Illinois Kickstarts Funding to State Prison Libraries with $420K in Grants
From the Chicago Sun-Times:
Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias on Thursday announced his office is awarding $420,000 in grants to state prison libraries, marking the first time that reading centers for inmates have received significant public dollars in years.
That comes out to $15,000 for books, magazines, newspapers and supplies inside libraries at each of the state’s 28 prisons, according to Giannoulias, who called it his office’s most significant investment in the prison library system since the 1980s — and the first public funding of any kind dedicated to them since 2017.
“Books give these individuals a connection to the outside world, and that connection increases their chances of success after release,” Giannoulias told the Sun-Times ahead of the grant announcement. Besides overseeing driver services, the secretary of state also serves as Illinois’ top librarian.
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
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