Literacy ‘essential’
Dear Editor:
How we treat each other as human beings is the measure to use regarding the condition of the human society that we bequeath our children. Each and every day offers opportunities for us to take actions that are kind, generous and compassionate, to co-create fuller inclusiveness so that all individuals are nurtured and strengthened to find their place in the world.
That is even more true for fellow human beings whose wrongdoings cause imprisonment where, morally speaking – given the fact that many of them will one day return to society into our communities – those individuals need to be provided with programs that can rehabilitate and prepare them to do so.
Basic tools such as literacy are essential to function, and a human right. Recent online articles inform us that federal prisons are planning to terminate librarians, and more.
According to Don Head, former commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada, this regressive action was attempted nearly 20 years ago; but he stopped it. Once again, this shortsighted plan by federal bean counters must be stopped.
An easy and quick act of compassion offered to any of us to be helpful to stop it is to sign an excellent petition composed by the charitable organization Book Clubs for Inmates.
Please study the excellent letter that powerfully describes the significant roles of prison librarians to facilitate authentic rehabilitation, and note the long list of signers.
The potential of healing and transformation offered by reading cannot be understated.
Federal bean counters are cited in news articles as arguing we are in a digital world; consequently, human librarians are not needed. That extraordinary stupidity is what is destroying the fabric of human society, where basic literacy and even human interaction face-to-face, is being undermined by bureaucrats and power holders encouraging reliance on digital technologies.
About 75 per cent of people who enter prison do not have a high school diploma. Therefore, personal assistance by a librarian is essential.
Even more illuminating is the point contributed by a former inmate who is a well-educated professional, recovering from addiction, who emphasized that, while most prison personnel were “security focused” the library technician instead offered a supportive human connection.
As a lifelong reader and published writer, I would add that human development requires experiences – which include access to written stories – that illustrate the possibilities and activities co-created by people through time, far beyond the past and present of each individual’s limited personal reality.
Vistas are broadened about how life could change for the better through the power of story-telling, and learning what we hold in common.
Sandy Greer,
West Grey