Korrektionell facilitet

Sid Vicious, Tupac Shakur, Foxy Brown, och nu senast Lil' Wayne, alla har de suttit av tid på fängelset på Rikers Island, i vattnet mellan Queens och Bronx. (Med 15 000 intagna är man i storlek med t.ex. Falköping). Men hur är det egentligen att vara bibliotekarie där? Jamie Niehoff berättar om sitt frivilligarbete i en New York Public Library-blogg:

Getting books back from the prisoners and letting them pick out new ones is a bit of controlled chaos. We stood outside the iron door to the house with our cart and had two prisoners come out at one time, check off their returned book, and pick out a new one. Each prisoner is allowed one book and one magazine. The most popular books are by far James Patterson's novels, so popular in fact that we have to lock them up after book service because they tend to disappear. I wonder if James Patterson has any idea. National Geographic is the magazine of choice, and there is an entire box of them to choose from, some as far back as the early 80's.