Evening star., 1933-04-30
Federal Prison Library Wo1
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN.

Sir Walter Raleigh wrote q history o4
the world while imprisoned In the
Tower Of London awaiting trial fcs
treason, John Bunyan wrote "The Pill
grim's Progress while languishing In
Jail. These are exceptions to the general
rule which is reading rather than writ
ing. The Federal Government, recog-
nidng the Importance Of supplying
prisoners With Q mental interest, has
developed q prison library system BE-
lieved to be the best in the world.
Men and women are not sent to prls-
on as a relaxation but modern crtmi-
nology has come to look on tmprlson-
ment more as q means OF correction
than as punishment. For this reason
the supplying of inmates with adequate
reading material Is believed to be z
method of improving them and re-
habintating them. augmenttng their
chances of emerging better rather than
worse citizens.
Little attention used to be given the
contents of prison libraries. Most books
were the cast-on volumes Of persons
who had presented them to the prisons
and the general idea was that anything
in the form of q book was good enough
for q prisoner. After the World War,
however, more serious attention was de-
voted to the selection Of books for Fed
eral prisons. Large supplies were OBJ
tanned through acquisition Of the ex-
built up by the War Camp Community
Service for the use of the Army can
tonments during the war. The Federal
Bureau of Prisons obtained these books
as Army surplus and distributed them
among the prisons.
In the collections were large numbers
of books with little appeal to prisoners.
There were heavy economic treat!ses
and technical books long out OF date.
The supply of ficticn was in chief de-
mand, but the novels became SO worn
and dog g-eared they could hardly be
held together.
John Chancellor. supervising libra
rian of the Federal Bureau, took this
situation in hand and began a thorough
reform Of the prison libraries. Each
Federal prison has its own librarian,
but these have not been trained In how
to make the best use OF Libraries and
how to advise prisoners what books to
read. Supt. Chancellor's first task was
in instructing these librarians IN the
possibilities Of their jobs and showing
them how the rightly selected book may
have a therapeutic and regenerative
value to the prisoner. While the Fed
eral prisons seldom contain Raleighs
or Bunyans or Villons, there are no few
who desire 10 write and may be aided
along self educational lines by In
telligently selected reading matter. The
majority of prisoners are persons OF
meager education. It is possible to make
q prison term something akin to a
school course with the proper guidance
and enable an inmate to emerge from
prison a considerably better educated
man than he entered.
Books Made Accessible.
The miscellaneous lot of books taken
over from the War Camp Community
Service was culled out and many were
disposed Of. Then purchase OF new
books was commenced to fill In the gaps,
so that a prisoner might be able to
find something on almost any subject.
Encyclopedia works were added and
now the Federal prisons have libraries
aggregating 81 900 volumes. all well Sc
lected and arranged so that they are
accessible. Each prison has its card