LIBRARY FACILITY |
At HMP Rye Hill the library is a popular place where prisoners can
borrow books or story-tapes, or read magazines and newspapers in peace.
It is staffed by a professional librarian who is helped by two prisoner
library assistants. The library opens six days a week and two evenings.
The HMP Rye Hill library is owned and run by GSL. It is arranged
to be as much like a normal branch library as possible. All prisoners
have access to the library at least twice per week, where they can
borrow books and story-tapes for two weeks at a time. The library
holds the usual collection of materials - reference books, non-fiction
books, fiction books as well as the story tapes - but is naturally
tailored to meet the specific needs of |
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| The
library holds the usual collection of materials |
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the prison population. To this end the
library stocks a range of foreign language materials, including newspapers
and magazines, and has a large collection of prison law information
and the standard legal reference works that all prison libraries must
stock. We also have access to Braille and Moon materials.
The library is often the only resource within a prison for inmates
to continue their informal independent learning, especially those
who do not feel that full-time education would suit them. The library
is the central access point for prison law information, and for leaflets
and booklets such as Criminal Cases Review Commissions, or the Prisons
and Probation Ombudsman.
We positively encourage prisoners who have previously lacked confidence
in their reading ability by providing a wide ranging collection of
adult literacy materials, sometimes called 'easy reading', where existing
titles by authors such as Stephen King and John Grisham are rewritten
using a limited vocabulary. Other non-fiction adult literacy titles
are also stocked to encourage the reading habit.
In addition to the above a trolley service is delivered to the
Segregation and Healthcare Units. |
