‘A Little Happy Place’: How Libraries Support Prisoner Wellbeing

ABSTRACT

This article explores the capacity for Australian prison libraries to support the ‘whole person’. Based on a phenomenological study of the experiences of using prison libraries by Australian adult prisoners, the article identifies three ways that prison libraries can reduce stress, and support positive mental health, and thereby serve the ‘whole person’ within their user groups. The study finds that prison libraries can support prisoner wellbeing by providing opportunities for autonomy, by acting as therapeutic spaces, and by supporting positive behaviour management. As a phenomenological study, the experiences of the prisoners regarding their libraries serving them as ‘whole people’ are described in their own words. We can hear the prisoners’ voices as they describe how their libraries contribute to their wellbeing. Through a study of prisoners’ lived experiences and how these experiences are reflected, or not reflected in the extant literature, it is possible to demonstrate that prison libraries do have the capacity to serve the ‘whole person’ and thereby support prisoner wellbeing.

KEYWORDS:

• Prison libraries
• prisoner well-being
• whole person librarianship
• phenomenology

Studies of whole-person librarianship centre on the common ground between libraries and social work (Nienow & Zettervall, 2018), and draw on the National Wellness Institute’s ‘Six dimensions of Wellness Model’ (1976). Exploring the concept of serving the ‘whole person’ in a galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) context takes us to a study of how these institutions can act as sites for meaning-making, mindfulness, healing, and as supporters of wellbeing – each characteristics of a site that addresses the needs of the ‘whole person’(Chatterjee & Noble, 2016; Silverman, 2010; Smith & Zimmermann, 2017). One of the ways that cultural institutions within the GLAM sector can support the ‘whole person’ is through providing sites that reduce stress and support positive mental health. This article focusses on one group of special libraries within the GLAM sector – prison libraries and their capacity to serve the ‘whole person’ in this way.

Australian Prison Libraries

Australia has a long history of providing prisoners with access to books and libraries (Carroll, 2013). In our early penal history, it was hoped that allowing and sometimes compelling prisoners to learn through reading would help them reform and play a constructive role in the developing colony. In more recent times, prison libraries are more likely to play a role in supporting the ‘whole person’ in terms of general wellbeing than they are to support prisoner education (Garner, 2017).

Each Australian adult prison is required to provide some type of library service to their inmates (Australian Correctional Administrators, 2012). However, these libraries are rarely funded or professionally staffed, and their collections are rarely developed to meet the needs of their users. Most collection development comes from donations, and even these are frequently not accepted due to perceived security factors. The task of managing the day to day operation of prison libraries is usually assigned to one or two prisoners within each facility. These prisoners may be chosen because they have good reading skills, or because they are unsuitable for other employment due to health or age-related concerns. The libraries are usually small but are often housed in their own space that can be secured from the rest of the facility. The library space may also be used for additional purposes such as a classroom, television room or meeting room for staff.

Most prisoners can spend short periods of time in their library either during their own free time, if they are permitted to move freely within the prison, or on a rostered basis when they will be accompanied by guards to the library. In some prisons, prisoners are not able to access their libraries at all. In these prisons, each accommodation block is supplied with a printed list of titles from which prisoners choose books they would like to read. These are then delivered to their cells once a week. Some prisons also provide a book shelf or tub in each accommodation block where library books are placed for browsing and borrowing. Prisoners working in the libraries will change these books over regularly to ensure fresh reading materials are available. Prison libraries that do allow physical visits vary greatly in their appearances, and in their facilities. Some have room only for their shelves and books, while others have comfortable seating, display furniture and magazine racks. Typical of prison environments, the libraries are generally very neat and clean. The prisoners responsible for the libraries have a lot of time available to maintain their spaces and collections, and are often very proud of the work they do there and recognise the value that they add to the lives of the prisoners who use them. As literate prisoners, it is common for the library billets, as the prisoners working in the libraries are called, to write parole and appeal documents for other prisoners. They will also read private letters sent to prisoners who can’t read for themselves and write replies that have been dictated to them. In voluntarily undertaking these roles, the library billets become socially important and respected members of the prison population.

Administratively, libraries in Australian prisons are more likely to fall under the jurisdiction of the education staff than the recreation staff, although this is not always the case. Despite the common administrative association between the library and the education staff, links between education programmes and the library are extremely rare, with little to no use of the libraries or their collections to support the education of prisoners. Garner’s (2017) study of the experience of using Australian prison libraries, identified that although libraries in our prisons are often not able to support the education of prisoners, they are very effective as places that can support prisoner wellbeing. Prison libraries can do this through three experiences commonly identified by the prisoners themselves: by providing opportunities for autonomy; by acting as a therapeutic space; and by supporting positive behaviour management.

Research Design

Garner (2017) gathered data from 29 Australian adult prisoners who were interviewed about their experiences of using a prison library. Of these 29 prisoners, 19 identified experiences provided by their library that in some way contributed to their personal wellbeing. The study took a phenomenological approach following a methodology described by Moustakas (1990). Phenomenology is the study of phenomena as they are experienced by individuals (O’Leary, 2007). Moustakas (1994) defines a phenomenon as any ‘thing’ that can be perceived. A phenomenon can be a situation, an event, a relationship, or an experience. He considers phenomena to be the basis of all knowledge and the ‘building blocks’ of human science. The purpose of phenomenology is to describe a phenomenon, or the appearance of a thing, as it is known, sensed or experienced (Moustakas, 1994; Streubert & Carpenter, 2011). Phenomenology allows the experience of the prisoners experiencing the phenomenon, in this case the use of a prison library, to be explored and understood from their perspective, rather than from the perspective of the researcher. This approach allows the prisoners’ voices to be heard throughout the analysis and discussion of the data gathered during interviews undertaken with prisoners. The Moustakas phenomenological method guides the researcher in gathering data through semi-structured interviews and analysing that data to result in themes that identify the lived experiences of those on whom the study is focussed.

The Garner study (2017) explores the lived experiences of Australian adult prisoners who make regular use of their prison libraries. Individual semi-structured interviews were undertaken with each of the 29 participants of the study. All interviews were audio recorded and subsequently transcribed. NVivo textual analysis software was then used to identify themes from the transcripts, and a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet was built to collate themes and to allow patterns of themes to be identified across variables, such as gender. Five themes were identified that represent the phenomenon of using a prison library for adult Australian prisoners. These themes were: ’Experiencing escape’; ‘Experiencing the passage of time’; ‘Experiencing community’; ‘Experiencing education’; and ‘Experiencing responsibility for self’. It is this final theme, ‘Experiencing responsibility for self’ that will be explored further here as it is in describing this experience that prisoners were able to identify the positive effect their libraries have on their wellbeing.

The theme ‘experiencing responsibility for self’ encompasses three categories of experience identified in the participant transcripts – ‘library as opportunity for autonomy’, ‘library as therapy’ and ‘library role in behaviour management’. Prisoners are able to experience ‘responsibility for self’ through the library by making choices about how they spend their time in an environment where most other choices are removed. ‘Responsibility for self’ through the library is enhanced by using it as a therapeutic space to reduce stress and anxiety, and because it helps them to manage their behaviour, and stay out of trouble. In a harsh and frequently dehumanising environment, the prison library is often the only place in a prisoner’s life that supports them as a ‘whole person’, and therefore plays an important role in their lives. To hear the prisoners’ voices as they describe their experiences of using their library, their comments are included here, followed by an exploration of their experiences contextualised through a study of existing literature. By taking this approach, we gain a deeper understanding of their experiences placed into context of our existing knowledge of libraries as a support for ‘whole person’ wellbeing. These experiences will be explored here across each of the three identified categories – ‘library as opportunity for autonomy’, ‘library as therapy’ and ‘library role in behaviour management’. The names of participants have been changed to ensure their anonymity.

Library as Opportunity for Autonomy

When a person enters prison, most of the choices that they are used to making for themselves are removed from them. They are told what to wear, where to be at all times, when and what they will eat, when they will have access to open space, when they will be locked in to their cells or rooms and who they can associate with. In this environment, the ability to make any choices for themselves becomes very important to avoid becoming completely institutionalised, to survive their prison term and to maintain skills in self-determination that they will need to re-integrate into the community when they are released. Phil, a prisoner at the maximum security Port Phillip Prison, describes the danger to prisoners in losing their autonomy:

The biggest threat to any prisoner is not being assaulted or getting a drug habit or any of those usual, Hollywood, scare issues. The greatest threat to any prisoner is institutionalization. The way basic prison management philosophy is, it’s essentially … prison management’s concern is with control and management.

The library is experienced as one of the few places in a prisoner’s life where they are able to make choices for themselves and to have a degree of autonomy in how they are spending their time.

Alice, who uses the Alexander Maconochie Centre library, recognises the importance of choices offered by the library. When asked what the library offers her, the first experience she identifies is about choice: ‘I suppose, it’s the choice whether you want to use it or not.’ Matt, a prisoner at the medium security Mobilong Prison, also identified the importance of being able to make choices when asked what the library offers him: ‘Just making the day less, not so repetitive. It gives you something different. So you can choose what you want to spend your time on, that sort of thing.’

Mitchell, who also lives in Mobilong Prison, shares this experience and values the library as a place where he can do what he wants. He recognises that using the library is not tied to any other aspect of prison life and contrasts this with the compulsory education programs. Some prisoners must undertake training programs, such as drug and alcohol abuse, and anger management programs, before they will be considered for transfer to reduced security prisons, home-based detention or parole. Mitchell values the fact that using the library is not compulsory for him and that he can choose if and how to use it: ‘Something I can do when I want. Not something I’m getting told I have to do if I want to move through the system.’ Later in his interview, Mitchell again mentions the value of experiencing choice in the library. He contrasts this experience with his existence in the rest of the prison:

I can just come in and pick what I want to do and not get told. Yeah, you can come in and grab what you want, read what you want, if it’s here you can do what you want. You can open it up and it’s yours. They just make you, “You do this, you do that,” and instead of saying, “Would you like to do this?” They come up, you get some asshole, “You go do that,” and it doesn’t work with the lot of us, if you get told you’ve got to do something. The library is our place. I like it. I just like just knowing it’s here and I can come and go when I please, as I please. Yeah, it’s a little happy place.

When asked what he saw as the benefit to him in using the library, Otto, who lives in the Port Augusta prison, said: ‘Mainly it’s just the choice of what books I’m going to read and when I’m going to read them.’ Later in his interview, he also spoke in detail about the lack of choices in his life and the contrast to this provided by his library:

Well, that’s what prison is all about. You can’t choose anything. You can’t choose when the door locks at night, what time you’re going to eat, or go to sleep or anything like that you can’t choose anything major in your life, but by going to the library, you can actually choose what book you’re going to read instead of them saying you’re going to do this, this, and this, but you can say “Oh, I’m going to do that,” but most long-termers have got the same impression now. Just the fact that they’ve lost their power of choice on anything. You don’t get to choose what you eat because it’s all made in the kitchen and everybody gets the same, unless you’re on a diet or something, so. That’s prison, I suppose.

The danger of losing autonomy was also identified by Phil who lives in the maximum security Port Phillip Prison in Victoria: ‘the biggest threat to any prisoner is not being assaulted or getting a drug habit or any of those usual, Hollywood, scare issues. The greatest threat to any prisoner is institutionalisation.’

Discussion

As can be seen from the experiences of the prisoners interviewed, the library is an unusual place within a prison as it provides one of the few opportunities for prisoners to have the freedom to choose what they would like to do. Prisoners experience the library as an opportunity for autonomy because the choices they make there about what and how they read are some of the only choices they get to make for themselves. For prisoners who have the option of visiting their library, even choosing to go to the library or not, is one of the few choices they get to make. They find the ability to make choices for themselves empowering, and a rare opportunity to have some responsibility for an aspect of their own lives. The Prison Reform Trust (n.d.) has also identified the lack of autonomy that is part of prison life as a major cause of institutionalisation and mental health decline in prisoners. The Trust recognises the powerlessness that prisoners feel when they are unable to experience some autonomy in their lives. This recognition is echoed in the words of the prisoners interviewed as they identify the dangers of institutionalisation and the value they place on having some autonomy while in the library.

The experience of using a prison library as an opportunity for autonomy is supported by some definitions of autonomy but not others. Verkerk (2001), who writes about patient autonomy in health care, states that autonomy is the capacity to be able to make choices for oneself. If this definition is used, then it is possible to see that prison libraries do allow some experience of autonomy, as prisoners are allowed to make choices about what they would like to read. Even prisoners who have no physical access to their library are able to choose from a list of titles of books that will then be delivered to their cells. Verkerk’s (2001) experience of autonomy was observed by prisoners who spoke of the library as being the one place in the prison where they could make a choice for themselves.

Barbakoff (2010), who writes about the role of libraries building autonomy for users, takes a different view of autonomy. She argues that autonomy is the ability to demonstrate self-governance, and the ability to live life in accordance with personal values, not those imposed on us by others. Although Barbakoff’s and Verkerk’s definitions of autonomy seem similar, there are distinctions. Verkerk’s definition relates to the ability to choose and to act independently – to achieve autonomy by achieving independence. Barbakoff, on the other hand, believes that it is not the library’s capacity to enable independence that develops autonomy, but it is the quality of the library collection and the librarian’s guidance that enables the user to become autonomous in satisfying their information need. She sees a role for libraries to foster user autonomy by providing collections that meet their personal values and information needs, and librarians who can act as guides and facilitators to assist users to access and utilise the collections and facilities. The findings of the current study that the prison library can enable an experience of autonomy do not meet Barbakoff’s definition of autonomy. The information needs of prisoners in the current study are not met by their library’s collections (Garner, 2017), and therefore the type of autonomy defined by Barbakoff, is not possible. However, the findings of the current study align well with Verkerk’s definition, as prisoners are allowed to exercise freedom of choice over their choice of reading material from their library’s collection.

Library as Therapy

Using the library as a therapeutic space is another way of prisoners ‘experiencing responsibility for self’ and for the library to play a role in supporting the wellbeing of the ‘whole person’. Many prisoners spoke of their libraries as places where they could go to spend time in activities that supported their emotional and mental health. The ability to read books from a library was frequently mentioned as a means of maintaining sanity while in prison. Debbie and Diane, who were interviewed together in the Protection Unit at the Adelaide Women’s Prison, describe the importance to their sanity of having something to read. Debbie said ‘I’d go crazy without books.’ Diane agreed, ‘Yeah, I would go crazy.’

Mitchell, a medium security prisoner at Mobilong Prison, also identified the role of the library in keeping him sane. When asked how the library was important to him, he stated, ‘Otherwise you just want to do your head in!’ When asked how the library was important to him, Otto, who lives as a maximum security prisoner within the Port Augusta Prison, also spoke about reading library books as playing a role in maintaining his sanity:

It keeps me sane by being able to read because otherwise, you’d be sitting there staring at the wall going nuts or listening to the bloke next door rattle a pile of bullshit in your ear. There’s plenty of that what flies around the place. It keeps me sane.

Peter, a maximum security prisoner who lives in the Victorian Port Phillip Prison, also fears for his sanity and believes the library helps him stay sane. When asked how he benefits from using the library he says, ‘The best thing to do, otherwise I’ll go insane. It is very comforting to be in there.’ Later in his interview, Peter returns to the observation that having a library in the prison is comforting to him:

But the libraries in the prison, I was surprised to see one, because I’ve never been in prison and I didn’t know what to expect. When I found out that was there, that was very comforting … I can sit down and read a book without stress or worry or aggravation, it’s just very comforting.

The library was also identified as a comforting place by Tanya who uses the library at the minimum security Tarrengower Prison. She chooses to visit her library when she is feeling stressed or anxious because the experience of being in the library helps her feel better. These are the words that Tanya uses when asked to describe how the library makes her feel:

Relaxed, happy. Just peaceful. If you, I find if I’m a little bit stressed or a little bit strung out or whatever, I just sit in the library. Even if it’s only ten or fifteen minutes and I just, I just think, I go ‘Ahhh’ and you just relax. It is just really calming. It is a place for relaxation. It’s peaceful. And lovely.

Debbie spoke about the positive experience of learning from reading library books at her library at the Adelaide Women’s Prison, and the effect this has on her self-esteem: ‘I find that education, when I learn things, I feel better about myself, so reading books and learning stuff about actual history, it makes you feel better about yourself.’ Debbie also spoke about how she reads books from the library to help her manage the anxiety and insomnia that she suffers from:

‘It stops me from overthinking things. I just sit down and read a book for a while. It helps me sleep. I’ve got really bad anxiety so if I just read a story, it takes my mind off my own personal stuff and manage to get to sleep eventually.’

In common with Debbie, Geoff also spoke about using the reading of books from his library at Marngoneet Correctional Centre as a means of stopping himself from over-thinking his life and the choices he has made: ‘it also stops you thinking about why you’re here, what you could have and should have done and it can give you a sense of relaxation.’

Relief from feelings of frustration and stress through reading books from the library was also identified by Oliver, who lives in the Port Augusta Prison. When asked how he benefitted from having access to a library, he stated: ‘It just gets rid of any frustrations, any stresses. Its somewhere to put myself other than watching ads on TV all the time.’ Michael, the prisoner librarian at the Mobilong Prison library, also spoke of his library as a place where prisoners can gain relief from frustration: ‘This library area is a place where people can come and vent a bit of frustration from time to time’.

Mitchell, who uses the library managed by Michael, agreed with the ability of the library, and the books he borrowed from it, to help him manage his mental health. He identified himself as suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and stated that he uses reading to help him manage his symptoms:

As soon as I get in a book, it’s like, “bang,” everything shuts down … That’s what it is, I think. It sort of calms you right down. It gets your mind acting straight away and you’ve got to concentrate on your book, and what you’re reading, and how it’s written, and you can’t take in anything from the outside, if you know what I mean. You just open your book and you’re there. It just sort of shuts everything else down, so I love it.

Later in his interview, Mitchell spoke about using reading to help him sleep:

You ask the officers, and when they go around at night and when they do the cell check, I’m lying there on the bed with a book, reading it. I also go to sleep with it in me [sic] hand and I’ll wake up reading it. It’s weird. Yeah, it helps me. It helps me sleep … Helps me wind down, helps me relax. It helps with everything. If I can’t sleep, which a lot of times I can’t, I’ll go up here and get me a really, really, really boring book. The most boring book you’ve ever read, and then, I’ll force myself to read word for word. It just puts me to sleep … not kidding. But, if I get a good book, I can’t go to sleep until it’s finished!

As the prisoner librarian for her library in the Adelaide Women’s Prison Protection Unit, Debbie is able to recognise the therapeutic value to others in reading materials that can inspire them to live their lives differently. She describes this when asked what materials she wished her library could offer its users: ‘I really want to find, bookwise, people that have had a hard life and then they turned it around, those kind of true stories, so that, inspiring stories for people in here that are feeling low to read something inspiring I think would be good.’

Geoff from Marngoneet experiences some of the inspiration and motivation that Debbie recognises books and libraries can provide. When asked about how the library makes him feel, he states:

I never really thought about it, how I feel. I feel like I’m motivated to do something positive so it makes me feel good that I’m actually getting off my bum and doing something that’s constructive in here because apart from running five kilometres a day and going to the gym and working in there, sometimes six hours a day, sometimes three, there’s not a lot else besides reading books that I do. It makes me feel motivated I suppose.

Donna shares the position of prisoner librarian with Danielle at the Learning Skills Unit of the Adelaide Women’s Prison, and spoke about the role that the two women play in counselling others:

They’ll even come up for a chat and try and … We’ve sort of become counsellors. Our job title should be librarian, criminal lawyer, family lawyer, counsellor, but it’s really good because that’s how people get to know you, especially when they came to you and they’re like, “Can I talk to you?” You’re like, “Well, okay.” You put on your different hats to go along with it but it’s good because then other people, especially new people coming down, feel a lot more comfortable instead of this intimidation.

Discussion

Prisoners are experiencing their libraries as therapeutic spaces, and they recognise the contribution of the library in supporting their mental health and wellbeing. The libraries provide them with a place within the prison that is quiet, relaxing, comforting and peaceful. Libraries also provide them with reading materials that allow them to use reading to help them avoid and deal with overthinking, anxiety, and insomnia. Prisoners spoke of the common experiences of depression, anxiety and anger within the prison population. This is consistent with findings from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2015) which reports that 49% of entrants to prison in Australia have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder by a health professional, and 27% of entrants are currently medicated for a mental health condition. Prisoners from the current study reported using prison libraries to find a quiet place to calm down, a place where they could safely vent their frustrations without creating trouble for themselves, a place to distract them from their feelings, and one of the few places within the prison where they felt they would be welcome and they could relax.

These findings are supported by Brewster’s case study about the therapeutic role of libraries. Brewster (2014) argues that libraries have a role in providing a safe and open environment for vulnerable patrons, including those with a mental illness. Brewster studied the use of public libraries by sixteen people with diagnosed mental illnesses. Her participants felt that they could use their library even when there was no other place that they felt well enough to use, and identified characteristics of their libraries that enabled this. They saw libraries as familiar, open and welcoming, comforting and calming, and empowering. This view is shared by Vincent (2015) who notes the role of libraries in providing safe spaces for the LGBTQI community. Vincent describes examples where public libraries in the United Kingdom have made efforts to make this community feel safe and welcome. He observes that libraries are able to do this by providing quiet, supportive, non-judgemental and safe spaces, as an alternative to the spaces outside the library that are sometimes experienced as difficult, unsafe or threatening. These experiences of library use are consistent with the experiences of the participants of the current study who choose to come to their libraries to feel safe and supported.

Wexelbaum (2016) takes an opposing view to that of Brewster (2014) and Vincent (2015). Wexelbaum is of the opinion that libraries do not provide safe or therapeutic spaces for their users. Instead, she sees them as places that discriminate against and judge vulnerable individuals and populations (Wexelbaum, 2016). Although Wexelbaum’s conception of ‘safety’ is more akin to that of ‘belonginess’ as identified by Booker (2007), or of ‘welcomeness’ as identified by Elteto, Jackson, and Lim (2008) than to be seen in terms of physical safety from violence, each of these concepts relate to factors of wellbeing derived, or not, through library use. These ideas are also examined by Brook, Ellenwood, and Lazzaro (2015) who look at the effect of an overwhelming ‘whiteness’ of academic library staff on student feelings of ‘safety’. However, again it is concepts of welcomeness, and belonginess through representation that are at the centre of their discussion. The idea of libraries as safe spaces in these resources does not extend into the realm of safety from physical attack or as places to retreat to in times of physical or mental vulnerability. The views of these authors who do not identify libraries as safe places are not supported by the findings of the current research, which finds that prisoners experience their libraries as safe and therapeutic places where they feel calm and relaxed, and as places to go when they feel vulnerable, and mentally and emotionally unwell. Prisoners spoke of their libraries as places where everyone is welcome and where no-one is judged by anyone else. These findings therefore contradict the opinions of writers such as Wexelbaum (2016) and the others mentioned.

Library Role in Behaviour Management

In addition to experiencing the library as a therapeutic space, some prisoners are experiencing their libraries as a means of managing their behaviour or the behaviour of others. This experience is possible because the libraries provide prisoners with something constructive to do, and helps prisoners deal with feelings and emotions that can overwhelm them and lead them to make poor decisions about how they will behave. Donna, who is one of the prisoner librarians at the Adelaide Women’s Prison, believes having access to a library has a significant role in the management of prisoners’ behaviour: ‘I believe it’s really important because it takes them out of here. It saves rioting and carrying on. You know?’

Patrick, a prisoner living at the maximum security Port Phillip Prison, also believes that having access to a library helps him stay out of trouble. When asked how he benefits from using the library, he says:

Put it this way, you feel better than what you do feel if you’re sitting in the unit staring at the walls and doing nothing. I prefer to do that than sit in the unit and think, “I’ve got X amount of time to go. Gee, it’s a long time to go”, and as I said, get into mischief and politics and gossip.

Marcus also spoke about how the Mobilong Prison library keeps him from getting into trouble. When asked in what ways the library is important to him, he says: ‘In what ways? If I didn’t have it, I’d be lost. If I’d be bored, I’d probably be getting into shit. Yeah.’ When asked to confirm that he experienced the library as a way of managing his behaviour, he stated: ‘100%, yeah, 100%. If I didn’t have books, I’d be bored. I’d be out probably slinging drugs then.’

Discussion

Libraries in prisons are able to play a role in managing the behaviours of prisoners, and thereby supporting their wellbeing. Prisoners are experiencing their libraries as influencing their behaviour, largely through relieving boredom, but also by providing relief from the realities of prison life that can lead to frustration and anger, and thus have a negative effect on behaviour. Prisoners from five of the seven prisons visited stated that their ability to visit their library, and to read the books they borrowed, helped them to moderate their behaviour and to stay out of trouble while in prison. They attributed this to the library being available to relieve their boredom. A common point made by these prisoners was that reading and visiting the library relieved both the tedium and the monotony inherent in prison life.

There is evidence to suggest that using a library to relieve boredom is also common to library users outside prison. In their study of the motivations to use public libraries in England, Hayes and Morris (2005) found that, along with the desire to alleviate financial restrictions and as a source of relaxation, people chose to visit libraries as means of relieving boredom. This was particularly the case for retired or unemployed people. Swain (2013) has also identified the role libraries can play in relieving boredom and provides some solutions to the boredom often experienced by high school children during American summer holidays. Swain states that a visit to a library can provide an opportunity to both relieve boredom, and create some positive outcomes, such as informal education and socialisation. These opportunities are similar to those provided to prisoners who choose to use their library to relieve boredom.

Prisoners in the current study attributed the relief of boredom enabled by visiting the library and reading library books to keeping them out of trouble and from committing further crimes, particularly drug use, while in prison. They were able to identify that boredom can lead them to criminal activity and trouble within the prison. There is evidence that supports this assertion that boredom can lead to crime and illegal behaviours. Fast, Shoveller, and Kerr (2017) investigated the circumstances that led young men to participate in drug-related crime in Vancouver, Canada and found that boredom was a significant stimulus for crime within this group. The participants in the Vancouver study stated that they chose to commit crimes as an antidote to boredom because spending time planning and committing crimes put them ‘in the center of something’ when the rest of their existence consisted of an excess of ‘having a lot of nothing’ to do Fast et al. (2017, p. 3). They also identified that this practice often becomes pattern-forming, and people who choose to commit crimes as a means of relieving boredom are likely to continue to offend if boredom remains a feature in their lives. Similar findings come from a study of drug use in rural New Mexico that identifies boredom as a major stimulus for drug use among young people (Willging, Quintero, & Lilliott, 2014). These findings are consistent with those of the current study, which identify that prisoners recognise the potential for boredom to lead to their involvement in crime within the prison, particularly drug crime, and that using the library helps to alleviate this boredom and moderate other behaviours that could lead them into further criminal activities. Prisoners experience boredom due to the excessive amounts of unfilled time in their lives, and this boredom can lead to problems with behaviour. The use of a prison library has the dual benefit to prisoners of filling in some of their idle time, and thereby reducing the boredom that can lead to negative behaviours.

Conclusion

This study has clearly shown that prison libraries can support prisoner wellbeing. The prisoners who participated in the study are able to experience taking some responsibility for themselves through use of the library. In an environment where freedom of choice is largely removed, the library becomes a place where prisoners can make choices for themselves – a choice to visit, a choice of how long to stay within their rostered time, the choice of what to do when they get there, or at least, the choice of what to read. This level of autonomy, facilitated by the library, is rare in the prison environment where prisoners’ activities and movements are restricted and monitored at all times. For the prisoners who use the library, the ability to make a choice for themselves is a highly valued experience. Prisoners also experience taking responsibility for themselves when they choose to use the library as a therapeutic space when they recognise they are feeling upset or distressed. The library is one of the few places that prisoners can go when they feel the need to be alone, or the need to speak to sympathetic others.

Prisoners in the study also believe that being able to read books from the library and to visit the library helps them moderate and take responsibility for their behaviour and wellbeing. Moderating their behaviour enables them to avoid the ‘trouble’ that may be caused by behaviour considered undesirable by the prison. By relieving boredom and providing a distraction from the realities of prison existence, libraries are able to have a positive influence on behaviour management. These findings are supported by Verkerk’s definition of autonomy as being able to make choices (2001), but not by Barbakoff (2010), who identified the role of libraries in building autonomy for users, but whose definition of autonomy requires evidence of self-governance. The findings of Brewster (2014) and Vincent (2015), who identify libraries as therapeutic places and sanctuaries, are well supported by the experiences of prison library users. The findings of the current study are also supported by England, Hayes and Morris (2005), and Swain (2013), who recognise the experience of using a library to relieve boredom.

The prisoners’ experiences discussed here are validated by much of the existing literature, and together these data support the contention that libraries in prisons play an important role in contributing to prisoner wellbeing and the care of individuals as the whole person. As such, it can be demonstrated that libraries can act as sites to reduce stress and to support positive mental health, and play an important role in serving the ‘whole person’ within the context of prisons, jails and correctional facilities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

No funding bodies have been involved in this research.

Notes on contributors

Jane Garner

Jane Garner is a Lecturer in the School of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University.

Jane received her PhD from RMIT University in 2017. She also holds a Bachelor of Business, Information and Library Management from RMIT University. Prior to starting at CSU, Jane worked in the Information Management team at RMIT University, teaching into their Master of Information Management programme. Jane has also undertaken teaching roles in information studies schools at Monash University and Victoria University. Before commencing her teaching roles, Jane worked as an academic librarian at the University of Melbourne.