When it comes to libraries, books and learning, our thinking is simple: More is better.
Which is why we applaud last week’s move by Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias to provide, for the first time in years, a significant pot of money — $420,000 — for state prison libraries. It represents, we hope, a small-scale step toward making state prisons a place where inmates routinely turn their lives around, for society’s sake as well as theirs.
Our “more is better” thinking is also why we’re glad to see a proposed ordinance to regulate little free libraries get sent to the back burner last week.
The Chicago City Council should leave it there.
“Anything that makes the process harder or more complicated, more intimidating, is probably going to discourage this kind of activity,” as Nancy Wulkan, founder of Neighbor to Neighbor Literacy Project, which installs Little Free Libraries across Chicago, told Block Club Chicago last week.
An ordinance requiring a permit to set up a little free library — and allowing only organizations, not individuals, to do so — is an ineffective bureaucracy waiting to happen. Those colorful book boxes you may have seen sprouting up in your neighborhood are an asset to communities, not a liability.
If some of them are decrepit or obtrusive, alderpersons are, as far as we can tell, free to remove them since they are typically put up on the public way between the sidewalk and the curb.
Otherwise, what’s the harm? What’s the issue with providing passers-by with a book or magazine, to encourage literacy and reading, even in a small way? Maybe it will encourage people to go a step further and visit one of our city’s fine public libraries, which certainly deserve our support.
There are far too many all-too-real crises for City Council to debate and hopefully fix. Little free libraries are not one of them.
Productivity, not idleness, while incarcerated
Each of Illinois’ prison libraries will get $15,000 from the state, the largest amount in decades. In 2000, Illinois provided $750,000 on books and materials in prison, according to Illinois Public Media. That figure declined steadily, to just $276 last year.
Giannoulias, whose job as secretary of state also entails serving as Illinois’ chief librarian, is on to something when he says that providing more books, magazines and reading materials to prison inmates will keep them connected to the outside world and increase their chances for success as productive members of society.
Exactly. As much as possible, prisons and jails should provide men and women with the chance to engage in productive activity — especially education — rather than idleness. Money spent on libraries, GED or college classes and the like in correctional institutions is money well spent, if society hopes to curb crime over the long haul. Frankly, it’s our view that prison sentences ought to include, in many cases, mandatory education — not to “coddle” inmates, but to help them change their lives and benefit the rest of the public.
A RAND Corp. analysis helps make that case: Inmates who participated in prison education programs were 43% less likely to return to prison and 13% more likely to obtain jobs once released. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Education pointed to that RAND Corp. analysis as part of the rationale for expanding federal Pell Grants to incarcerated individuals enrolled in college programs in prison.
Supporting prison libraries is a way to help support education and learning. It’s a good move. Regulating little free libraries is not.
With libraries and literacy, more is always better.
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