[Bookstoprisoners] B2P interest in prison reform policies

[Holley McCree]

I take it the Tamms Year Ten committee is trying to take on the issues of other prisons as well. 

I have one story to tell about books in the Madison County Jail.  A woman I knew online said to me that her son had to stay in the jail for quite a long time while his case was being retried and that he was very frustrated to only have a pile of romance novels, and paperbacks to choose from.  She is "ielene" on illinoisprisontalk.com .   I decided to dig into this issue.  It's been two years I think so I won't remember all the details.  I found out that the IDOC does oversee the jails and that there is a policy about what should be consist of the library.  I found the policy.   There is a woman  from the IDOC who visits there once a year or more to make sure the standards were met.  Then I found out that a local board was involved in this.   I called the jail.  I was told that they did have a library. The sheriff in charge was obviously ticked off that I was questioning this.  I wrote every single member of this local board and the woman
 overseeing the jail and got no where.  From the sheriff's comments I could tell he really felt that paperbacks left from other prisoners was an adequate library. I got only one response, a curt letter from the sheriff.    I was really surprised about this whole episode. I never heard back from one board member.   It seemed obvious the sheriff shut down the whole inquiry.  I had to question how thoroughly the IDOC person looked into things and whether she just "rubber stamped"  things on her visit.  
I definitely ruffled feathers but got no where!

Holley




________________________________
From: sarah ross <sarahlynnross at gmail.com>
To: books to prisoners <bookstoprisoners at lists.chambana.net>; tracy dace <Tddace at aol.com>; Janet Wesse <jw4peace at sbcglobal.net>
Sent: Sun, February 21, 2010 9:20:44 PM
Subject: [Bookstoprisoners] B2P interest in prison reform policies

Dear Keystaff, 
Hope you are all well. This weekend Barbara and I were approached by Lori Jo Reynolds to get us and/or other Books to Prisoners people involved with a special prison reform committee, who will meet with DOC to address specific issues. The reform committee is provisionally called Prison Core, but they will be drafting up info and a new name soon. 
People involved in this effort are Lori Jo from Tamms Year Ten, Ted Pearson from National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Bill Ryan who got Stateville Speaks going, and works on the Long Term Prisoner Elderly Sentence Adjustment bill, Jean Synder from the People's Law Office and many many others. These people represent different issues in the prison system and are teaming up to form a coalition to bring these issues to DOC. What is unique here is that they have the ear of DOC! 
Prison Core is interested in forming an infrastructure while Dir. of DOC, Micheal Randle, is in office, as he has been interested in reform efforts to cut costs and offer more programming. Core has identified 8 areas that need work and thought that we would be interested in heading up one of them-- Libraries and Books. Other areas are: medical neglect, mental health, long-term prisoners, programs, jobs, volunteer policy, and Tamms.

What they are asking of us is to come up with issues and policy changes for libraries and books in the prison system to present to a DOC point person assigned to us. DOC has agreed to meet with us quarterly. (Our point person might be Robin Riggs, the woman who Barbara and I worked with to get the bulk mailing going). 

I'm wondering if any of you are interested in this effort. If so, we would need to meet soon and hit the ground running. The Core group wants everyone to meet with their DOC point person by April. 
If you are interested, could you e-mail back so we can get a sense of who's on board, and/or I suggest we have a *Special Meeting* for this Friday or Sunday where we could discuss the pros and cons of our involvement in this effort. Even if B2P as a group was not involved, it seems like you/we are a valueable voice here and we could still make policy suggestions to voice at the table.
Let me know your thoughts! and thanks in advanced for your time!
Warmly, Sarah



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