Incarcerated readers getting help from Kitsap-based book donation drive
Incarcerated readers at the Washington Corrections Center for Women need new books, and Liberty Bay Books in Poulsbo is fundraising this holiday season to buy new materials for the Gig Harbor prison.
This is the second year Liberty Bay Books has done held a drive, last year providing hundreds of new books to the prison library.
The library plays a vital role in the lives of many of those incarcerated women, said Ken McDouall, Washington Corrections Center for Women branch librarian. It is a place for both education and recreation.
“People walk in here and feel like it's a separate space, they feel like they're not really in prison for the time they're in here,” he said. “Because they've got this whole universe available to them in the books that are in here.”
The COVID-19 pandemic shut down prison libraries last year. The WCCW's library was the first in the state to open back up because the prison was able to keep infection rates low and avoid an outbreak. Still, some operations, including interlibrary loans, remain on hold.
This makes it difficult for the library to meet the needs of the patrons. This is the first year in which incarcerated women are able to pursue a bachelor's degree through the Freedom Education Project Puget Sound, McDouall said, and the lack of interlibrary loans is impacting students in the program.
Normally, McDouall said he has no trouble getting incarcerated women the materials they need to achieve their degrees. Now, he has to rely on journal articles that he can find online and print out for students.
There is no internet access for incarcerated people, which is something McDouall would like to see changed in the future.
Additionally, many women just want new reading materials.
“Our book-buying budget is never big enough, at least as far as I’m concerned,” McDouall said.
McDouall is compiling a list to send to Suzanne Selfors, owner of Liberty Bay Books, who will work with donors to fulfill the list.
Selfors and McDouall said it's important that incarcerated people get access to new material.
“Ken has a really incredibly important job in my mind,” Selfors said. “It’s important that they get brand new, right off the shelves, pristine books.”
“On a very basic level, it helps to connect people to the outside world,” McDouall said.
New books can keep the women in touch with changing culture in the society they are expelled from, especially in popular topics of nonfiction.
The most popular genre by circulation is paranormal romance, said McDouall, and he will include some titles in that genre on his list.
“There’s a lot of studies out there that show that reading in general, even reading fiction, will promote greater social integration, promotes empathy,” McDouall said.
Recently WCCW started a program that provides public library cards to those being released. McDouall said women leaving the prison are much bigger readers than women coming into the prison.
“I hear quite a bit people saying they never went to libraries before, they never liked to read before,” McDouall said. “But in prison, they’ve really, really, really gotten into using a library.”
People can help the library by donating to Liberty Bay Books’ campaign on its website, libertybaybooks.com, over the phone at 360-776-5909, or in person at the bookstore on 18881 Front St. in Poulsbo.
WCCW's library is a branch of Washington State Library, sharing public benefits from statewide donation programs, but Liberty Bay Books is the only campaign that is exclusively and directly helping WCCW.
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Incarcerated readers getting help from Kitsap-based book donation drive
