TABLE OF CONTENTS
Approval page……………………………………………………………………………..i
Certification page………………………………………………………………………….ii
Dedication………………………………………………………………………………….iii
Acknowledgement…………………………………………………………………………iv
Table of contents……………………………………………………………………………v
List of tables………………………………………………………………………………..viii
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………..ix
CHAPTER ONE – INTRODUCTION
Background to the study……………………………………………………………..1
Statement of Problem………………………………………………………… ……. 9
Purpose of the study…………………………………………………………..………9
Significance of the Study……………………………………………………………10
Scope of the Study…………………………………………………………………..12
Research Questions………………………………………………………………….12
Hypotheses…………………………………………………………………………..12
CHAPTER TWO – LITERATURE REVIEW
Conceptual framework…………………………………………………………………….14
Concepts of information and information needs…………………………………….14
Who are prisoners?…………………………………………………………………………………………18
Information needs of prisoners……………………………………………………….20
Role of Prison Libraries (in providing resources to prisoners)…………….23
Facilities and resources required to meet information needs of the prisoners……….28
Services needed by the prisoners…………………………………………………….39
Problems that hinder resources provision for the prisoners………………………….40
Strategies for overcoming the problems ……………………………………………53
Theoretical Framework ……………………………………………………………………60
Review of Related Empirical Studies……………………………………………………..64
Summary of the Literature Review…………………………………….75
CHAPTER THREE – RESEARCH METHOD………………………………………….77
Research Design……………………………………………………………………..77
Area of the Study…………………………………………………………………….77
Population of the study……………………………………………………………….78
Sample and sample technique………………………………………………………..78
Instrument for data collection………………………………………………………..79
Validation of instrument and pilot study………………………….81 Reliability of instrument……………………………………………………………. 81
Method of data collection……….…………………………………………………….82
Method of data analysis………………………………………………………………83
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS…………………………………………………………….84
CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS, CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY……………………………………………………….106
Discussion of Findings………………………………………………………………106
Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………..118
Summary of the study………………………………………………………………..118
Implication of Study…………………………………………………………………120
Recommendations…………….………………………………………………………121
Limitations …………………………………………………………………………..122
Suggestions for Further Research……………………………………………………122
REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………..…123
APPENDICES
Appendix A –Information Needs of Prisoners and Resources Provision Questionnaire
(INPRPQ) ……………………………………………………………………..131
Appendix B – Information Needs of Prisoners and Resources Provision Focus Group
Discussion Guide (INPRPFGD)…………………………………………………136
Appendix C – Observation Schedule – Library and Information Resources for Prisoners Observation Schedule (LIRPOS)…………………………….139
Appendix D – Validation of Instructions and Pilot Study………………140
Appendix E – Reliability of Instrument………………………………..142
Appendix F – Formulas for Calculating the Calculated, Criterion Means and Calculated Value of the Chi-Square Testing of Hypothesis…………………150
Appendix G – Prisoner Population in the South-East Prisons Sampled for the Study…………152
Appendix H– Pictures Showing the Structures and Activities in some of the Prisons Studied…153
LIST OF TABLES
TABLES PAGES
1. Responses of Welfare/Library Workers on Areas where the Prisoners Need Information……………………………………………….………………………….84
2. The Library and Information Resources Available for the Prisoners…………………88
3. Subject Coverage of the Non-Fiction Books in the Prison Library Collections………92
4. Responses of the Welfare/Library Workers on the Extent to Which The Prisoners’Information Needs are Being Met………………………………….96
5. Problems that Militate Against the Provision of Library and Information Resources to Meet the Prisoners’ Information Needs……………..98
6. Strategies that Could be Used to Enhance the Provision of Library and Information Resources to Meet the Prisoners’ Information Needs………..100
7. Chi-Square Analysis of Significant Difference Between the Mean Ratings of the Prison Workers of the Different States on the Areas of Information Needs of the Prisoners……………………………………………………………………..102
8. Chi-Square X² Analysis of Significant Difference on the Mean Responses of The Prison Workers of the Different States on the Extent of Satisfaction of the Prisoners’ Information Needs………………………………………………….103
9. Result of the Chi-Square X² Analysis of Significant Difference on the Mean Responses of the Prison Workers of the Different States on the Problems that Militate Against Meeting the Information Needs of the Prisoners………………………………….104
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this work was to examine the information needs of prisoners and resources provision through the prison library in South-east Nigeria. Six research questions and three (3) null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The research design adopted for the study was a descriptive surveys. The population of the study comprised all the prisoners in South-East Nigeria. Purposive sampling was used to get the prisons that have libraries in the South-East zone and seven prisons were used for the study. Seven hundred and eight (708) prisoners and fourteen (14) welfare/library workers from the seven prisons that have libraries in South-east geopolitical zone were used as prisoners sample and staff sample for the study. While all the female prisoners were sampled due to their small number (141), simple random sampling was used to get the male prisoners (567). A structured questionnaire was used to get data from prison workers while Focus Group Discussion guide was used to elicit data from the prisoners. Observation guide was used to get data on the library and information resources and services available for the prisoners and documentary sources from the Nigerian prison service were also used to get data about the prisoners. The instruments were face-validated by three senior lecturers in the Department of Library and Information Science and Faculty of Education. Pilot study was carried out using five (5) prison workers in Aba prison and to test the reliability of the questionnaire, Internal Consistency reliability using the Cronbach’s Alpha method was used. Frequency and mean scores were used to analyze data from the questionnaire while recorded Focus Group Discussion data was analyzed qualitatively. Data from the observation schedule was analyzed quantitatively using a standard benchmark for prison libraries and the hypotheses were tested using Chi-Square (X²)test. Major findings showed that the prisoners are very highly in need of educational information; information for spiritual growth and better life style; on health; on legal issues, vocational, recreational and financial information and for emotional growth. Findings from observation showed that the varieties of library and information materials that are provided are grossly inadequate considering the population of prisoners. Further findings showed that it is only legal and spiritual information needs that are being met to some extent; all the other information needs – educational, vocational, recreational, health and financial information needs are not being met adequately. Poor funding, uncomfortable nature of prisons, prison policies, censorship, staffing problems, inadequate reading accommodation, lack of standard library building are all found to cause setbacks in the provision of information resources and services to meet the prisoners’ information needs. A number of strategies could be used to enhance the provision of library and information resources and services to meet the prisoners’ information needs. These include liaising with public libraries, NGOS and others like religious bodies and legal practitioners, liaising with professional bodies like library associations and stakeholders, granting the prisoners more access to information (even use of the internet) and developing new and using existing guidelines to enhance prison library service. Based on the above findings some recommendations were made: that provision should be made for improved funding of the prisons and their libraries, improving general well being of the prisoners, reducing of censorship and other restrictions to give prisoners better access to information.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The flow of information has made the world today a global village and we are said to be in the information age. This new age is a revolutionary period whose impact is far surpassing that of the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions (Anyakoha, 2005). Information, according to International Federation of Library Association and Institutions, (IFLA) (2001), is very important in the development of an individual and of the society. Information is seen as a major resource in human development as access to it could improve knowledge.
Iloeje (2001) stressed that information is the heart of the world’s development. Likewise, information is indispensable in the development and advancement of all aspects of human endeavour. Information is an important tool used in the realization of any objective set by individuals (Igbeka and Atinmo, 2002). Thus, acquiring and using information are both important activities. Information has become a primary strategic resource that is transforming the lives of many in the world today. The prisoners are not left out as they too need information for day to day living; thus, information is one thing that no one in any society can do without (Anyakoha, 2005).
Information could be described as man’s accumulated knowledge in all subjects, all forms and all sources which could aid its users to make rational decisions. Losee (1998) further defined information in what was called a common way as one or more statements or facts that are received by a human and that have some form of worth to the recipient. People have a fundamental human right to information and as such need library and information services to exercise this right (Dike 2002; Lehmann, 2000).
Information needs could be described as an individual or group’s desire to locate and obtain information to satisfy a conscious or unconscious need. Information need is also seen by LisWiki (2008) as a recognition that one’s knowledge is inadequate to satisfy a goal. This leads to seeking for the information from required sources so as to satisfy the need. Generally, Hjorland (2007) saw people’s information needs as needs relating to people’s educational activities (educational needs), research activities, professional and vocational activities (vocational needs), cultural activities and personal development – spiritually (religious needs) and physically. Both free people in regular society and incarcerated ones have the same information needs (Shirley 2006). These needs range from basic information for survival, for educational purposes, healthy living and recreation to spiritual growth.
Prisoners are people who are incarcerated in prisons and denied freedom of movement due to crimes they have committed. In most countries around the world, the majority of individuals who make up the prison and jail population have limited education and life skills and do not come from a background where reading is carried out (IFLA, 2005). The study further took note of other characteristics of prisoners just like Amnesty International (2008). According to them, prisoners are more of male than female. In most prisons, the male population is many times above the female population. Secondly these prisoners are mainly youth and middle-aged people with very few elderly ones, who may have attained that age while already in prison (Amnesty International Report, 2008). In the Nigerian context, prison inmates are made up of convicted persons who are sentenced to serve various terms for crimes committed, and often a larger number of Awaiting Trial Persons (ATP), who may spend many years in this condition (Amnesty International 2008). The fact that the prisoners are incarcerated restricts them from free movement and a full social life. Most importantly, they are restricted in getting information from the outside world.
Prisoners, like free people, need information for different purposes. According to Dike (2002), often the offenders’ disadvantaged educational and socio-economic status may lead them into a life of crime. Subsequently, the prisoners need literacy training, educational and vocational programmes to better equip them for a productive life. Prisoners have been seen to have the same reading interests and information needs as other people; but with a good number of them having low educational skills, they often experience difficulties in meeting their information needs (Shirley 2006). Prisoners are regarded as disadvantaged people because they lack free access to many things in life, including libraries (Lehmann 2000). Ajogwu (2005) enumerated prisoners’ information needs as ranging from legal needs, religious, health, educational, vocational, and recreational to financial needs. Most importantly, prisoners need to acquire further education as well as occupational and vocational skills to help them re-adapt into the society. Greenway (2007) stated that information on health, what is happening – current affairs and information on parenting are the three basic needs of today’s prisoners due to their incarcerated state. Even after incarceration, prisoners also require information for the period after their release including information on getting a job, career opportunities, housing, addresses of places, identifying funds for businesses and re-establishing family relationships (Shirley 2004).
Most of the prisoners have low educational attainment (Dike 2002) and poor employability skills, as revealed by IFLA (2005), so they have need for further education and vocational training programmes and informative materials to help them find useful occupations after release. Due to their incarcerated state and the boredom of the prison environment, prisoners need recreation. The poor hygienic nature of many prisons, especially in countries like Nigeria, give rise to the need for health information to survive health hazards. For the fact that most of the prisoners are spiritually and emotionally impoverished, they have need for religious/spiritual information. By the nature of their incarceration, the prisoners also have need for legal information that may help in their release in due course, their survival and their being law abiding citizens in future. The prisons and prison authority have the main responsibility of providing for these needs by formulating required objectives and making available information resources and services through the prison library and other related sources.
Prisons originally were established to confine and keep custody of the offenders as well as punishing the offenders for the crimes they have committed. Reading by the prisoners then was confined to the Bible and similar religious materials aimed at inculcating morality (Shirley 2006). The main objective of imprisonment was to punish the offender in confinement. This objective is changing from not only punishment of the offender, but also rehabilitation and re-socialization of the prisoners through educational, library and related programmes for the prisoners to be re-integrated back into the society after serving. Over time, the Western world, according to Lehmann (2000), has recognized the concept of restorative justice (making the prisoner whole) as the philosophy behind incarceration. Prisons are contemporarily being seen as total institutions aimed at rehabilitation, custody, punishment and re-socialization of the inmates (Shirley, 2003).
Emphasis on custodial functions of prisons coupled with rising prison population led to consideration of establishing educative and informative programmes and services to help in the reformation and rehabilitation of both the ATPs and convicted ones (Ewavoma-Enuku 2001). According to the report, a close study of colonial and post colonial laws in Nigeria seemed to emphasize the custodial functions of the prisons while being silent on correctional functions. According to the Nigerian Congress of Catholic Prisons Pastoral Care (NCCPPC) (2005) report on Nigerian prisons as well as Agomoh and Ogbozor (2006), the functions/objectives of the Nigerian prison include:
- To keep safe custody of such persons legally detained,
- To identify the causes of their anti-social behaviour during the course of their detention,
- To treat and reform them to become law abiding citizens of a free society and
- To train them towards their rehabilitation on discharge; at the same time generating revenue for the government through prison farms and industries thereby inculcating into them the dignity of labour.
The Nigerian Prisons Service has laudable objectives in place: the question is how practicable achievement of these objectives is. The prisoners’ information needs and the modern objectives of imprisonment could be adequately met through the use and provision of prison library services and resources coupled with educational programmes (Ewavoma-Enuku, 2001), vocational training programmes, religious outreach programmes and services (Shirley, 2006; IFLA, 2005; Lehmann, 2000). Information services could also be rendered to the prisoners by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and legal practitioners (who provide legal information to the prisoners in the course of preparing for their release or court hearings). To be able to adapt back into the society, the prisoners need to be rehabilitated and re-socialized. This will enable them to become useful to themselves and keep away from crime, thereby avoiding recidivism. The rehabilitation, reformation, education and re-socialization of the prisoners can only be achieved through making adequate resource provisions to meet their information needs. Working towards meeting the information needs of the prisoners means working towards achieving the objectives of imprisonment.
Considering the various ways of providing information to the prisoners, the prison library takes the lead in providing services and materials through which the prisoners can meet their various information needs. Dike (2002) emphasized that the prisoners cannot do without the library in meeting their information needs. As Lehmann (2000) puts it, “one can safely say that incarcerated persons have a large number of unmet needs, which translate into a high demand for information and learning materials, and self-improvement resources. The library in cooperation with other bodies that organize programmes in the prison can play a vital role in meeting these needs through its resources and services”.
Library and information resources and materials are needed for the information needs of the prisoners to be met. These will further help the prison authority to handle the custody of the prisoners successfully. Achebe (2008) defined a library as an organized collection of books and other materials (both printed and non-printed) used for study, research and recreation usually in a building or virtual organization. A prison library could be seen as a library built and organized usually within the prison for the use of the prisoners. A prison library according to IFLA (2005), provides resources for prison education, rehabilitation programs and specific requirements like legal collections. The prison library also provides the inmates the opportunity to develop literacy skills, pursue personal and cultural interests and life-long learning.
Library and information resources encompass all the facilities and materials at the disposal of a library through which it can provide needed services to its users. These resources according to Eze (2008) are made up of human (staff) and material resources. While the human resources are the working staff who provide the services to the users, the material resources could be classified into print, non-print and electronic resources. Print include: textbooks, novels, journals, newspapers, magazines and other serial publications, and reference works like encyclopedias and dictionaries. The non-print resources include materials like microfilm, microfiche, audio card, audio materials while the electronic resources CD-ROM, computers and other related accessories. IFLA (2005) stated that the prison library collection should include materials in print and other formats to meet the informational, educational, cultural, recreational, and rehabilitative needs of the prison population. The collection should include a wide variety of current print and non-print materials, audio and video recordings and gadgets to play them similar to those found in a public or school library. These reading resources, according to Dike (2002), should include a wide range of materials – fiction and other literature; general non-fiction; magazines and textbooks. Effective library service according to Shirley (2003), is reflected in programmes, services and collections. When the prisoners are provided with certain services and materials, they will find ways of keeping themselves busy, even while still in custody.
The recognition of the place of the prison library in providing for the prisoners’ information needs contributed to the development of prison libraries. The first prison library was established by Alexander Macconochie in the early nineteenth Century in Australia (Wilhemus, 1999). The development of prison libraries continued even up to the present 21st Century. The recognition of the prisoners’ right to information is contained in the United Nations (Rule 40) Standard Minimal Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners of 1955 (IFLA 2005). This states that every institution shall have an adequately stocked library for use of all categories of prisoners and the prisoners shall be encouraged to use it. The International Book Committee and UNESCO (1994) in their Charter for the Reader assert that “all including prisoners are entitled to have access to information and libraries to provide this access should be located within the prison premises”. The prison library is a substitute for the library at home (Kaiser, 1992), a good reason why it should be developed into one of the best libraries; hence, the development of notable standards to guide its operations.
The IFLA Guidelines for Library Services to Prisoners – Kaiser (1995), IFLA (2005), the American Library Association (ALA) Library Standards for Adult Correctional Institutions (2003) amongst others, are notable standards and guidelines which were developed to cover areas of access, services and library materials, staffing and administration of prison library services in support of prisoners’ right to read. They specified the material resources to be provided for the prisoners and their quantity and quality, as well as the suitable human resources (staff) to provide services required for the prisoners to have access to the reading resources. These standards were developed under the assumption that library services shall encompass the inmates’ right to read and their free access to information as specified by the Library Bill of Rights (1980), ‘Resolution on Prisoners’ Right to Read’ (1982) and ‘Freedom to Read Statement”(1991).
Prison library services developed in coordination with educational programmes can provide for the information needs of the prisoners and so foster their rehabilitation. According to Ikuteyijo and Agunbiade (2008), amongst the reforms that have taken place in the Nigerian criminal justice, the latest of these reforms was in line with the global trend to shift from a punitive and retributive penal system, to a reformatory and rehabilitative system, thus advocating prisoners’ welfare. The South-east zone is one of the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. According to Nigerian Prison Service (2009), the south-east zone, made up of five states – Anambra, Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo has up to fourteen prisons and farm centres with a very high population of prisoners. This is an indication of high crime rate. Moreover, in spite of the efforts made by non-governmental organizations, educational institutions, public libraries and other related stakeholders towards providing for the prisoners’ information needs, little effort is being made by the prison authority towards achieving the rehabilitation of the prisoners through meeting their information needs. This calls for the need to carry out a study of this kind in the zone to find out the information needs of these prisoners and how the prison library through its resources and services can provide for these needs, thereby helping to rehabilitate and reintegrate the prisoners into the society and avoiding recidivism.
