Jeanie Austin, PhD

The Library Standards for Juvenile Correctional Facilities were last published by the Association of Specialized & Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA) in 1999. Inspired by advances made in other library standards for incarcerated adults (such as the 2010 statement on Prisoners’ Right to Read), I reworked a few sections of the existing Library Standards to better reflect the current moment in librarianship. As librarians respond to and engage with shifts in personal technologies, calls for social change within and outside of the field, and the reality of institutionalized oppression within libraries, libraries working with youth who are held in juvenile detention will need standards that give them firm ground and backing in their myriad efforts.

I borrow much of the language from the 1999 Library Standards for Juvenile Correctional Facilities in these dream revisions in order to recognize the work of librarians before me. I also draw from campaigns such as #WeNeedDiverseBooks and Libraries 4 Black Lives as current, inspirational sources of information and support.

In my next few posts you will find a dream revision of three sections of the existing Standards –

Section 2. The Role of the Library in A Correctional Setting

Section 3. Library Administration

Section 6. Library Collection

I post these for educational purposes only – not as a necessarily possible revision or as an answer to the many joys and frustrations that arise while providing library services to incarcerated youth.

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If you are interested, the 1999 Standards are available through the ALA store at http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=2273

John Oliver, on Last Week Tonight, recently highlighted an often unaddressed aspect of library services to incarcerated people. In an example that pales many mentions of what access to materials can mean for people who are imprisoned or maintained, Oliver highlights an individual formerly detained in Guantánamo discussing his experiences there.

Oliver is correct in mentioning that libraries in prison and detainment centers are considered ‘luxuries’ by many people (hinting that they are often used as a gesture toward reform), the words of this former detainee reflect the true value of library services to incarcerated and detained people. He describes Guantánamo as equivalent to Azkaban, the prison in Harry Potter – a place where there is no possibility of feeling.

Watching this clip, I was struck by how access to materials can potentially assist people in understanding the worlds they inhabit (or have been forced to inhabit). The full clip is available on-line at

Dream Revisions -Library Standards for Juvenile Correctional Facilities

Access and Making Meaning