Library Services for the Justice Involved (LSJI) is an interest group for library professionals, students, correctional staff, volunteers, or anyone who serves the underserved in correctional settings (prison, jail, detention centers, state mental health institutes, juvenile facilities) or justice-involved individuals (those in halfway houses, community corrections, sober living, transitional housing, on parole, or the formerly incarcerated).
Join the LSJI “prison-l” listserv here, and/or join the LSJI community page via ALA Connect.
Resources:
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Check out the new book, Library Services and Incarceration: Recognizing barriers, strengthening access, by Dr. Jeanie Austin. Library Services and Incarceration offers 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.
- Children of Incarcerated Parents Bill of Rights [excerpts], San Francisco Partnership, 2003.
- IFLA Guidelines for Library Services to Prisoners, 3rd. Edition, 2005.
- Library Standards for Adult Correctional Institutions, [numerical standards only], 1992. Reviewed by the Library Service to the Incarcerated and Detained Interest Group and ASGCLA Staff, March 2020.
- LSJI discussion: “The Fifth Freedom,” from the 2021 American Library Association Annual conference. Read “Defending the Fifth Freedom,” by ALA Executive Director Tracie D. Hall, in American Libraries, January 24, 2021.
- The Office for Intellectual Freedom provides confidential support during censorship challenges to library materials, services, and programs. Anyone can report censorship, even if they do not require assistance. Visit Challenge Support here.
- Prisoners Right to Read, An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights, American Library Association, 2019
Contact:
Chelsea Jordan-Makely