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Library
At HMP Wolds the library is a popular place where offenders can borrow books or spoken word, or read magazines and newspapers. It is staffed by a professional librarian who and two library assistants assisted by three offender assistants. The library opens five days a week, two evenings and Sunday afternoon.
The HMP Wolds library is owned and run by G4S. It is arranged to be as much like a normal branch library as possible. All offenders have access to the library at least twice per week, where they can borrow books, spoken word and music CD’s 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 word on tape and CD. We have daily and weekly newspapers, magazines, foreign language courses and a small selection of books in foreign languages. We also have a range of story books for offenders to use to produce Story Book Dad DVD’s to send to their children. We have 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 materials.
The library is often the only resource within a prison for offenders 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 offenders who have previously lacked confidence in their reading ability by providing a wide ranging collection of adult literacy materials, we have a collection of ‘Quick Reads’, where existing titles by authors such as Stephen King and Chris Ryan 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 there is a small library within the CSU Unit.
HMP Wolds has a library Committee, where representatives from each of the living units come together to discuss the library provision and offer new ideas or solutions to problems. The library issues a questionnaire on a regular basis to all of the prison population, and encourages feedback wherever possible, there is a comments box available in the library. Limited Internet access is planned for the near future.
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