tag: Prison librarianship
Blog Post
July 13, 2026
Access to the Law Inside
New Report on How Librarians Support Incarcerated Patrons
Our new report turns the spotlight on law librarians librarians and the work they do for patrons who are incarcerated. Drawing on a national survey of law libraries and in-depth interviews with librarians across the country, we document the current landscape of services for incarcerated patrons, the barriers librarians face, and the creative strategies they have developed to expand access to legal information despite limited resources and significant institutional constraints.
Research Report
July 13, 2026
Serving Incarcerated Patrons
Barriers, Innovations, and Lessons from Law Libraries Across the United States
People in prison have a constitutional right of access to the courts to challenge their convictions, contest conditions of confinement, and otherwise protect their legal interests. Granting access to legal information and resources to incarcerated individuals also serves a broader public purpose, helping to expose wrongful convictions, identify unconstitutional conditions, and ensure that correctional institutions remain subject to legal oversight and accountability.
Upcoming Event
July 19, 2026
Improving Legal Information Services for Incarcerated Patrons
Shifting institutional policies, communication restrictions, and shrinking budgets continue to limit access to legal information for incarcerated individuals and create confusion for those providing services from the outside. What does meaningful access look like in today’s carceral settings, and what legal information is most needed? How can law librarians navigate these constraints to deliver effective services? This panel at the AALL 2026 Conference will explore the current state of legal information services to incarcerated patrons and how law libraries…
Past Event
June 25, 2026
Adequate Access
The Role of the Law Library in Serving System Impacted Communities
At the American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago, Illinois, Tammy Ortiz will present a poster on an Ithaka S+R project focusing on the role of the law library for system impacted communities. The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. For individuals impacted by the legal system, access to the law is of critical importance. A series of Supreme Court rulings, notably Bounds vs. Smith (1977) and Lewis vs. Casey (1996), established a limited…
Past Event
June 25, 2026
Bridging the Legal Information Gap in Prisons
A Dialogue Between Librarians and Jailhouse Lawyers
For individuals who are incarcerated, accessing legal documents and information is often difficult, if not impossible. While law libraries located in facilities and tablets that provide access to Westlaw and LexisNexis are typically the first stop, these resources are limited. When materials are unavailable—or when navigating them requires additional expertise—individuals who are incarcerated often turn to law librarians in state, academic, and county libraries for assistance. Providing this support, however, is far from straightforward. Correctional policies and security restrictions often…
Blog Post
May 29, 2025
Access to Legal Information in Prisons
New Report
America’s prisons and jails are information deserts. Restrictions—and in some cases, outright bans—on internet access, combined with limited library services and widespread censorship of both print and digital materials, severely restrict incarcerated individuals’ connection to the outside world. Legal information is no exception. Although access to legal information is a constitutionally mandated right, incarcerated people face significant—and often insurmountable—barriers to exercising that right–from limited access to legal materials and guidance on conducting legal research, to complex administrative procedures required to…
Research Report
May 29, 2025
Limited by Design
The Policy Framework of Legal Access in Prison
In this project, we examine the national landscape of access to legal information in prisons, with a particular focus on how law librarians facilitate and mediate that access. Our report aims to shed light on this key group of actors: documenting how law librarians work to support meaningful access to the courts behind bars, how services vary across states, and what barriers limit their ability to assist incarcerated patrons.
Blog Post
December 7, 2021
Providing Library Services to the Incarcerated
An Interview with Jeanie Austin on Their New Book
Providing library services to people held in prisons and jails can be a challenging endeavor. Those who take on this work will need to navigate complex, and not always welcoming, corrections’ bureaucracies and face censorship or be themselves co-opted into censoring in ways that are antithetical to the ethical tenets of librarianship. Yet the information needs among incarcerated and detained people are immense given their limited access to the internet or other technologies…