Prison libraries: from library practice to the jurisprudence of books and reading behind bars

Abstract

The law regulating prison libraries has existed since 1984. However, the topic is little known in society and in the area of Librarianship there is misinformation and an absence of approaches and its concept to librarian practice in the intramural information units of prisons. In this sense, the actions in Prison Libraries involves books and reading, promoting prison education and the remission of sentences through studies and reading. The method applied on this research involves documentary research and notes of library technique from an empirical experimentation, action research, resulting from ten years of professional and voluntary work in prisons, operating directly with convicts, from the idealization, execution and management of the Prison Library in the largest penitentiary in the interior of the State of Rio Grande do Sul (PERG), and assistance in the implantation of Prison Libraries in other penal institutions in Brazil. It was possible to conclude that part of the neglect about the prison library is because of the lack of information about it regarding concepts, jurisprudence, rules, methods and applicability, which was explained in this study, both in the conceptual aspect and in the elucidations about the theme of the book in prison.