When it comes to libraries, books and learning, our thinking is simple: More is better.
Which is why we applaud last week’s move by Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias to provide, for the first time in years, a significant pot of money — $420,000 — for state prison libraries. It represents, we hope, a small-scale step toward making state prisons a place where inmates routinely turn their lives around, for society’s sake as well as theirs.
Our “more is better” thinking is also why we’re glad to see a plan to regulate little free libraries get sent to the back burner last week.
City Council should leave it there.
Those colorful book boxes you may have seen sprouting up in your neighborhood are an asset, not a liability. If some of them are decrepit or obtrusive, alderpersons are, as far as we can tell, free to remove them since they are typically put up on the public way between the sidewalk and the curb.
Otherwise, what’s the harm? What’s the issue with providing passers-by with a book or magazine, to encourage literacy and reading even in a small way? Maybe it will encourage people to go a step further and visit one of our city’s fine public libraries, which certainly deserve our support
There are far too many real crises for City Council to debate and hopefully fix. Little free libraries are not one of them.
Productivity, not idleness
Giannoulias, who as secretary of state is also Illinois chief librarian, is on to something when he says that providing more books, magazines and reading materials to inmates will keep them connected to the outside world and increase their chances for success as productive members of society.
Exactly. As much as possible, prisons must provide men and women with the chance to engage in productive activity — especially education — not idleness. Money spent on libraries, GED or college classes and the like is money well spent if society hopes to curb crime over the long haul. Frankly, it’s our view that prison sentences ought to include, in many cases, mandatory education — not to “coddle” inmates, but to benefit society.
A RAND Corp. analysis helps make that case: Inmates who participated in prison education programs were less likely to return to prison and more likely to obtain jobs once released.
Supporting prison libraries is a good move. Regulating little free libraries is not.
Because with libraries and literacy, more is always better.
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