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Posts Tagged ‘Maryland Correctional Education Libraries’

Prison Library Coordinator Helps Educate Inmates

April 8th, 2011 No comments

Glennor Shirley discusses her experiences as prison Library Coordinator on her blog Prison Librarian.

After immigrating to Maryland in the ’80′s, Jamaican born librarian Glennor Shirley took on a night job at a prison library to supplement the menial public library jobs she worked at during the day. Decades later, Miss Shirley, as she is called by all prison library patrons, is now the Library Coordinator for Maryland Correctional Education Libraries and oversees 17 prison libraries. Many of the inmates that frequent her libraries are serious felons, some convicted of murder. But, this does not deter the affable Shirley from her goal of helping to educate the prisoners in order to reduce recidivism and help those who get released to build a better life. “I am basically a person who believes in justice and what is right,” she states in an interview with the Washington Post. “I saw these needs behind bars.” Read more…

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