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.
Abbott has been the sole librarian at ACF's general library for 10 years. The facility also has a law library, as dictated by the Supreme Court, but a corrections officer staffs that. Abbott is responsible for the general collection - about 12,000 volumes for approximately 1,000 inmates who have library access.
Abbott, an affable woman with thick glasses and short salt-and-pepper hair, has worked on and off as a librarian since 1975, taking some time here and there to do "mommy-track stuff." While her tenure at ACF has proved to be challenging and rewarding, library work was not a career she ever planned on.
"My mother and father wanted me to do it and of course that was the kiss of death. Then I said 'uncle,'"she said sitting in the closed stacks of ACF's library. "Libraries pursued me."
Originally from a little town in the Thousand Islands region, Abbott has criss-crossed the state working in various library capacities. She has worked in the law library at her alma mater, the University at Buffalo, and has done turns at a state mental hospital, a VA hospital and a community college.
She spent time in the stacks at Alfred State and served as the one librarian for the town of Alfred library, where she said she was the "librarian and the janitor."
When she moved to central New York with her husband, she put herself on the state library list, a clearinghouse of sorts for librarians interested in working in a state facility. Soon she got a call from Butler Correctional Facility, a minimum security substance abuse facility in Red Creek, Wayne County.
Her family was not enthusiastic about the possibility of Abbott working with criminals.
"I told my husband, 'You'll never guess where I want to work.'" she said. "My husband said, 'You're not working there.'"
But she ended up taking the job and says it was a very positive place to work.
She wasn't there long before she was "loaned out" to ACF. A couple of other librarians had been rotating in the position and when the state was finally able to fund a full-time librarian at ACF, Abbott jumped at the job.
"I thought it would be a challenge," she said.
The challenge of running ACF's library hasn't been having to deal with hardened criminals day in and day out - Abbott says she's only scared of heights and has never felt threatened working in the prison. The most challenging part of her job is accommodating all the inmates with the library's small collection and the interlibrary loan system.
Budgetary concerns plague the entire correctional system and educational programs and libraries feel the pinch more acutely than other parts of the system, said Shayna Kessler, project associate with the Correctional Association of New York, a prison advocay group based in New York City.
"Libraries are one of the few places where inmates get come in contact with culture and the outside world. Many of them are grossly underfunded and many inmates don't have access to the books they want," she said.
Any inmate in general population who has recreation privileges may use the library at ACF. During their recreation modules, only 25 inmates are allowed in the library at one time and Abbott says most of the time her library is full. It is heartening for a librarian to see people making use of the facility, especially when there is often a line of men waiting to get in.
"The guys really push and shove to get in. It's a very sought after place,"she said.
The inmates may spend between an hour and two hours in the library on weekdays, depending on their modules. Abbott would like to open the library on weekends, but doesn't have a civilian library clerk to staff those days.
In addition to the corrections officers who are always within eyeshot lest anyone gets out of hand, Abbott works with nine inmate clerks. While the library jobs don't pay as much as a the prison industry positions, they do provide calm, steady clerical work for those inmates looking to work in more peaceful environs.
But to work in the library, each inmate has to have a high school diploma or a G.E.D. Abbott says that requirement is her own and not the prison's and feels it gives the men something to work for.
"If you run a library, you have to be pro-education," she said.
Jean Clancy Botta, supervising librarian for the New York State Department of Correctional Services, calls Abbott "a fine librarian," and it's clear, despite working in the windowless confines of the ACF library with convicted felons, that Abbott loves her job. When talking about the inmates who use her library, she is obviously pleased at their oftentimes voracious reading habits.
The library serves inmates from all walks of life and all educational abilities levels. Abbott has to cater to men who read at a second-grade level to men with master's degrees to men for whom English is not their first language. Ordering books that suit them all is a daily challenge.
"We have a huge range with a limited budget. It's a lot to cover," she said.
The inmates read a number of different genres of fiction, but Abbott says they are most taken with African American works that seek to appeal to a young urban audience. The men also like western novels, fantasy tales and romance novels, which Abbott says have a "small but devoted cult." The true crime stories are also quite popular, which is slightly disconcerting based on the where they are and why they are there.
What they read doesn't concern Abbott as much as whether or not they're reading at all. Many of the inmates never used a library before or have sub-par reading skills. Kessler believes that access to reading material in prison help inmates when they are released.
"Libraries create a positive and peaceful work and prison environment. They help to contribute to an inmate's success upon release," she said. "It gives them the ability to develop skills and they are much less likely to reoffend."
Many inmates, Abbott says, have a narrow view of the world around them. To see them blossom into true readers is one of the great parts of Abbott's job.
"Books are a way to know the rest of the world. You have to see something through someone else's eyes," she said. "It's much better to be reading than to be out in the yard stabbing someone."
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.
Abbott has been the sole librarian at ACF's general library for 10 years. The facility also has a law library, as dictated by the Supreme Court, but a corrections officer staffs that. Abbott is responsible for the general collection - about 12,000 volumes for approximately 1,000 inmates who have library access.
Abbott, an affable woman with thick glasses and short salt-and-pepper hair, has worked on and off as a librarian since 1975, taking some time here and there to do "mommy-track stuff." While her tenure at ACF has proved to be challenging and rewarding, library work was not a career she ever planned on.
"My mother and father wanted me to do it and of course that was the kiss of death. Then I said 'uncle,'"she said sitting in the closed stacks of ACF's library. "Libraries pursued me."
Originally from a little town in the Thousand Islands region, Abbott has criss-crossed the state working in various library capacities. She has worked in the law library at her alma mater, the University at Buffalo, and has done turns at a state mental hospital, a VA hospital and a community college.
She spent time in the stacks at Alfred State and served as the one librarian for the town of Alfred library, where she said she was the "librarian and the janitor."
When she moved to central New York with her husband, she put herself on the state library list, a clearinghouse of sorts for librarians interested in working in a state facility. Soon she got a call from Butler Correctional Facility, a minimum security substance abuse facility in Red Creek, Wayne County.
Her family was not enthusiastic about the possibility of Abbott working with criminals.
"I told my husband, 'You'll never guess where I want to work.'" she said. "My husband said, 'You're not working there.'"
But she ended up taking the job and says it was a very positive place to work.
She wasn't there long before she was "loaned out" to ACF. A couple of other librarians had been rotating in the position and when the state was finally able to fund a full-time librarian at ACF, Abbott jumped at the job.
"I thought it would be a challenge," she said.
The challenge of running ACF's library hasn't been having to deal with hardened criminals day in and day out - Abbott says she's only scared of heights and has never felt threatened working in the prison. The most challenging part of her job is accommodating all the inmates with the library's small collection and the interlibrary loan system.
Budgetary concerns plague the entire correctional system and educational programs and libraries feel the pinch more acutely than other parts of the system, said Shayna Kessler, project associate with the Correctional Association of New York, a prison advocay group based in New York City.
"Libraries are one of the few places where inmates get come in contact with culture and the outside world. Many of them are grossly underfunded and many inmates don't have access to the books they want," she said.
Any inmate in general population who has recreation privileges may use the library at ACF. During their recreation modules, only 25 inmates are allowed in the library at one time and Abbott says most of the time her library is full. It is heartening for a librarian to see people making use of the facility, especially when there is often a line of men waiting to get in.
"The guys really push and shove to get in. It's a very sought after place,"she said.
The inmates may spend between an hour and two hours in the library on weekdays, depending on their modules. Abbott would like to open the library on weekends, but doesn't have a civilian library clerk to staff those days.
In addition to the corrections officers who are always within eyeshot lest anyone gets out of hand, Abbott works with nine inmate clerks. While the library jobs don't pay as much as a the prison industry positions, they do provide calm, steady clerical work for those inmates looking to work in more peaceful environs.
But to work in the library, each inmate has to have a high school diploma or a G.E.D. Abbott says that requirement is her own and not the prison's and feels it gives the men something to work for.
"If you run a library, you have to be pro-education," she said.
Jean Clancy Botta, supervising librarian for the New York State Department of Correctional Services, calls Abbott "a fine librarian," and it's clear, despite working in the windowless confines of the ACF library with convicted felons, that Abbott loves her job. When talking about the inmates who use her library, she is obviously pleased at their oftentimes voracious reading habits.
The library serves inmates from all walks of life and all educational abilities levels. Abbott has to cater to men who read at a second-grade level to men with master's degrees to men for whom English is not their first language. Ordering books that suit them all is a daily challenge.
"We have a huge range with a limited budget. It's a lot to cover," she said.
The inmates read a number of different genres of fiction, but Abbott says they are most taken with African American works that seek to appeal to a young urban audience. The men also like western novels, fantasy tales and romance novels, which Abbott says have a "small but devoted cult." The true crime stories are also quite popular, which is slightly disconcerting based on the where they are and why they are there.
What they read doesn't concern Abbott as much as whether or not they're reading at all. Many of the inmates never used a library before or have sub-par reading skills. Kessler believes that access to reading material in prison help inmates when they are released.
"Libraries create a positive and peaceful work and prison environment. They help to contribute to an inmate's success upon release," she said. "It gives them the ability to develop skills and they are much less likely to reoffend."
Many inmates, Abbott says, have a narrow view of the world around them. To see them blossom into true readers is one of the great parts of Abbott's job.
"Books are a way to know the rest of the world. You have to see something through someone else's eyes," she said. "It's much better to be reading than to be out in the yard stabbing someone."