Do prison libraries help people? If so, then how? A team of researchers from the Colorado State Library’s Library Research Service (LRS), Colorado Department of Corrections, Remerg, a Denver-area re-entry nonprofit and an independent library consultant, Renewed Libraries, led the PRISM Project which aimed to discover, “Are Prison Libraries Motivators of Prosocial Behavior and Successful Re-entry?” The PRISM Project used mixed methods–focus groups inside prisons in Colorado, as well as with previously incarcerated people, and surveys, also with both populations. The study focused on the outcomes of prison library services, centering the experiences of people who have been or are currently incarcerated to determine the significance of the prison library to them, both inside and outside of prison. This research will help move the discussion of prison library impacts from anecdote to data and fill a gap in research on the subject.
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