Gumberg Library’s Social Justice Reading Club (SJRC) will host Books Behind Bars: The Right to Read While Incarcerated this fall.
The SJRC program will explore a collection of materials on the work of prison libraries and prison book projects, the rise of book banning in prisons and the right to read while incarcerated.
“There are rarely line items in prison budgets to support recreational prison libraries, and in most cases, these are slim when they do exist,” said Dr. Jeanie Austin, author of Library Services and Incarceration: Recognizing Barriers, Strengthening Access. “This has ramifications for processes like preparing for parole hearings or reentry, but also on how people utilize books to maintain a sense of self, to find joy, to connect with others, to center their minds or any of the myriad other reasons that any of us read.”
A panel of local and national experts will come together at Gumberg Library on Friday, Oct. 27, to shed light on current challenges facing incarcerated populations, works of advocacy against reading restriction, legal considerations and more. The program will be held from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in the library’s fifth floor Flex Space. Lunch will be provided.
Panelists include Jill Grunenwald, a former prison librarian and author of Reading Behind Bars; Jodi Lincoln, a member of the Pittsburgh Prison Book Project; and Dana Neacsu, director of the Duquesne Kline Law Library.
More information about the program and access to the materials for discussion are available online.
News Information