National Prison Book Program

What a busy week, after a successful pilot of the book program we are now in full swing!

What Is It?
The National Prison Book Program provides prisoners with free reading materials. Our aim is to provide books to prisoners and enhance prison library and educational services. Unfortunately many prisons cannot keep up with the demand for educational resources and books, we provide these materials to improve the lives and communities of prisoners to greatly reduce the likelihood of their return to the prison system. Our aim is to create a safer community and a more humane prison environment.

Types of Books We Need
Donations must be in good condition. Typically, books that are over 25 years old cannot be used, as they are often outdated or in poor condition. We can use most non-fiction and fiction in new or very good condition. The following subjects and genres are in demand:
· English dictionaries and thesauruses
· Textbooks
· How to start a small business.
· Law books
· Health
· Trades (i.e. woodworking, automotive, etc.)
· Mysteries and thrillers
· Westerns
· Love poetry
· Art books
The number of prisoners that we can help is limited only by the number of books we have and our ability to pay the postage to mail the books.

Books We Cannot Use
Due to limited storage space and strict prison regulations, we cannot accept the following types of books.
· Encyclopedias and similar hard-cover book sets
· Magazines
· Books about tattooing or anything that may be considered pornographic
· Textbooks printed before 2000
· Books printed before 1970
· Books that have stickers that cannot be removed
· Books in poor condition (missing pages, torn/missing covers, etc.)

Where To Bring Donations
Donations can be posted to us at PO Box 490 Chadstone. We can also organise the collection of books in the Melbourne area and the Hobart area. Please call 0448 184 224 or email us at prisonfoundation@email.com.

Book Drives and Book Drop Off Sites
Please contact us if your business, church, or other organization would like to serve as a book drop off centre and/or hold a book drive!

What Else Can I Donate?
We also have a need for the following materials:
· Educational materials suitable for prisoners
· Courier services
· Printing services
· Padded envelopes
· Packing tape
· Gift cards to bookstores and office supply stores
· Cash

How Can I Get Involved?
· You can organise a book drive at your school, university, at work or at your church or club. We can provide you with posters. Ask your local radio and TV stations for community announcement spots to advertise your book drive.
· We are seeking people to assist with setting up community drop off points.
· Donate your time to help us pick up books in your local area.
· Spread the word! Link to our website or put information up about what we do (we can provide you with posters and brochures) in your local community.
· If you have other ideas let us know!

Podcasts from the National Conference on Australian Prison Issues

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National Conference on Australian Prison Issues

The conference was a great success and details are now available at http://www.prisonissuesconference.webs.com/

Hard couple of weeks

Well the last two weeks have been very diffficult personally as I experienced the workings of the criminal justice system first hand - well at least through my son. It is not an experience I would like to repeat.

Still waiting for confirmation on my enrollment in the PhD - they are still finalising supervisors on their end. Almost completed the Graduate Certificate in Criminology with only one assignment and the two exams to go.

It's only a couple of weeks now until our first conference - lots of registrations coming in now. Just need to finalise the catering and I think we are all set to go!

Progress

Well the weeks just seem to fly by. I am in the process of finalising my enrollment into the PhD which is exciting and have confirmed Rob White as a coordinator along with someone from the Faculty of Education, probably John Williamson.

The conference organising is going well with speakers now confirmed after a couple of last minute withdrawals and registrations are continuing to come in - but we need more so I will have to spend some more time marketing the event, particularly within the universities and corrective services.

I have finished preparing my talk for the ACEA/Reintegration Puzzle conference in WA, I am the last speaker on the last day so hopefully everyone will still be awake - if not I will be waking them!! I have also submitted my paper for the Critical Criminology Conference for peer review - fingers crossed they like it as it's the first time I have done something like this.

The last two days have been incredible. I have recently attended the Critical Criminology Conference http://www.arts.monash.edu/psi/news-and-events/critical-criminology/. I presented a paper entitled Outside the Curriculum. The event was an amazing experience, I met and spoke with some of the leading minds in criminology in Australia - Chris Cuneen, Eileen Baldry, Rob White and so many others, it was truly wonderful to have people around who were interested in my research and so supportive and encouraging. I also met one of my criminology teachers from Charles Sturt University which was great. It was fascinating listening to the research of others and I felt a little awestruck at the incredible research that is going on in the field. Rob White has agreed to be a co-supervisor on my PhD which is fantastic news as he is well connected and well respected by Tasmanian Justice agencies.

The two days also made me realise how isolated and potentially isolating distance learning can be and how you miss out on so much informal learning because of the lack of peers and mentors you have around you to talk to. This is something that is very relevant to my research and also something which I need to be more active in addressing as a student.

Indigenous Imprisonment

There is something horribly wrong in Australia, something that is unnoticed by many people like myself - the horrendous over representation of indigenous people in our prison systems. Except for the fact that I study in this area and have an interest I would not have known the shame of what is happening. So I have started a campaign www.16times.webs.com and hope that it catches the hearts and minds of others.

Last week as part of my research I watched a short film Lonely Boy Richard http://www.afc.gov.au/filmsandawards/filmdbsearch.aspx?view=title&title=LAWAND
and I found this great study guide http://www.filmaust.com.au/programs/teachers_notes/8533lonelyboyrichardnotes.pdf which talks more about the issues involved.

We are looking at partnering and discussing this issue with indigenous organisations and the Australian Prison Foundation is putting together a policy document to go with the campaign.