The Right to Read Behind Bars: Access to Information Resources and Libraries in the Prisons in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to answer the question of what is the level of the readers’ activity in the prisons in Sri Lanka and what are the perceived material needs of the prison libraries to meet the reading right of the prisoners. The design of the study was a descriptive survey while the population comprised of all convicted male prisoners in the Magazine Prison in Sri Lanka and the welfare as well as library workers of this prison are the population. The sample size was 50 including 40 prisoners and 10 library and welfare workers of out of a population. Structure questionnaire and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) schedule were the instruments used to generate data for the study. Descriptive method of analysis was used in answering the research questions. The data was analyzed using mean and standard deviation while the data from the FGD was qualitatively analyzed. Findings also showed that the varieties of library resources and services as well as human resources provided are grossly inadequate considering the population of the prisoners. Findings showed that a number of strategies could be used to enhance the provision of library and information resources and services to meet the prisoners’ information needs. They include liaising with public libraries, NGOs, religion bodies, legal practitioners, liaising with professional bodies like the library associations, granting the prisoners more access to information and developing new and using existing guidelines to prison library services.