REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON LIBRARIES IN FEDERAL PRISONS
The report of this committee made by Mr. Hadley at the Pasadena meeting, outlined correspondence with the Department of Justice in Washington, which Department has supervision of the penitentiaries including their libraries. After repeated efforts by Mr. Hadley, the department seemed to become interested in the libraries in the prisons, and friendly to suggestions for improving them, but the officials considered that proper library facilities were dependent upon the provision by Congress of a system of education for the prisoners. However, the department already had the authority to appropriate money from its own funds for the purchase of books for the prison libraries. In his report, Mr. Hadley recommended that a bill be introduced in the next Congress for an annual appropriation for books and their care in penitentiary libraries.
In 1911 catalogs of the libraries in the penitentiaries at Atlanta and at McNeil Island were prepared by the prison librarians and printed. After these were submitted to the Department of Justice, it seems to have been decided to adopt a definite policy for the annual expenditure of money for the purchase of books for one of these libraries, that at McNeil Island. This decision was probably hastened by the disclosures the catalogues made in regard to the kind of books already in the libraries. It is evident that fiction constitutes almost the whole of the collections. At any rate in January the attorney general wrote the secretary of the American Library Association that the department would spend $100 annually for the purchase of books for the library at McNeil Island, and requested that a list of books be prepared, none of the books to be fiction, but chiefly history, biography and science. Mr. Utley asked the present chairman of your committee to prepare the list since the Tacoma library is the nearest to McNeil Island and the present chairman was somewhat acquainted with the conditions and needs there. A list of 500 titles, with a first choice of books to cost $100.00 was considered, but the list was reduced to 175 titles, since it was deemed best to provide only for purchase for two years. Since the library already contained considerable fiction and the public libraries of both Seattle and Tacoma frequently send the prison selected books from their discards, it was fortunate that the department wished no fiction on the list.
We have learned from the Department of Justice in the last few days that similar purchases were not contemplated for the much larger prisons at Atlanta and Leavenworth. No attempt was made to secure the introduction of a bill in Congress providing for an annual appropriation for books and their care in the penitentiary libraries, since it was already so late in the present session; since the new interest of the department under the present law appeared promising; and since it seemed desirable first to secure the discussion and coöperation of the American Prison Association and other societies interested in prison administration and reform. It was hoped that a member of this committee could present the subject of libraries in the federal prisons at the meeting of the Conference of Charities and Corrections in Cleveland during the present month, but it was not possible to carry out the plan. The American Prison Association has formally invited a member of the committee to discuss the same subject at the annual meeting of the association at Baltimore in November, and it is highly desirable that the invitation be accepted. It should be possible to interest and secure the powerful backing of the American Prison Association in securing the passage of any contemplated legislation looking to the improvement of prison libraries.
The warden of the prison at McNeil Island secures some fifty magazines as gifts by merely begging them from the publishers! At both Atlanta and Leavenworth, the only new magazines the prisoners see are those which they subscribe for themselves or which are sent by their friends.
In the Atlanta prison, a regular school is conducted, and whatever books are purchased from the general funds are school books. A school should be established at McNeil Island. At present there are no facilities for such work there but with the example of the one at Atlanta, it should be possible to urge effectively that the department establish a school at McNeil Island.
In the coming year the commendable start which the Department of Justice has made in purchasing books for the prison at McNeil Island, should open the way for successful efforts in persuading the department to undertake much more liberal purchases of books for the libraries of the much larger prisons at Atlanta and at Leavenworth.
It is earnestly recommended that a vigorous presentation of the needs of the prison libraries be made to the department by someone in person, backed by all the influence obtainable. It is also urged that a list of fiction suitable for prison libraries be co-operatively made with the utmost care. The needs of the prisoner in his reading for recreation are very special, and many books entirely suitable for the open shelf room of a public library should be ruthlessly excluded from the prison. Expert knowledge of the psychology of the prisoner should in some way be obtained in preparing a list of fiction for reading in prison. It is better that the prisoner read not at all than that he should be given many of the books eminently fit for one in the normal conditions and relations of life.
FRANKLIN F. HOPPER, Chairman.