nichole's auxiliary storage

Craft project: jail break with Monopoly and dominoes

Ingenious: Dominoes, Toothpaste Used In Attempted Jail Break.

The two [inmates] then made a replica of the vent using paper towels stuck to a piece of sheet attached to the lid of Monopoly board game box.  Deputies believe the two used toothpaste as the 'glue' to stick them all together.  To simulate the holes in the grate, the inmates apparently melted down dominoes and used the black liquid as ink.

Nice try, guys! Too bad about the sally ports and four steel doors left between you and the outside. Thanks to Sean who pointed out the story.

In related news, the Pew Center on the States just released a report called 1 in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008. I haven't read it yet, but wonder if it will hold any solutions in addition to the bad-news data.

Top 10 misspellings of "librar*" on jail request slips

1. libary
2. libarary
3. librery
4. libray
5. librian
6. liberary
7. librairy
8. lybrary
9. librety
10. librain

Books and Bears at the jail

I went in yesterday to move books around the jail, and in the visitation area saw a rack of teddy bears and a cartload of kids' books. Turns out it's part of an annual program put on by the Sheriff's Department. It was pretty awesome - the fun one toddler was having as she riffled through the books was clear as day on her cute little face.

New jail finds are up, BTW.

WiSJ: "Inmate volunteer program grows"

On the heels of a Dane County press release, the WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL (their caps) did a story about Huber inmates doing volunteer work:

"When they 're out, they have to follow jail rules, plus I have a few rules, too, like no flicking cigarette butts," [volunteer coordinator Lynn] Montgomery said. "I tell them, don 't make any bad decisions on my volunteer time -- because otherwise I have to squish 'em like a bug."

She laughed, then added, "Actually, everybody does real well. "

(Lynn is a trip, and has been great fun to work with as a "civilian" volunteer, too.)

The story reports that inmates volunteer nearly 20,000 hours annually, to groups like Salvation Army and Centro Hispano. Some of the volunteers are unemployed, so the volunteer time is a valuable activity that both keeps them busy and keeps them engaged in the community.

New jail finds

There are a few new jail finds up this week. And an awful lot of good publicity from MetaFilter and la Repubblica.it. I sometimes forget how poignant these little items can be when you see them for the first time.

Plus, check out the redesigned, refreshed Jail Library Group web site, and, as always, the group's Amazon wish list.

Update: Big day. Dugg, then boingboinged. Again. Bedtime now.

"Music that soothes the soul"

There's a sincere, if slightly heavy-handed and a little tardy, piece on the benefits of UWEC's Music Therapy program in this week's Spectator:

Angela Boinski, 27, an inmate at the Sauk County Jail, participates in the anger management class UW-Eau Claire music therapy students facilitate every week.

"These women are lifesavers," Boinski said, with tears in her eyes, during Friday's session.

I haven't gotten a reply from Vice Chancellor Tallant, either. Makes me grumpily wish I'd made bigger alumni donations so I could threaten to withhold them.

Jail news roundup

Madison newspapers have been covering jail stories like gangbusters...

The story Criminal justice report points to jail overcrowding covers a report from the Institute for Law and Policy Planning that seems to include some useful suggestions for lowering the number of inmates and the length of the average stay. Notable quote:

"Get 'em in, get 'em booked, and if it's a misdemeanor, get 'em the hell out of the jail," [County Board Supervisor Dennis] O'Loughlin said.

The same beat was later covered in the State Journal in County officials seek jail efficiency, which also pointed out that:

About one-quarter of the men and women housed there have been convicted of crimes and sentenced to jail. The rest are "holds" -- probation and parole violators, pre-trial detainees or federal inmates.

Finally, a very good resolution to an old story (unless there's some twist I didn't catch): Jail phone profit stream dries up in 2009 reports that the ordinance to require Dane County to "enter contracts that provide the lowest possible costs to inmates." Hear hear!

Local produce on menu at Dane Co. jails

Interesting Dane County Press Releases.

Dane County earlier this month began purchasing locally grown produce from the Badgerland Produce Co-Op Auction for use in meals prepared by the county’s food services for the courthouse cafe, Badger Prairie Nursing Home and the Dane County Jail.

Via the Daily Page. I wonder how much difference this makes on a per-meal basis.

WiSJ: 'Retire' isn't the final word for James Danky

Saturday's WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL had a story on the retirement of Jim Danky from his job as periodicals librarian at the Wisconsin Historical Society. I knew he was a zine's best friend, but I didn't know about the first-offender employment program he supervised that's now in danger of being cut:

He supervises first offenders who are "doing time " at the Historical Society Library. More than 2,600 first offenders, by his count, have been placed in his office to work off their community service sentences by doing mundane chores such as ironing newspapers. Danky reckons the state has saved $942,000 by using first offenders in his office.

Cap Times: New move set to ban phone profits at jail

Update: There will be a press conference about the ordinance in front of the Public Safety Building, 115 W. Doty, Thursday afternoon at 1pm (via email from Ashok - thanks for the news).

Hear hear for Ashok Kumar, the Dane County Board Supervisor who's introducing an ordinance that would prohibit the county from entering into contracts that generate revenue from incarcerated people:

Kumar says that charging people for phone calls and amenities when often they're in jail because they can't afford bail is a regressive policy that needs to be changed.

"People are taking it out of their monthly paycheck and it's a huge chunk," he says. "This is actually dipping into funds for food, children, housing and other basic needs. We're not fining inmates, we're fining families."

Hear hear for Madison-area Urban Ministry as well. They've advocated this change for some time. Dane County's budget greatly benefits from the way things are, as reported by Channel3000 in 2004.

Despite what the frothing "community comments" on the Cap Times article say, this is not a move to make taxpayers buy amenities for people in jail. As I read it, it merely seeks to ban Dane County from profiting off inmates. Who, as a refresher, may or may not be convicted criminals.

Making it easier for inmates to make calls would have the added effect of reducing recidivism and inmate indigency. As the article notes, people lose their jobs and their family ties suffer when they can't make a simple phone call. No job, no family = more likely to end up right back in jail.

I really hope this ordinance passes.

Bonus: a sample of what you can buy in jail.

Literacy Behind Bars

The National Institute of Corrections just pointed to this study of literacy rates for prisoners. The data is from 2003. Some key findings:

• the prison literacy rate is higher than it was in 1992.
• the prison literacy rate is lower than the rate for adults living in households, though race, sex, age, educational attainment, and first language are also factors.
• "Prison inmates who read newspapers and magazines, books, or letters and notes had higher average prose and document literacy than prison inmates who never read, regardless of the frequency with which they read." - p. vii
• "Prisoner inmates do not always have easy access to a library, but 75 percent of inmates reported that they used the prison library at least once or twice a year. Although 59 percent of prisoners were usually able to access the library within 2 days of wanting to do so, 22 percent had to wait 2 to 6 days, 10 percent had to wait 7 to 10 days, and an additional 10 percent had to wait 10 days or more." - p.62.

The report is chock full of charts and info related to literacy. Worth at least a skim to anyone interested in jail & prison library work.

Shushed librarian

My regular trip to the jail to move the book carts was a little harder this week. I've lost my voice completely, so I made these notes on 3x5 cards to help me get around.

Once I got checked in, it wasn't so bad working without a voice. Got a lot done since the inmates couldn't chat with me. And in one pod, they didn't even mob the cart as they're wont to do - a bunch of them (and the deputy) were glued to the TV, watching the Godfather.

Farmington, Maine jail librarian story

Out of western Maine comes a story of a county jail librarian:

"I feel it's a perfect opportunity, with a captive audience, to help them make changes in their lives. Hook them into something that will have a positive influence," she said.

I always find it interesting what other counties provide by way of education and library services for inmates. This article goes on to say that the librarian works about quarter-time (9 hours/week), and is overseen by the county's adult basic education department. Just for reference, Franklin County, Maine, pop. 29,467, is about one-sixteenth as populous as Dane County.

Via LISnews.

Jail Library Group 2006 annual report posted

Jail Library Group's annual roundup of stats, events, and thank-yous has been posted on the JLG web site. Enjoy!

Huber hiding places

If you've been following the news coverage of the debate over where to cite a new Dane County work-release jail (one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, for starters), this post from a madison.com blogger will be in context. He points out an unintended side effect of a Huber center, where smoking is banned:

 

The deputies could obviously see the inmates, pausing to stash partial packs of cigs before entering the Huber facility. The deputies let it slide. The bank across the street from the Huber entrance, has some evergreen bushes in front. There were always a couple dozen packs of cigs in those bushes. Every tree branch, rock, and piece of debris on the ground was somebody's special stash.

I saw this firsthand when I used to take the bus from the stop outside Huber. The most ingenious hiding place I ever saw was inside the tall, yellow, plastic sheathing around the metal cord that anchors the streetlight in place. Guys would wrap their Newports in a sandwich bag and slip them in there, or retrieve a smoke while they waited on the bus stop.

Now, I don't know what I'm talking about, of course. But if electronic monitoring is out and they must build a new place, how about Research Park? It's as close to the middle of nowhere that you're going to get and still have bus access. It's far from schools and housing, right by the UW's biggest psychiatric clinic, and not too far from their Gateway Recovery substance abuse center. But again, I don't know what I'm talking about, ain't nobody gon listen to me anyways.

Locker cleanout

Jail library duty this morning went in record time. We got a pleasant surprise - staff had returned nearly a cart's worth of library books that had been found in inmates' lockers when they moved out of county. (Thankfully they put the books in plastic bags to save them from the chronically wet floor. If they do have to build a new jail I hope the library gets a room. And a chair.)

We found a lot of our most popular stuff had been squirreled away - new-ish Stephen King, Gwendolyn Brooks, Leonard Peltier's prison writing, etc. So we put it all on a new cart and circulated it back out again.

I stopped at the farmer's market on the way home, and then posted some new jail finds.

Capital Times on jail audit & overcrowding

Today's article, Jail audit a stall tactic, Hamblin says, gives some interesting numbers.

On Aug. 10, the jail population was 1,204, including inmates housed in other jails or on electronic monitoring at home. The capacity of the three facilities comprising the jail is 949.

The maximum-security jail, on the top two floors of the City-County Building, has 341 beds, including 24 segregation cells. It's currently 89 percent full; Hamblin said jail guidelines recommend no more than 80 percent capacity in maximum-security cells.

County Board Chairman Scott McDonell seems to want to make sure inmates are assigned to the right security level, possibly to take advantage of the lack of overcrowding at the Ferris work-release center. Meanwhile, it sounds like the Sheriff says inmates have learned to game the system and get labeled as disruptive if they want to stay in Dane County.

Either way, I don't see why an audit would be a bad idea if the county is making plans to alleviate this problem.

"Book worms keep jail librarian hopping"

Via LISnews, the Great Falls (Montana) Tribune ran a story on a group very similar to JLG. What an image:

As the cart goes by, inmates press their faces against the glass separating the volunteers from the book-hungry criminals. They browse the carts for new literature — but are limited to three books at a time.

The jail also seems to have a Kids' Connection-type program, which the article's author didn't cover. (Listing "fantasy and fiction" as favorites, and that phrase "book-hungry criminals," I count as a couple other weaknesses of the story, but it was interesting nonetheless.)

The conflation of the inmate reading program with "inmate religious activities" on the county web site is interesting. In Dane County there are several religious groups doing their own outreach. So, while our jail libraries never have a shortage of those tiny plastic-bound New Testaments, we are fortunate to have somewhere to refer inmates' requests for religious materials, while we focus on recreational reading.

Jail finds is making the rounds

This jumbledpile dude sounds interesting.

Trust

I'm kind of tickled that aaron found my jail finds flickr set. I'd been thinking about libraries trusting their patrons (and making things easier for them) ever since the infamous stapler post and its reprise.

Working in the jail has indelibly impressed on me that libraries are for use. Books in the library are dead. They're only useful when they're out there, getting abused and probably trashed, but read. At least some of the time.

Then again, Kyle, an actual prison librarian (with a budget to keep), might take a less starry-eyed approach. There are some titles (namely Donald Goines') that he just can't buy anymore because they disappear too fast to justify replacing.

Context of the Information Behavior of Prison Inmates

Via Library Juice, from Progressive Librarian 26, a fine and interesting article on inmates' info needs by Diane K. Campbell: The Context of the Information Behavior of Prison Inmates.

Again, my lack of commentary isn't from disinterest, just from busyness. Bad blogger.

If someone misbehaves you can put them in leg irons

Unshelved, the comic strip set in a library, visited a prison library for a week (May 16 | May 17 | May 18 | May 19 | May 20), reminding me yet again why I don't like the cursed thing.

Street lit

Two recent articles on "street lit," one from the Monterey County Herald, another from Library Journal, cover the resurgence of the genre and its controversial content, as well as some authors to watch.

But now am FOUND

The jail find I sent to FOUND 3 years ago got posted today! More found goodness is up at flickr, which I hope is a better venue for it than a TypePad photo album.

(So, I was seriously considering quitting the blog after that last post's inadvertently elegant suggestion, but this might rev it up again. Life and work have been so wondrously, staggeringly full for a bit that I needed my breath back - plus y'all know how I like a good quit.)

Dane County Timebank

The Wisconsin State Journal reports that Dane County Timebank is taking off. This bit about the potential for jail inmates to participate caught my eye:

Rearick hopes to expand the Timebank concept throughout Dane County. "We're working with the sheriff's department to help people in the jail to earn credit for when they get out, like for transportation to job interviews," she said. "They can also earn credits for things while they're still in jail like literacy training, preparing resumes and basic financial planning."

Just yesterday I asked my friend who works with Stephanie Rearick how the project was doing. I'm glad to see it catching on.

New jail finds posted

Finally, new found fragments - including a letter to Stephan Pastis, a drawing of an eagle, a vocabulary list, and more.

Jail Library Group slideshow posted

The slides (based on Jessamyn West's ppt-free talk template) from Jail Library Group's panel at the WLA conference are up.

Supreme Court Denies Defendant Access to Prison Library

From ALA, via the Jail Library Group list:

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled October 31 that having pretrial access to a law library is not intrinsic to defendants’ Sixth Amendment right to represent themselves.

And in the last para:

[A] 2–1 ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ... stated that inmates in a Pittsburgh maximum-security prison should not be denied reading materials as a disciplinary tool.

The dissenting vote was cast by Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr.

WiSJ: Jail phone contract revenue short $500,000

Not surprising.

The discrepancy in predicted and actual revenue occurred because SBC provided misleading data to contract bidders, Hicklin said.

Healing Voices from the Inside Out event at South Madison Branch library

From the JLG list:

The South Madison Branch Library and Voices Beyond Bars will host "Healing Voices from the Inside Out: a panel presentation by formerly incarcerated persons and their families" on Wednesday, November 9 from 7-8:30 p.m. at the UW Community Partnership Office, 2234 A South Park Street (four doors down from the South Madison Branch Library).

   Parents, spouses, children and their formerly incarcerated family members will share their experience of loss and love when a family member is incarcerated.  What is it like when the family member returns home? What does it take for a formerly incarcerated individual to successfully reintegrate into the community?  Included in the panel will be a presentation by the chaplain of Fox Lake Correctional Institution, who was formerly icnarcerated in the same system in which she now serves.

   Voices Beyond Bars is a group of formerly incarcerated individuals who are working to restore justice, to advocate for change for those who are still within the system, and to give back to the community they were once a strain on.  Their mission statement is "to engage in dialogue; to share our truth; in hope of healing self, family and community."

  This presentation is a part of a series of programs on issues in the criminal justice system funded by a grant from the Friends of Madison Public Library.

  Please join us in exploring how we as a caring community can respond to these issues.

Flood

On July 22, we noticed some water seeping under the jail library's floor tiles from the neighboring bathroom, so we informed jail staff. The water seems to be clean but it keeps coming. The books aren't wet, but the tiles have started to buckle and crack.

Popular table games in prison

This great Geeklist was posted at boardgamegeek.com by a Wisconsin corrections officer. After #8 it gets silly - people just piled on with crime- and prison-themed games - but up to that point is fascinating. His top 8 are:

1. Dominoes
2. Spades
3. Cribbage
4. Chess
5. Schafkopf (probably a WI anomaly, and just among jail staff)
6. Risk
7. Backgammon
8. Jenga

Chess seems like the most popular game in the Dane Co. jail I go to. The list author writes, and I concur:

Chess is definitely present, generally by a small avid group of inmates. Perhaps because of that, it seems that chess is the game that the players most often may be of different racial groups.

I've seen some beautifully ornate homemade cribbage boards fashioned from boxes, and I'm sure some of our book covers go to this cause. The score sheets are so numerous I don't even bother to post them as jail finds.

Scrabble is big; some of the "better" pods also have Life and Monopoly. Inmates' preferences for games are also reflected in the kinds of books they request. Chess strategy, Scrabble dictionaries, and Hoyle rules for card games are always in demand.

There was a scuffle in jail last May over a card game that resulted in a deputy's sprained ankle. The players involved allegedly weren't all inmates, iykwim.

Got some books for the jail

from a Friends of the Library sale. Some highlights:

• An AAA tourbook (specific request - amazing the number of people planning a move)
• A Jump Start comics anthology
• Egotrip's Big Book of Racism!
• Anatomy coloring book and New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
• Chicken Soup for the Country and Mothers' Souls and Chocolate for a Woman's Courage (both series are popular)
• United States of Wal-Mart

In case it's not obvious, I'm also digging on OpenWorldCat's URL syntax for books. Wonder if I can get TypePad to change their default "reading list" link destination from Amazon to WorldCat ...

Jail and prison news roundup

For some reason this strange story went out on the AP wire and didn't get any local coverage to speak of.

MADISON, Wis. - Sheriff's deputies have moved an animal rights activist who dodged federal authorities for years to a more secure cell after he received what might be an escape plan in the mail.

Moral: Do not send fake escape plans to your friends in jail.

Here's a heartwarming bit about San Quentin inmates raising money for the beleaguered Salinas public libraries.

Prisoners in San Quentin's inmate-to-inmate tutoring program sponsored something of a bake sale for literacy, selling doughnuts, pizza and fried chicken to other prisoners. Today, they will present a $1,000 check to the ailing Salinas Free Library, plus another $500 for literacy services in Marin County. Those sums are nothing to sniff at, given that an inmate with a high- paying prison job makes $56 a month.

And one about Project Return in Milwaukee, with some sobering reminders:

At 70,469, Wisconsin's parole-probation population is a smidgen of the state's 2.8 million-person labor force. But grouped together, it would be the fifth-largest city, just ahead of Appleton.

According to the latest federal data, Wisconsin has not only the nation's highest incarceration rate for African-Americans but also the nation's highest unemployment rate for African-American males.

Was it the weather?

Some days are inexplicably - festive? - at the jail. Last Friday afternoon was one. People were joking, talking, laughing, all up and moving about. Huge contrast from dead-still Saturday mornings.

One guy in particular greeted me effusively. It wasn't until later that I realized it was my buddy again.

"Intriguing proposition" nixed?

Looks like the first few episodes of Morgan Spurlock's cable show, 30 Days (previously), will not include one where prosecuting attorneys live in a prison. Instead, there are six smaller-scale scenarios: Minimum Wage (Nickel and Dimed?), Anti-Aging, Muslims and America, Straight/Gay, Off the Grid (House series?), and Binge Drinking Mom. Thanks to Wallo World for the reminder.

In the meantime, I've learned a bit about a Christian organization called Kairos Prison Ministry, whose volunteers live in prison for three days, meeting and studying with inmates. Not enough of the fish-out-of-water setting a reality show craves, I guess.

Spotted in jail

This sign:

STOP! The deputy desk is not an information booth! Fill out a request slip!

And a container full of Kemp's milk caps, worth five cents each in donations to schools.

Also heard:

As two workers left a kitchen, the first one out: Lights.
Second: Camera.
First: No, I mean you forgot to get the lights.

Guard arriving: You're just glad you're outta here.
Guard departing: Yeah. I don't have to listen to anybody cry tonight.

Guards Say Conditions Are Ripe for Prison Riot

On the heels of the scuffle at the local jail, this story has me wondering whether such alarmist publicity is a wise move on corrections' part. Regardless, overcrowding is real. Adding more guards would be treating the symptoms - crucial in the short term, but no kind of solution in the long run.

"Jail overcrowding leads to disturbance"

The local NBC affiliate ran this story of a "pushing match" over a card game at the PSB that resulted in a deputy's sprained ankle. County Executive Falk and jail administrator Captain Plumer seem to disagree about whether jail staffing levels have increased over the last 10 years.

You ain't that sick

Overheard, a guard escorting an inmate to the infirmary: "When you out? A week? Why you wasting our time? You ain't that sick."

Maybe because it can be easier to see a doctor in a jail than at a clinic.

Jail Library Group annual report

The JLG 2004 Annual Report is now posted on SLISweb.

I wasn't surprised to learn that like libraries everywhere these days, JLG provided more services to more people while getting by with fewer resources. In this case, volunteers were down while visits held steady and requests increased dramatically. Kids' Connection participation was, sadly, down as well, though I'm not sure whether this reflects less demand or lower volunteer availability.

I lied to a patron

We've been putting some books on display in the little window onto the hall that goes by the jail library. Instant success, as visibility and requests have gone up.

Except.

Except that I went in yesterday just after dinner as the trustees were finishing kitchen duty. One stopped by and asked if he could have a particular book sitting in the window, so of course I gave it to him.

A few minutes later, another inmate came by and asked if I'd gotten his written request for the same book. There it was in the file, dated a few days earlier.

I lied and said I didn't know where the book had gone. That we'd keep an eye out for when it returns. That we did have the other books he asked for, so he didn't leave with nothing.

Sigh. Feeling guilty.

More on inmate health care

From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Privatization of inmate care opposed. In a nutshell, Gov. Doyle would like to outsource prison health care to private companies. He says it would save money; legislators on both sides of the aisle say it won't.

Medical practitioners are worried about the quality of care:

Tim Correll, a physician who treats inmates at Dodge Correctional Institution, said private companies hired by prisons focus on cutting corners and making profits, not providing quality health care.

Correll said he had worked for a private company hired to care for Dane County Jail inmates but quit after the company ignored his recommendations.

That private company, presumably Prison Health Services, has its own problems, as the NYT reports, and Dane County is already investigating alternatives. So the possibility of shoddy work by private contractors is very real, and could lead to malpractice. Need we be reminded that a very popular activity among inmates is filing lawsuits?

There's the failed (pdf/html) experiment in privatization at Redgranite Correctional Institution.

Finally, though it's a given that health care costs will continue to rise regardless of provider, contracting out would put the state at the mercy of the contractor's prices.

And that's just the money talk. What's more vivid to me are the pregnant women, the newly-diagnosed diabetics, the chronically ill people I've met (if only through their requests for information) trying to stay healthy under jail conditions. It's an uphill struggle, and shouldn't be made any harder.

"Alternatives to prison pushed"

WiSJ blurb on the reintroduction of alternatives-to-incarceration legislation, or the "Substance Abuse Offender Accountability and Public Safety Act." Meatier than this story is the LRB report (pdf) from May 2004.

Reentry

Librarian recently posted 3 great links from Shelterforce on reentry after imprisonment:

• Life after Lockup
• Housing Ex-Offenders
• Council of State Governments' Re-Entry Policy Council Report

Locally, there's Madison-area Urban Ministry's reentry work. I'm adding a possible showing of “Today’s Prisoners, Tomorrow’s Neighbors” to my JLG-time wildest-dreams to-do list.

Raise up, I feel your pain, hit the law library

Nas is writing a novel based on "Sekou’s Story" from his Streets Disciple album. JLG wish list, you've been warned.

Via Bookslut.

Stacks behind bars

Via LISnews, a radio story about the power of books at the Dukes County Correctional Facility in Martha's Vineyard. It includes lengthy comments from an inmate who's an avid reader. I liked this quote from the coordinator of the book club:

It's not natural be in jail, but the reading does allow them an avenue to go somewhere else legally.

And (I almost didn't want to link this), Martha's reading list:

She has been reading voraciously—from Bob Dylan’s Chronicles: Volume One to Richard Rhodes’s biography of John James Audubon (John James Audubon: The Making of an American) to The Clearing by Tim Gautreaux.

Wall dog!

 

Can't find anything good on the book cart

I would like a comic book from the library. I really don't mind which one. I can't find anything good on the book cart. Thank you for your time.

Candy bars, TV and sleeping late

Last time I did rotations with the jail library book cart, it was a Saturday morning and most inmates were still sleeping. On my way out of one pod, I commented on the quiet to the deputy. Between bites of an apple, he held forth:

"Yeah, candy bars, TV and sleeping late. Makes you think, hm? Is it actually helping these men with their low self-esteem, or is it just helping the social workers at the university feel good about themselves?"

Wha? Wondering if "low self-esteem" and "social workers" were code for something, I said, "Sometimes I wonder if the books are even worth it."

"Well, if they're the right kind of books. Better than TV, at least."

His comments bothered me as I finished up rotations. Why was I here, anyway? If I feel good after a visit, is it because I'm basking in my own virtue? Maybe I think it looks good on a resume. Or maybe I'm just trawling for content for this blog.

Do the inmates even read the books, rather than using them to prop up table legs or cover ramen in the microwave? Are we just giving them another resource to fight over? Are the books we have too old, too dirty (in form and content), too hard to read? Do the inmates get out and have a good laugh at all us college women (begging the pardon of both male JLG volunteers) wasting our Saturdays this way?

I was so preoccupied with this little interaction with the deputy, and the (chronic) doubts it stirred up, that I barely processed the fact that I was able to drop off more than a dozen books that people had specifically asked for. And on my way out of another pod, a woman asked me to find her some info on Alzheimer's because her dad had just been diagnosed.

Later I told JM about what the deputy had said. But when I recounted the bit about the woman who asked about Alzheimer's, I started crying like a bleeding heart. "I mean, there she is, and who else is gonna help her find out about this? It's bad enough she can't be with her dad..."

JM told me (not in so many words) to get a grip. Then he pointed out that he knew I knew people appreciated the books. And that half the people in jail are there waiting for trial, unable to pay their bail. As for the other half, it shouldn't matter what they did or who they are. I had some trouble with this, especially after the break-in, but it's true. Most of all, he reminded me that I do it because I'm called to. At this point, I almost can't not do it, or something like it.

I got to wondering what the deputy would propose as an alternative. Reveille at 6 and then... sitting around? Swanson's Vending is glad of their candy bar customers, to be sure. Was the dep's vague criticism of "social workers at the University" his way of feeling better about his job? Who can say.

Kitchen rules

This printed sign was posted on a deputy's station. I couldn't get a picture, for obvious reasons. The last item was handwritten.

• Lunch saved until 1:00 PM
• Dinner saved until 7:00 PM
• Eat ASAP after returning
• Kitchen closed at 8:00 PM
• Room service $10.00