Prisoners find solace in book
By Robert Clarke
“Because these are guys who live in the moment. One of the reasons they’re in trouble is because they can’t see consequences from what they do at this moment.”
by Robert Clarke
The walls of the old condemned cells in the Port of Spain prison were thick. Thick because anyone who found himself between them was supposed to remember he would never be leaving. And thick because they were built of stone and mortar alone, as things were done when jails were built in 1812. But now they’re gone — sledge-hammered away to make room for Debbie Jacob’s dream — a proper prison library.
The diminutive school librarian and literacy teacher arrived at the Port of Spain prison a couple years ago with experience in penal institutions. Outside of her day job at the International School of Port of Spain, she had taught a CXC English class to teenagers at the Youth Training Centre (YTC), learning along the way that an appetite for reading often led to self- expression. “My students found solace in books,” recounted Jacob at the launch of the Sterling Stewart Royal Reading Room at the Port of Spain prison in March of this year, “and they began to write about their lives.”
When one of her young charges disappeared from YTC, she followed his trail and found him in the adult system at Port of Spain. “YTC gave up on him,” she says. “I wasn’t ready to give up on him.” But the facilities for his ongoing education were depressing — a tiny room known as “The School” that doubled as a classroom and tailoring shop. The only books he might come across were holy ones or perhaps a bit of newsprint, much sought-after at bathroom time.
Through her NGO, Wishing for Wings, Jacob started down the path toward a prison library. First she got the buy-in of Prisons Commissioner, Sterling Stewart, then she convinced another NGO, The Children’s Ark, that the children of the prisoners would benefit. “I told them my dream has always been to start a programme in prison where inmates would be able to read to their kids.”
A space would be needed. “The School” was not appropriate. The search began for somewhere secure but relatively accessible, so the children could get in without having to forge deep into the prison. The old condemned cells were eventually earmarked.
The Children’s Ark paid for demolition, plastering of the new walls and tiling. Inmates from the Carrera prison, some of whom had spent time in the now-demolished cells, were brought in to paint scenery on the walls. “To have that power to pull down those cells and build something so positive – light and beautiful and positive inside of there. And then be able to paint that scenery and everything, meant a lot to them.” The space was large, with classroom and a “good- sized” library, and an area designated for inmates to read to their children.
Wishing for Wings found a corporate sponsor. The National Gas Company paid for an electronic check-out system and library training for prison officers. They donated e-readers and devices for listening to audio books, although the prison’s painfully slow internet connection prevented most downloads. And Jacob started teaching.
She teaches 12 students — all on remand for murder — once a week, adopting innovative techniques to draw out their creativity. For two straight years they have held debates and even though Jacob has lamented the results (the “For” team won both years while arguing for corporal punishment and discrimination by religion), she was heartened by the development of their arguments.
Debbie Jacob says the sums needed to keep the Royal Reading Room afloat are relatively small. Wishing for Wings could us $6,500 to run its PVC furniture-making class, and $9,000 for a tiling class. “These are skills we could send them back out into society with.”
The literacy component also requires support. Jacob was pleased recently when she saw one of her former students protesting for water; not because he was protesting, but because he was articulate about what he wanted for his community.
She has also coached them to write a soap opera for the prison radio station and found that an unforeseen consequence was that they began thinking two steps ahead of their characters. “They soon started to realise,‘He can’t say this because he said this in the past,” which was good because it demonstrated that they could see beyond the present. “Because these are guys who live in the moment. One of the reasons they’re in trouble is because they can’t see consequences from what they do at this moment.”
The Children’s Reading Room remains unused for now. The gritty details of ensuring that prisoners don’t take advantage of the new privilege have yet to be sorted out, and the prison administration still has to provide a separate entrance for inmates. But the new classroom is being used for Jacob’s literacy class as well as Wishing for Wings-sponsored courses in PVC furniture-making and tiling.
For inmates to read to their children from picture books, fluently and with emotion, Jacob says they’ll have to be coached by volunteers. That system is also being worked out, since volunteers will have to be screened by the prison authority, but Jacob expects the Children’s Reading programme to start “soon”.
In the meantime, she’s learning about male adult inmates’ reading preferences, in part because her daughter Ijanaya did a prison reading survey while working on her degree in Library Information Services. They like biographies — Martin Luther King; Pakistani advocate for girls’ education, Malala Yousafzai; cosmologist Stephen Hawking — and history. They don’t like science fiction. “They want to deal with reality,” says Jacob.“How to make their real lives better. They’re not looking to escape to some fantasy thing.”
She has also found that the prisoners still call the Port of Spain prison, the Royal Jail, so she went with their preference in calling it The Royal Reading Room, with the name of the former Commissioner of Prisons tacked on for good measure.
How would a corporate citizen benefit from contributing to a prison reading programme? “I wish corporations would really see that’s probably the biggest investment we can make,” says Jacob. “And if you can’t see the importance of investing in prison programmes or inmates, think about their kids. Think about the next generation. (The prisoners) say to me all the time, ‘I wish we had a teacher like you.’ Somebody who took the time to understand what their needs were.”