Use and Users

For our first project, Rogue Librarians have created a collection of health resources for female prisoners who are currently serving time in a small (pop. 500) minimum-security prison for non-violent offenders. We worked with the prison librarian to develop a collection that will adequately address the relevant health issues at an appropriate reading level. This collaboration has also been integral to creating an interface that works with prison regulations to ensure that all prisoners have access to a variety of resources and formats. Although, we have developed this plan with a particular facility in mind, we hope to use the model as a template for other similar facilities with modifications as needed.

Since the prison librarian has not had the opportunity to conduct user studies and surveys on her users, she was not privy to the particular health issues that prisoners might need information about. However, she was able to confirm, through annual reports, that the prisoners’ demographic profile was similar to that of national averages. We were able to find information on the prisoner health issues nationwide through the Centers for Disease Control and other sources. From this, we were able to identify several health topics that are important to be aware of for women living among prison populations.

Female Prisoners U.S.A.
First, we will give a high-level view of what the female prison population looks like from a national perspective. Then we will give information specific to state of Illinois prisoners. As of June 2006, more than 203,000 women were in state or federal prisons or local jails.

• They comprise just under 10 percent of the total U.S. prison and jail population (more than 2 million)
• From 1995 to 2006, the number of women inmates in state and federal prisons nationwide increased by 64%
• 47 percent of women in state or federal prisons or local jails were white, almost 34 percent are African American, and 16 percent are Latina (though African-American women are incarcerated at 3.8 times the rate for white women and Latinas at 1.6 times the rate for white women)
• More than 70% of women inmates were incarcerated for non-violent drug, property or public order offenses.
• Nationally, more than 65 percent of women in state prisons report being parents of children under 18 (women and prison.org).
  

In Illinois (claim-il.org):

• The number of women in Illinois state prisons rose to 2,821 as of June 30, 2005
• About 73% of Illinois women prisoners are women of color
• About 61% of women prisoners in Illinois serve sentences for property (32%) and drug (29%) offenses
• About 82.5% of women incarcerated in Illinois are mothers
  

Special Issues in Prison Populations
Once we found the demographic information on our user group, we identified other issues that would affect the content of the collection and how the collection would be accessed. These included prisoner education levels, limitations on access to information technologies, and specific health conditions and issues that affect prisoners.

Education Levels
Most prisoners have not completed high school and some have never reached high school, so the materials provided to them must be at a reading level appropriate for people of that education level. For this reason, we will not be using journal articles or other scholarly publications.

Some statistics (Harlow, 2003):

• 40 percent have GED or high-school equivalent
• 30 percent have some high school
• 15 percent have 8th grade or less
• 15 percent have post-secondary education
• The rate of illiteracy among adults is more than four times higher in prison populations (prison policy.org)
  

Technology access limitations
We found at least one research study that shows most librarians (61%) have increased their use of automated technology over the last ten years and four-fifths of librarians said computers were available at their facilities. Despite this, Internet access for prisoners is usually non-existent or supervised by staff. However, more than half of prison libraries are using databases on CD-ROM (Payne, 2007). This limited-access model is consistent with the conditions described by the librarian at the facility we worked with.

With that in mind, we decided that our format (described in further detail in later sections) would have to be available largely in print. We also recommended the CD-ROM database format for a couple of reasons. First, prison administration would not be required to create a security policy since it’s an offline database. Second, we felt that our users would benefit from the practice of searching a database on a computer. Many will have limited job opportunities upon their re-entry into the workforce. This will be exacerbated by a lack of skills and knowledge of information and communication technologies. Even using a computer offline could improve technology literacy for some prisoners.

On the other hand, there will be those who do not feel comfortable using a computer because they are intimidated or don’t feel confident in their searching skills. Our solution will be to provide equivalent material in print so that the needs of these users can be met. Also, our group will work to train prison librarians on how to give basic instruction on the database for users who need it.

Prisoner-Specific Health Issues
Women living in prison have many of the same health issues as women living in the general population. However, their risk factors are much higher for certain conditions due to inadequate access to health care, prison living conditions and other factors. It is important to make information available about prevention and treatment of diseases, especially for a population that is unable to access media where news about medical developments and research is being disseminated.

Health issues affecting women in this group include reproductive health issues, fitness and nutrition, mental health and communicable diseases identified by the CDC as being common to prisoner populations. The collection will focus mainly on:

• Communicable diseases such as Hepatitis and drug-resistant Staph. aureus infection
• Reproductive health topics such as childbirth and pregnancy, STIs (especially HIV/AIDS) and menopause/menstruation
• Diseases such as cervical and breast cancer and osteoporosis
• Mental health including depression and related issues
  

CDC research has found that an unusually high percentage of woman prisoners suffer from traumatic brain injury (TBI), which leads to depression and other emotional problems. In addition, prisoners are at a much higher risk for substance abuse, which also increases their risk for TBI (CDC). The Illinois Department of Corrections estimates that more than 80 percent of female prisoners require treatment for drug or alcohol abuse, but it is available to only 20 percent. Woman prisoners are also more likely to be victims of domestic violence and sexual/physical abuse. A 1994 study reported that 80% of women prisoners had experienced physical and sexual abuse, often beginning in childhood. As such there is a great need for mental health treatment. However, human rights watch group Amnesty International reports very few prison systems provide counseling, opting to medicate mental health conditions instead (amnestyusa.org).

In addition, those living in prison populations are at a much higher risk for contracting communicable diseases. A CDC study from 2006 reported that 12%–39% of all Americans with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections were released from jail during the previous year (CDC, 2003). At year-end 2000, 3.6% of female state prison inmates were HIV-positive (CDC). The rate of confirmed AIDS cases in state and federal prisoners (50 per 10,000 prison inmates) was more than three times higher than in the total U.S. population (15 per 10,000 persons) (Bureau of Justice).

We believe we have a responsibility to provide prisoners with information resources on these topics and others that affect all women in order to empower them to be their own health advocates.