A captive readership

Andrea Abbott's morning walk to work takes her down narrow passageways and through heavy steel gates that few people ever get to see. Once she has made her way through the labrynthian twists and turns, she is deposited just a hundred feet or so from "the yard" - the open space deep in the interior of Auburn Correctional Facility where inmates are free to roam.

Outside, across from a gate topped with razor-wire that keeps the inmates in the yard, Abbott still has to pass through a series of locked doors - every door at ACF is secured with impenetrable dead bolts. Her key ring is as impressive as a janitor's.

But through the doors and the gates and past the tiny guard rooms where corrections officers wave her along, Abbott reaches her sanctuary - the library. Amid the chaos of this maximum security facility, the library is an island of serenity and personal growth.