The Reading Together project aims to make a difference for prisoners and their families. It is recognised that, where there is no existing culture of reading within families, it is unlikely to be passed to succeeding generations. So the aim is to introduce such a culture by encouraging fathers, grandfathers and stepfathers to share a reading experience.
Reading Together, which has been running for around a year in Lincoln Prison, is funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, and is managed by Lincolnshire Library Service, in partnership with local higher education institution Bishop Grosseteste College.
HMP Lincoln is a category B closed prison, where visiting rights are restricted. This can be difficult for young families, whose access to their fathers is limited. So the project also serves to help the men maintain links with their children.
Many men in prison are not comfortable with reading and writing: in 2000, 50 per cent of prisoners had poor reading skills and 80 per cent had poor writing skills. Therefore a major strand of the project is to use creative writing, storytelling and drama to encourage the men and their families to venture into reading and writing.
A Reading Together children’s collection has been established in the prison library so that the fathers can choose the books. A duplicate copy is then sent to the library closest to the family, in a process which encourages the use of both the prison and the public library. The Reading Together Project Officer’s job is to make contact with the families and help them to join their local library and access the books the fathers have chosen for them.
Correspondence
The dads and the children exchange letters about the books, with ideas and help from the prison Writer in Residence, the Librarian and the Project Officer. Once three books have been shared together, the children receive a goody bag of books, tapes and activities. With help from Bishop Grosseteste College students and library staff, the Reading Together project runs storytelling and reading-related activities in the prison visiting area, as well as in local libraries.
The Project Manager started in post in April 2004 and began working to fulfil the following aims and objectives:
- to promote positive partnerships between the public library, HMP Lincoln and Bishop Grosseteste College
- to use creative writing as a means of encouraging reading
- to enhance creativity in the teaching experience in the prison classroom, thus adding to the good work done by teaching staff, particularly in those courses focused on communication skills
- to encourage prisoners and their families to share a reading experience
- to encourage the use of both the prison and the public library
- to foster a continuing culture of reading in prisoners and their families
- to build positive relationships within families through shared activity.
Success stories
The project has been running for nearly a year now and there are already some successes. One father recently recruited to Reading Together is a non-reader. He is getting help to read and is keen to improve so that he can share books with his children. Two other dads are eager to take part as they can see that it may help restore communication with their children; some partners do not want to bring children to visit their fathers, and even with quite a short sentence family links begin to break down. One of these fathers, who is a good reader and recognises the importance of sharing books and family time, has offered to be a peer mentor to other prisoners if his own family does not respond. Another father, who is on suicide watch, is finding Reading Together a real help in taking his mind off things and giving him something positive to focus on: he is constantly drawing characters to keep himself occupied.
The fathers have families that live across the county – in Skegness, Gainsborough, Grantham, Boston, Ermine and Boultham. These are the libraries that have already been involved. Some of the families are already members of the library.
In order to make this project work, staff have to be both broadminded and supportive. In some cases it means staff accepting a certain level of loss, bearing in mind that in the long term they may have contributed to breaking the cycle of not sharing books and helped create a confident, lifelong reader.
1 Benefits for prisoners and their family
The families who have taken part in Reading Together so far have given some very positive feedback. The most significant factor for all concerned is the positive effect on the father/child relationship. In most cases, this in turn has had a positive influence on the relationship of the men with their partners, providing a lifeline in a broken-down relationship. Partners have been encouraged by the dads making the effort to work with their children. The fathers feel they can make a difference to their children’s development despite the separation they are experiencing, and children have enjoyed this very special and personal attention from their dads.
Quotes from parents:
‘I will use the library for the internet and to get fitness books’ (a dad on his release).
‘It has helped us understand more about kids reading.’
‘We go to book group in the library every Tuesday now.’
‘Sally loves getting letters from her dad. It has helped her keep contact, as we find it hard to afford to visit him very frequently.’
‘She reads books to him now, which she never did before because she thought he was too young. She’s bought him some of the Maisy books because he liked them so much’ (a dad speaking of his partner).
2 Benefits for Lincolnshire
County Council and Libraries - the project is demonstrating to staff the significance of social exclusion and the value of work combating it. John Pateman, Head of Libraries in Lincolnshire, says:
‘Reading Together is an inspiring project which will help to deliver some of the council’s new aims, particularly enabling access and promoting diversity. The project is also directly in line with the library service’s strategic objectives of inclusion, learning and regeneration. Reading Together is a good example of what a needs-based library service will look like in the future – with a focus on new ways of working, outreach and community engagement.’
Rachel Robbs, Community Outreach Officer based at Boston Library, says:
‘It brought home to us the importance of working with some of the hardest-to-reach groups in our communities. Although some of the children involved were already library members, their parents weren’t and it has encouraged them to join and get more involved with their children’s reading.’
Reading Together will also be invaluable in helping to deliver the council’s new aims and objectives, encapsulated within the motto ‘Lincolnshire LEADS’, which breaks down as:
to: enrich Lifestyle
achieve Excellence
improve Access
promote Diversity
increase Security.
Social inclusion has been defined as ‘what can happen when people or areas suffer from a combination of linked problems such as unemployment, poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, high crime environments, bad health and family breakdown’. Finding solutions to tackle these problems and improve people’s lives is a priority for both prisons and libraries. Working to solve one problem can often help with others, as is reflected in both the Generic Learning Outcomes (detailed opposite) and the Museums, Libraries & Archives Council’s newly emerging Generic Social Outcomes, which Lincolnshire will be piloting along with several other authorities.
Through Reading Together, staff have gained an increased understanding of how disrupted family life can be when a family member receives a custodial sentence and what prison is like from the inside. They have begun to acquire new skills and have realised that libraries are able to contribute to shared aims and objectives through close partnership working.
3 Benefits for HMP
Lincoln - HMP Lincoln joined this project at a turbulent time. A major disturbance rocked the prison three years ago and staff morale and confidence plummeted and reluctant and resistant attitudes towards change hardened. Says Pauline Tait, Head of Learning and Skills at the prison:
‘The Reading Together project has brought much needed funding to an under-resourced prison serving a predominantly rural area. It has been a cause for celebration and a vote of confidence in Lincoln Prison.’
As a direct result of Reading Together, the prison was invited by the Department for Education & Skills to pilot a Family Learning Pathfinder Project. This project funded multi-disciplinary workshops for frontline staff and for prisoners to raise awareness of family learning. The Basic Skills Agency and the LEA Adult and Community Education team delivered the sessions.
Small but significant steps are now being made by frontline staff to make things happen. Without this, major strides made by senior management will falter.
Reading Together has helped to place work with the children and families of offenders at strategic level and to help people appreciate the necessity of repairing and sustaining these relationships to reduce re-offending.
4 Benefits for Bishop Grossteste College
Students and staff at the college have learnt about taking a piece of work into a high-security prison. They have also had to consider the appropriateness of material for this particular audience.
The students’ perceptions of prison and prisoners have been challenged and they have been able to reflect on their personal opinions of the justice system.
Ruth Sayers, Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Drama in the Community, says:
‘The students have had an opportunity to work in a real community environment that is usually “out of bounds” and have been able to talk about issues with the prisoners in a way that is probably unique, through the medium of theatre and use of role. This distancing device allows people to reveal their values and attitudes without making themselves personally vulnerable. We hope that the prisoners found this a useful and empowering device, too.’
It is clear that Reading Together is fulfilling a need in prison for men to be able to talk about their families and remain involved with their children. The mothers and carers have felt encouraged by the fathers’ efforts and children have been really excited to have special letters from their dad and to collect the books chosen specially for them at their local library.
The project has supported the moves in HMP Lincoln to create better provision for families. It has raised the profile of Lincolnshire Libraries locally and is also providing Bishop Grosseteste College drama students with a stimulating environment in which to practise their skills. And the prisoners feel that the scheme is helping them maintain links with their families.
Wendy Bond is Special Services Manager – Libraries, Lincolnshire Library Service (wendy.bond@lincolnshire.gov.uk).