Libraries, Prisons, and Abolition

Abstract

The following is a three part series I have written on prisons, libraries, and abolition in conclusion of my coursework. Each Tuesday for three weeks, a new piece will be published on the DLIS blog. The first piece is a guide for library workers who have limited experiences with the prison-industrial complex, providing an overview of prisons, jails, and detention centers in the U.S.; examining the intent and effects of increased incarceration rates; and defining some core tenets of/broad approaches to abolitionist thinking. The second piece focuses on the library as an institution that, produced under the forces of moralistic reformatory thinking, inevitably influenced the operations and procedures of the institution maneuvered under american racial capitalism. It aims to expand our creative thinking on repair work by looking towards how we can disrupt these systematic processes, such as smashing the professional tenet of neutrality and restructuring LIS pedagogy to be led by the most oppressed, as well as what decolonization and anti-violence strategies could look like for caring, sustainable futures of information institutions. The third piece will focus on practical applications of abolitionist, expansive initiatives you can undertake as someone trained in library work, both as an individual outside your job and as a worker within an institution, in order to work in coordination with incarcerated people in autonomous building and movement by facilitating access to information. It will examine the current pressing information crises specifically inside Indiana prisons exacerbated by the Digital Divide; offering programming and outreach ideas; and elaborating on or critiquing contemporary offered solutions/reforms in LIS like employing social workers in the library or divesting from police partnerships inside your library. I currently work as a part-time web services and reference librarian at a community college; because my work experience is primarily in public and academic libraries, these are the institutions which I will mainly focus on in the following pieces.