Enhancing Library and Information Resources and Services for Incarcerated Persons

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to answer the question of whyimportant of enhancing the library and information resources and services for incarcerated persons in Sri Lanka. The study employed qualitative research designs to provide in-depth and detailed examination of the topic and descriptive survey method was adopted. 5 Rehabilitation and Library officers and 10 male prisoners were randomly selected as the sample of the study from the Welikada prison.Structure questionnaire and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) schedule were the instruments used to generate data for the study and descriptive method of analysis was used. Findings also showed that the varieties of library resources and services as well as human resources provided are grossly inadequate considering the population of the prisoners. Findings showed that a number of strategies could be used to enhance the provision of library and information resources and services to meet the prisoners‟ information needs. They include liaising with public libraries, NGOs, religion bodies, legal practitioners, liaising with professional bodies like the library associations, granting the prisoners more access to information and developing new and using existing guidelines to prison library services.