Jos. M. O'hara
Julius Phillips
Committee of Prisoners of Jefferson County Jail.
LOUISVILLE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY—MAIN BUILDING
Branch of this Library in the County Jail.
[Courier-Journal]
Prison libraries are nearly always more or less poor, indefinite sort of affairs, with a questionable lot of reading matter, mostly paper-backs and second-hand magazines, forming its contents. But the Jefferson county jail has marked a departure from the routine of prison life in the establishment of a library station for its inmates.
This little institution is a remarkable affair. Mrs. Chester Mayer is responsible for its organization. Mrs. Mayer is a member of the visiting board at the county jail, and noticing the absence of good reading matter, the continual idling of prisoners, she took up the matter with Jailer John R. Pflanz, who approved the idea of a library station. Then she approached her husband, Dr. Mayer, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Louisville Free Public Library.
When George T. Settle, the recently elected librarian, was approached, he gave his hearty consent. One hundred volumes were sent immediately for the men's department and fifty for the women prisoners. The books were selected by Miss Annie V. Pollard, former acting librarian, who gave considerable time to a study of the most desirable literature. The books sent were non-denominational, nonpolitical, and mostly fiction, works of the popular authors, but nothing too heavy for the mental appetite of the inmates. The books were taken from the open-shelf room.