CUNY Academic Commons

Wed. Apr 24, 2024 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM EDT

As the landscape of higher education in prison shifts and evolves, libraries are making efforts to expand services in prisons across the country while facing a myriad of challenges, from limited staff capacity to shrinking budgets. With support from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS),…[Read more]

Queens Public Library has a guide for reentry resources:

https://www.flipsnack.com/queenslibrary/reentry-guide/full-view.html

It is similar to the Connections guide published by NYPL:

https://legacynyplorg-live.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/connections_2023.pdf

Hello PLSN Volunteers,

A huge thank you to all our wonderful volunteer letter writers! In just one week, we have already sent out responses to 12 patrons, and an additional 48 letters are currently being written and/or reviewed. Thanks to y’alls dedication, we have only 15 (!!!!) letters remaining on the sign up sheet from our initial batch of…[Read more]

Hi all – The newest issue of the Journal of Intellectual Freedom & Privacy, which concerns access to information in carceral institutions, is now live and freely available online. Some of the recent SRRT Abolitionist summit speakers are contributors.

You can access the full issue at https://journals.ala.org/<wbr /&…[Read more]

In case you missed it, there was a recent article about a great program at LaGuardia:

On Rikers, LaGuardia students teach and learn

Reference Project Unpause:

As of April 1, our reference project is unpaused!  If you are a trained reference volunteer, watch your email for the sign-up sheet to claim your first letter of 2024. Please remember that even one answered letter helps keep our reference project afloat. Thank you to everybody in our working groups who have been…[Read more]

libraries for the commons

April 7, 2024 Index Space

Libraries for the Commons is a free, one-day gathering and celebration of local, mutual aid book & knowledge-sharing collectives. We invite anyone interested in learning about library projects in their own communities and knowledge sharing as a tool for resistance, sustenance, and abolitionist…[Read more]

LaGuardia Community College Professors Joan Schwartz-Chaney (Humanities) and John Chaney (Criminal Justice) were recently awarded a Second Chance Act Improving Reentry Education and Employment Outcomes grant from the US Department of Justice to fund a comprehensive prison-to-college project at Queensboro Correctional Facility. Their program, the…[Read more]

Abolitionist Visions and Intersections Summit – March 18 +19, 2024

Abolitionist Visions and Intersections: Centering Human Relationships and Building Institutional Connections for Social Justice

Date & Time: Two day event! Monday, March 18, 2024 & Tuesday, March 19, 2024, 9:00 am to 6:00 pm Central Time. Online, via Zoom.

Against the backdrop…[Read more]

Some good news from JSTOR:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/academics/2024/03/01/jstor-expands-access-incarcerated-students?

I’ve also attached a PDF of the article here.

Hello everyone,

I wanted to report back on the UFS Committee on Higher Education in the Prisons meeting, and share out the minutes.

There is exciting work going on across CUNY to support incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students. The minutes, attached, are detailed and include lots of information about different CUNY programs, as well as…[Read more]

Monday, March 11th from 7:30pm to 8:30pm (register here)

Want to learn more about prison abolition? Looking to explore the role of information in the prison industrial complex? Excited to discuss ways we can collectively offer resources to address violence caused by mass incarceration? Join the club (literally!). The Prison Library Support…[Read more]

“Interested in helping prisoners around the U$A receive free books?”

When: Saturday, Feb 17, 4pm-6pm

Where: P.I.T. (Property is Theft), 411 S. 5th St., Brooklyn, 11211

https://www.instagram.com/p/C2_FMgJt0km/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Pitgoose Books is a direct action books-to-prisoners program operating from P.I.T.…[Read more]

CALL FOR PAPERS: “Abolitionist Visions and Intersections: Centering Human Relationships and Building Institutional Connections for Social Justice”

We are now accepting speaker and panel proposals for the American Library Association’s Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT) “Abolitionist Visions and Intersections: Centering Human Relatio…[Read more]

The next meeting of the UFS Committee on Higher Education in the Prisons will take place on Friday, February 2, 2o24, from 3-5 P.M. Please contact etai@qcc.cuny.edu if you would like to attend virtually or in person.

UFS Committee on Higher Education in the Prisons
Room 1002 at the CUNY Central Office, 205 East 42nd Street
Friday, February 2,…[Read more]

Nickel and Dimed: The Prison Commissary

December 11th. 7:30 to 9:00pm.

More information and registration. 

For the final Abolitionist Futures discussion of the year, we’ll be looking at the day-to-day price tags incarcerated folks face when accessing prison commissaries and other essential services on the inside:

PLSN Presents: What is a Pr…[Read more]

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you all enjoyed the holiday break. I’m writing with exciting news: in a couple of weeks, we are hosting a workshop (open to all CUNY library faculty and staff) with the Prison Library Support Network.

The workshop will include an overview of PLSN’s values and and a detailed review of  its reference practices. Afterwards,…[Read more]

Dear All,

Please join the LACUNY Services for Incarcerated People Roundtable for our first outing this Friday afternoon.

What: We will be meeting at the art exhibit Return to Sender: Prison as Censorship, curated by Mariame Kaba and co-organized by PEN America.

After the gallery visit, the Roundtable will have a zine-sharing happy hour…[Read more]