READING BEHIND BARS

A newly minted librarian discovers the importance of reading for prison inmates.

In 2008, with a fresh degree and few job prospects, Grunenwald (Running with a Police Escort: Tales from the Back of the Pack, 2017) took her first professional position in a men’s minimum security prison in her native Ohio. Although she came to her new job with part-time experience in public libraries and a master’s degree in library and information science, she felt completely unprepared for the restrictive prison environment. “I had neither intended nor set out to become a prison librarian,” she admits, not even fully understanding what a “correctional facility” really entailed. In a forthright, gently told memoir, the author portrays herself as both naïve and well-intentioned as she deals with inmates—mostly serving time for drunken driving charges or drug convictions—for whom a prison library meets a range of needs. Some read local newspapers, some consult law books or, with limited access, LexisNexis; one inmate confesses that he wants to read the books he should have read in high school; a few take the opportunity to hide behind bookshelves to masturbate—one of the many infractions that Grunenwald must report. The library also serves as a place of respite. For inmates who work as library assistants as well as for those who come to read, the library is “a unique pocket of freedom” within the highly regimented and surveilled prison. What Grunenwald encountered on her first day was a huge mess: outdated reference books, mixed-up encyclopedia volumes, inadequate shelving, unprocessed donation books, and two computers for inmate use, one of which was continually broken. In addition, she confronted a plethora of rules that governed inmate behavior, movement, and her own responsibilities. Quickly, she had to establish her authority. “Power in prison is in constant flux,” she notes, with inmates having the power “to inspire fear within the staff.” After 20 months, “tired and burned out,” Grunenwald left for another job, hoping she helped some inmates to develop a real love of books.

A compassionate perspective on prison life.