Availability and Use of Library Resources in the Rehabilitation of Inmates in Correctional Centers in Imo and Abia States, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the availability and use of library resources in the rehabilitation of inmates in correctional centers in Imo and Abia states,Nigeria. The study adopted a survey research design using three research questions and three hypotheses. The population of the study comprised 3,854 prisoners from the five prisons in Imo and Abia States, Nigeria. The sample size used was 713 prisoners. Purposive and proportionate random sampling techniques were used. Instruments for the study included: a checklist and a rating scale namely: Availability of Library Resources Checklist (ALRC) and Extent of Use of Library Resources Scale (EULRS). The instruments were validated and found reliable with index of 0.88 for EULRS using Cronbach Alpha Statistic. The research questions were answered using frequency count, proportion, mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested using t-test. The findings were that Owerri and Umuahia correctional centers only have two librarians each in their respective libraries. This implies that the librarians in prison libraries are not adequate. It was also revealed that a good number of resources like fiction books, textbooks, magazines, chairs and lightings were available but some materials like newspapers, newspaper racks, audio cassettes, video tapes, DVD, library software were not found at all but the ones found were utilized to a high extent. Based on these findings, the study recommended among others that the Federal Government should employ more librarians to the correctional services centers in Imo and Abia states so as to reduce job stress and bring information closer to the inmates.

Keywords: Library Resources, Inmates, Correctional Centers, Rehabilitation