of them are now reading. What is amazing is they are reading tonnes of books that they never had before."
While prison libraries were subject to a long list of special restrictions with which they must comply, fantasy, self-help books, fishing and car magazines and graphic novels had been among the favourite subjects the inmates chose to read, she said.
"I’ve realised that what they read is not what I thought they would read.
"They absolutely love science fiction and fantasy because this takes them away from their environment and gives them a chance to live another world. And that makes the mental health and even the behaviour in the unit so much nicer."
Mrs King believed the initiative also helped relationships between inmates.
"It is really interesting, they don’t even realise they are doing that but they are helping each other find books, engaging conversations about what kind of books are around and talking to them in a more normal and positive way."
Invercargill Prison regional change and communications lead Carolyn Murgatroyd hoped this initiative could be replicated in other prisons across the country.
"We don’t have anything like this anywhere else in the southern region, I doubt anywhere else in the country. So it is quite novel what they’re doing in Invercargill."
The librarians said it was a rewarding feeling to enable literacy in prison and potentially bring change in inmates’ lives.
Mrs Smith said she hoped in the future to be able to create a pathway for prisoners, such as training inmates to help with library work.
"We hope that when inmates are released they will establish and maintain a positive relationship with their local library and recognise its potential for personal development, community connection and recreation."
