The nature of a public library and the reputation of its patrons may stand in contrast with that of a prison and its inmates. Yet libraries in prisons are not unusual phenomena.

Practically every prison in the US has a library of one description or the other. Some prisons in India have libraries, as do a few in African countries like Uganda and Kenya.

Our jails have been lagging behind in this respect. But a new ‘book club’ project in prisons run by the National Book Foundation may just change this picture — if it can get the continued support needed to provide consistent and meaningful services for inmates.

The first such book club has been established at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, and it aims to promote the reading habit among inmates.

Apart from the right to food, shelter and medical services, people held in prison also have the right to recreational facilities and capacity-building. The prison book club can help in this regard.

Access to books not only improves prison life by helping inmates pass the time, it provides an opportunity to pursue knowledge. Those from disadvantaged backgrounds can raise their literacy levels, improve educational qualifications and even take vocational correspondence courses.

For others, access to books can help develop a deeper appreciation of the world of ideas and education as well as a new direction and purpose in life. The Adiala Jail book club project should be expanded by encouraging publishers, bookstores and individuals to donate reading material.

Ideally the facility should one day come to resemble a public library, complete with the services of a librarian. Prisoners elsewhere have long enjoyed such facilities. Inmates in Pakistan deserve the same. But this dream can materialise only if we are convinced that libraries in jails can help change the lives of prisoners.