The Jail Library Group is an entirely volunteer run organization that provides educational, recreational and community resource reading materials to the residents of the jail facilities in Dane County.

Description:
For fifteen years, the Jail Library Student Group has been providing general library services to inmates of the Dane County Jails. The Jail Library Student Group is supported through donations and by assistance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dane County Library Service, and the Dane County Sheriff's Office. The general goals of the Jail Library Project are:

• To meet the educational, recreational and community resource reading needs of the jail residents.
• To locate and share with inmates, useful community resources that will help inmates or their families address and solve their needs.
• To educate the volunteers/local community about issues related to incarceration, poverty, crime, justice and fairness that are a part of and affect our community, but which of many of us are not aware.
• To improve the criminal justice system by involving the community, through volunteer service, in the process.
• To provide a safe and constructive environment for diverse people to come together, share and learn from each other.

WHERE IS IT? The Jail Library Group provides services in two jail facilities located in downtown Madison. The two jails are divided into "maximum" and "medium" security facilities. The maximum security jail is on the sixth and seventh floors of the City County Building (Martin King Luther, Jr. Blvd.), and the medium security jail is located in the Public Safety Building, one block west of the City County Building on W. Doty Street. Although the total number of jail residents fluctuates, there are approximately 600 to 700 inmates housed in the downtown jail facilities on a daily basis.

Through a project called Kids Connection, the Group also works to with inmates with children, providing reading materials for them to record for their children. We then send the recorded reading and book to the children.

WHEN IS IT? The Jail Library Project's hours of operation vary and change according to the schedules of the volunteers. In general, we are able to access and volunteer inside the jail between the hours of 7am and 10pm every day of the week. We can be flexible in scheduling times for a volunteer to do library work in the facilities. However, with a few exceptions, we do not allow volunteers to work alone inside the jail. We prefer to have at least two volunteers working at a time.

History:
HISTORY OF THE JAIL LIBRARY STUDENT GROUP

The Jail Library Student Group began as a project in the School of Library and Information Studies to provide practical experience in providing library services to underserved populations. Over the fifteen years since then, it has grown into a regular service, offering library materials to inmates at two facilities. A brief chronology is as follows.

• Summer 1992: Practicum project began
• Fall 1992: Two volunteers began working in the City County Building
• Fall 1993: Graduate Research Award applied to purchasing books, beginning collection
• Other volunteers joined the group, mostly from the the Criminal Justice Department of UW-Madison, the Madison community and some from the School of Library and Information Studies
• Fall 1994: Library in the Public Safety Building opened. More volunteers join group, including students from the School of Library and Information Studies
• Spring 1994: Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant money awarded to the group for a start-up collection in the Public Safety Building
• Fall 1995: Program began to evolve into a learning experience for School of Library and Information Studies students
• Fall 1996: Jail's education program began to work with the library project
• Winter 1996: Successful book and tape drive for Kids Connection by the Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection
• Fall 1997: Kids Connection program started to come together
• Spring 1997: Dane County Library Services awarded another LSTA grant to start a job center for Huber (work release program) inmates
• Spring 1998: Project gains official status as a student group through the Student Organizations Office (SOO) at University of Wisconsin-Madison; official group name is chosen: The Jail Library Student Group, UW-Madison SLIS
• Fall 1998: Group expands to largest number of volunteers. Jail Library Student Group receives funding from the Associated Students of Madison (ASM) as an official student group
• Spring 1999: Volunteer Coordinator for the Dane County Sheriff's Office nominates the the Jail Library Student Group, UW-Madison SLIS for the Presidental Points of Light Service Award; the group wins in the category of Public Safety out of over 3,000 nominations
• Fall 2002: Group celebrates 10 years of service in a ceremony at UW Madison School of Library and Information Studies
  

  Contact people:
  

  Michele Besant, Special Projects Manager, (608) 263-2963, (email) Louise Robbins, Faculty Sponsor, (608) 263-2900, (email) Marie Koch, Kids Connection Contact, (email)

  
  Office fax number: (608) 263-4849

  Address:
  

  Room 4217 Helen C. White Hall, 600 N. Park Street Madison, WI 53706 (See a map)

  
  Web Site: http://slisweb.lis.wisc.edu/~jail/index.html

  Directions:

  We are located at the UW-Madison, School of Library and Information Studies on the fourth floor of Helen. C. White Hall. Volunteer opportunities exist at this location as well as at the two downtown Dane County Jails.   Nearest Metro/Subway Stop: Park and State,   Walk distance (in minutes): 5 minutes

  Miscellaneous Information

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