Public Library at the County Jail: Wii Progams Unite Everyone

Fists over R
Originally uploaded by bdmckeown

Public Library programs in jail? Why not.

I have been partnered with Jail North since September 2007. Jail North is one of the county jails of Mecklenburg and houses male inmates. I’ve had great success with the Jail North programs, mainly because I run them as I would a normal library program and the inmates respond to that. My first few classes were poetry classes. The guys loved writing, especially poetry, so it was an easy class to facilitate. Classes were small (8-10 participants) and lasted 90 minutes once a week for 4 weeks. I would bring in poems from Gil Scott-Heron, Gwendolyn Brooks, T.S.Elliot, Maya Angelo, Allen Ginsburg, and Jack Kerouac to name a few. I would also use songs from artists like Mos Def, Common, Notorious B.I.G., Jimi Hendrix and Lauren Hill and have the guys analyze the lyrics. We wrapped up each class with a writing assignment (for example, Jack Kerouac has a very distinct writing style called stream of consciousness. Try writing in this style). Often the guys drew amazing parallels between the lessons and real life and wrote wonderful poems that reflected their thoughts. I hope to post future inmate poems on this blog.

This month we had two Learn and Play days at Jail North with the Nintendo Wii. The Outreach department has the Wii Sports game that came with the system. Wii Sports has bowling, baseball, tennis, boxing, and golf. Participants can team up or play the games individually. We have used it with seniors and other adult groups and they loved it. However, would a room full of adult male inmates like it too?

I decided to go for it and pitched the Wii program as a great team building, cooperative video game program for inmates. The Wii is a more non-traditional gaming system, but the premise of the Learn and Play days is to introduce new technology to the inmates. I proposed that inmates would be playing together in a team environment and learning something new. Jail North liked the idea so they approved the program. Although I’m new to inmate gaming, another library colleague has been facilitating Madden football game tournaments to youth offenders for a year and she said that they loved it. Why not give Wii a chance too?

To say that the Jail North Wii class exceeded my expectations is an understatement. My first class had 6 adult men and they loved it. The class was very eager to try all five games and they worked well together. They took turns playing, helped other participants work the remote and encouraged each player. True, there was the usual amount of trash talking but it wasn’t any worse than you would hear in a normal setting. The class lasted 90 minutes (because you can’t really play a video game in an hour) and the inmates were very appreciative of the opportunity to try something new.

Was this a fluke? Not at all. My colleague Jason and I went again to Jail North today and had another wonderful experience. Once again, we had a class of about 6 men and they loved the Wii. This time the game of choice was boxing. While some might hesitate to let inmates play a boxing game, Wii boxing is very mild and does not have graphic, bloody fight scenes. Plus it’s a great workout. Once again, the guys were encouraging and helpful to each other, which was nice to see. Jason remarked that it did not feel like a jail program and felt more like an adult gamming night at one of the branches. Jail North was happy at the positive nature of the games and how well the inmates worked together. While it may sound like a simple concept, gaming allowed these men to relax and have fun, but they were also inadvertently developing social skills and communicating in a positive way.

This is one of those feel good, pat-on-the-back programs that makes me love the library even more. I know we probably didn’t change anyone’s lives, but we made a great connection with the inmates and encouraged them to visit the library with their families when they are released.

Next up with Jail North, a Youth Offenders Graphic Novels class, complete with a visiting artist! Should be fun, I’ll post more later on.