When it comes to restoring strong, long-term growth in our nation’s economy, there are few solutions more practical, bi-partisan, and urgent than immigration reform.

Our current immigration system is rigid, outdated, and simply unable to keep up with demands of the new global marketplace. For our nation to thrive and transcend international competition in the 21st century economy, it is incumbent for us to build an immigration system that welcomes people who share our values, as well as the entrepreneurial spirit that has made our country great.

No one can doubt that we are a nation whose foundation was built by immigrants. But did you know that more than 40 percent of today’s Fortune 500 companies were founded by an immigrant, or a child of an immigrant? Or that more than 75 percent of all the patents received by the top ten U.S. universities in 2011 had an immigrant inventor? While we celebrate our nation’s first immigrants every Thanksgiving — and while many of us cherish the stories shared by our own family members who made the pilgrimage to our shores — we too often forget that today, and every day, recent immigrants continue to play a vital role in the American economy.

Unfortunately, far too often, our immigration policies drive too many foreign-born entrepreneurs and job creators away, even after we have trained them and given them degrees from American universities.

This is not simply a matter of compassion or human interest. This is about the very survival of our economy, way of life, and continued global leadership. We must make it easier for foreign-born, U.S.-educated students to get visas. We must create a startup visa program for entrepreneurs and innovators who want to come to our country to start businesses and hire American workers, especially when they already have U.S. investors to back their ideas. We must be doing everything we can to keep that capital in the U.S., rather than handing the next great idea over to our competitors.

Furthermore, with the enormous baby boomer generation set to retire, our current aging workforce simply cannot keep up with the demands. We need many more young workers, both in the high- and low-skilled areas of our economy. The U.S. government estimates that there are more than 3.5 million unfilled jobs in this country, even with high unemployment. Shortages are particularly high in industries with seasonal demands, like agriculture, landscaping, and hospitality. Many hotels and resorts across the country remain at half capacity, even during the busiest tourist seasons, simply because they cannot find enough workers to meet demands. We leave hundreds of millions of dollars in crops out in the fields because we can’t hire enough workers to harvest them in time.

Unfortunately, our system is not structured in a way that accounts for the ebb and flow of our labor needs. We need a more flexible visa allotment system, and we need to expand the number of employment-based visas that are issued each year. Right now, only 7 percent of all green cards are distributed for employment based reasons, which is clearly far too low.

It is refreshing to see Congress take the initial steps to reform, and I applaud the bi-partisan Gang of Eight for taking a leadership role in these efforts and laying out sensible solutions. They have opened the door for a healthy debate. Now we need to make sure that Congress takes action and creates a more modern and reasonable immigration system for our country.

I will never forget the pride I felt when my wife — the mother of our two incredible daughters — was naturalized as a U.S. citizen. We must reform our system so that many more families can experience the joy she felt in becoming an American. And we must reform our system because their pride and joy results in a better economic climate and more job opportunity for all of our country.

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Scottsdale, AZ — (SBWIRE) — 02/07/2013 — Professional landscape designers can offer valuable insight into essential aspects such as plant growth, site requirements, plant needs and selection, etc., ensuring the space’s appearance and functionality. “Only by working with landscape design experts by their side can homeowners plan and implement original landscape design ideas that make good use of the space and increase the house’s value on the real estate market”, says CEO of Envirogreen Landscaping, a premier landscape design company from Scottsdale, Arizona.

“Most homeowners have no idea what wealth of options they have when it comes to beautifying their back yards and increasing their homes’ value at the same time. Professional landscaping services are about more than just the occasional upkeep. We use all the space’s potential to create designs that fit the owner’s preferences, needs, budget and unique ideas”, continued the representative of Envirogreen.

Clients who visit Envirogreen’s website will learn that the landscaping experts at Envirogreen do more than provide the blueprints for the exterior. Having extensive command and qualified training in several areas of landscape design, designers at Envirogreen will also assist with any vegetation related tasks, from choosing trees, shrubbery and plants to decide the plant’s location and maintenance requirements. They will also aid in choosing other landscape elements such as fences, decks, gazebos, pergolas, as well as water installations such as fountains and waterfalls. Outdoor lighting, plumbing and xeriscaping are also included in Envirogreen’s services – the complete list can be accessed by those who like Envirogreen on Facebook.

“At Envirogreen, we believe that well-designed landscapes are the simplest way to complement a home’s appearance, style and architecture, allowing the house to expose itself as a good story and reflect the owner’s personality. By taking your personal design approach outside, you can transform a balcony or a patio into another wonderful room of the house”. – Dana M., Arizona.

The complete offer of landscaping services can be accessed by clients who decide to follow Envirogreen on Twitter and stay updated to their latest news and resources. Also, those who decide to subscribe to Envirogreen on YouTube will be able to see the great transformations for themselves. To request a quote, please visit http://www.envirogreenaz.com/.

About Envirogreen Landscaping LLC
Envirogreen is a highly recommended landscape design company in Scottsdale, Arizona, serving the Phoenix Metro area. It is their sincere goal to provide the finest ecological concepts to their clients, from a team of people who genuinely care. They strive to collectively create unique and imaginative landscape designs with their clients, all while providing the utmost professionalism in their service to clients.

Contact Information:
Envirogreen Landscaping LLC.
8711 E. Pinnacle Peak Rd. #379
Scottsdale, Arizona 85255
United States

602-542-8484

Visitors’ Center may be expanded

Winona Mayor Mark Peterson announced the creation of a Levee Park Redevelopment Committee at Monday’s Winona City Council meeting. “The goal is to come up with a plan for making improvements to the park,” Peterson said.

Winona Park and Recreation Director of Community Services Chad Ubl, who will be on the committee, said the group will look at “How do we revitalize Levee Park? How do we make it a destination for downtown?” Ubl said that while he could not comment on potential proposals by the current committee because it has not met yet, discussion by previous committees revolved around bringing more “place makers” to Levee Park. “Place makers” are active or passive features that bring people to a place, for example, the band shell, the fields, the playground, and the bike path at Lake Park. Former Mayor Jerry Miller appointed committees in the past, but action was never taken based on their reports.

“Those are the ideas of previous committees. Passive and active place makers, trail connections, landscaping, and public art are all things that I would assume would be discussed by this committee,” he said.

The committee’s first meeting will take place by the third week in February, Peterson said.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Winona District Manager Mary Stefanski, who will also be on the committee, said that an FWS visitors’ center with access to the river has been a topic of previous Levee Park discussions. Stefanski said the FWS is interested in having such a visitors’ center with the potential for interpretative canoe trips on the river. She said that while Winona is the FWS’s first choice, it might look at building the center elsewhere. “If the opportunity arose and we had a good location and enough community support, we could [build] anywhere on the refuge,” she said.

Stefanski added that having such a center at Levee Park could help bring more business to downtown Winona.

Discussions of a such a visitors center at levee park date back to 1976. Plans for the center at that time included solar panels, a reflective pool, pseudo waterfalls, and a 150-seat theater. The idea resurfaced in 1991 with a $7 million plan including a “skywalk” and bronze sculptures. Removing the nearby railroad switchyard to open up more park space was also proposed. However, none of the past proposals ever received funding.

No matter what improvements the committee proposes, how to pay for them will be a key issue.

Frank Pomeroy will chair the committee, with Eric Sorensen as the vice-chair. Chad Ubl and Winona Assistant City Planner Carlos Espinosa will represent city staff on the committee. Also serving on the committee are city council member Pam Eyden, Tom Fassbender, Mike Kennedy, Bernadette Mahfood, Rod Nelson, Gaby Peterson, Jack Richter, Mary Stefanski, and Mike Walsh.

Lake Visitors Center expansion on horizon?

At a meeting with leaders of the hospitality industry in Winona last week, Mayor Peterson announced hopes to expand the Lake Park Visitors Center. His idea is to add office space to the Visitors Center and to have it open year ’round.

“It would make it easier for that facility to be open year ’round if it were staffed out there, and it would make sense for Visit Winona to be all in one building,” Peterson said. Currently Visit Winona offices are located at the Winona County History Center.

The idea is in its infancy, Peterson said. He has not discussed it with the Visit Winona Board of Directors, city staff, or city council. Peterson said he was just “talking about some of my ideas for tourism and the role the City of Winona plays in promoting tourism.” 

AZALEAS:Buddy Lee, who created Encore Azaleas, will be a featured speaker at the Fort Worth Home Garden Show. Lee will speak at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. The event is 2 to 8 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to

Michele Yockey’s passion for proteas all started five years ago when she attended a talk by a local grower of proteas in Arroyo Grande. She and her husband, Larry, had recently relocated in Bayview Estates after retirement from careers in the Bay Area. Michele was looking for unique landscaping ideas to replace large lawns and eight 15-year old palm trees in the front yard. “I didn’t like looking at elephant legs out of my front windows, “ she said.

After researching proteas and confirming that her climate zone along the coast would support them, she made the decision to fill the beds around new smaller lawns in the front and back yards with many different species of this evergreen, winter-flowering family of plants from Australia and South Africa. She’s thrilled with the result, and excited at the color and exquisite beauty of the blooms and foliage.

She learned that ‘Protea,’ which is really one genus within the family Proteaceae, is now used as the common term for the whole family of Proteaceae, named by a Swedish botanist after legendary Greek sea god Proteus, who could change his shape at will. The reference to Proteus was inspired by the diversity of flower and foliage of the 73 genera and 1,500 species within this plant family.

This variety is evidenced in Michele’s collection, where a December to April color show is created by the large exotic flowers of the King protea, the pincushion blooms of the leucospermum, and several different species of grevillea, with spiraling pink buds that uncurl like tiny birthday-party blowers. Adenanthos “Woolybush” is another genus, featuring silvery, furry foliage and tubular blossoms.

But it’s the mass of color from the large leucodendrum shrubs throughout the half-acre yard that catches the eye. Out in the open sun with the bay in the background, the leaves of the four to five foot diameter plants shout out in hues of yellow, red, maroon, purple and orange. Michele was careful to space each plant far enough apart to make a bold statement.

Scattered through her ‘Protea demonstration garden’ complete with labels for each plant, she includes other unusual selections from New Zealand as the variegated New Zealand Christmas tree, several shiny coprosma ‘Mirror Plants’ and pittisporum tenuifolium ‘Marjorie Channon’ with small silvery green leaves. “I enjoy a yard that is different, that doesn’t use the same plants as everyone else,” she said.

Since the proteas require little water, she wanted to continue the low-water theme with California native plants. She discovered that ‘Valley Violet’ ceanothus is a good groundcover and the unusual trichostema ‘Woolly Blue Curls’ from the California Coast Ranges is a good conversation piece.

In Michele’s research, she learned that Proteas are grown commercially in very specific coastal areas around the world – Australia, New Zealand, the Cape region of South Africa, Southern California, Hawaii, Israel and Zimbabwe. She said that last year Israel exported 28 million ‘Safari Sunset’ cut flowers. They are widely used in floral arrangements for modern office buildings and hotels, especially in Japan.

Michele is so enthusiastic about proteas that she would like others along the central coast to become acquainted with them. “There are so many reasons to plant them; they attract birds, they don’t need much water or care, they provide winter color, they make long-lasting cut and dried flowers, they are different and…well, just beautiful,” she says.

The public will now have until Feb. 21 to give opinions on a proposal to install three lighted lacrosse fields — two with synthetic turf and one with natural grass — at the Charles F. McDevitt Sports Complex in West Boise.

Wednesday was the original deadline. Parks and Recreation extended it because people who live near the sports complex said they didn’t have enough time to make their ideas heard, spokeswoman Amy Stahl said.

A plan for the complex would include a restroom and concessions building, baseball field lights and scoreboards, pathways, landscaping and additional parking.

City officials haven’t calculated the cost of the upgrades yet. Private donations solicited by youth sports organizations would pay for the upgrades.

The Charles F. McDevitt Sports Complex is a 20-acre special use park located at 5101 N. Eagle Rd. The primary area to be discussed is a 10-acre undeveloped corner of the park next to Eagle Road. The current master plan features a community center at the site.

Maps showing the current and proposed master plans are available on the Boise Parks and Recreation website at http://bit.ly/masterplancomments.

To submit feedback on this proposal, contact project manager Kelly Burrows at kburrows@cityofboise.org or 208-608-7634.

Set the Mood for Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is just about a week away – but you don’t need to spend a boat load to enjoy it! Here to help you set the mood in your own house was Amy Kimes, Manager of Pier One.

www.pier1.com

 

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

You can’t celebrate Valentine’s Day at home without sweets! Tiffany Poindexter, Owner of “Bake Up,” helped us out! She showed us easy ways to make and dress up chocolate covered strawberries. Want to leave the cooking to the experts? Just visit her store in Oakwood Village and try their sample box!

www.bakeupcupcake.com

 

Sur La Table

If you plan on making your Valentine dinner, a visit to Sur La Table is a must! David showed us some must-have products to simplify your kitchen. Plus, a perfect recipe for your date night! Ricotta Ice Cream with Dark Chocolate and Candied Orange! It’s actually very easy!

Check out the recipe here!

www.surlatable.com

 

Canary Travel

If all this snow and cold has got you down – we have the cure! Angie McClure from Canary Travel brought you the deal of the week and your ticket to sunshine. United Vacations has a deal to Paradise Island Bahamas and Atlantis! We are talking 11 swimming areas, swimming with dolphins, a full casino, full service spa, waterslides, 35 restaurants and lounges, and a market place with 19 shops! They also have a Discovery Kid’s Club.

Travel now through June 11th and receive $200 off your 4 or more night stay. Receive $300 off your 6 or more night stay.

Call 216-252-1000 or visit www.canarytravel.com to book today!

 

The Great Big Home Garden Show

The Great Big Home Garden Show is happening now at the I-X Center! Find innovative products, new ideas, practical advice and great deals in remodeling, home improvement and gardening with hundreds of experts all under one roof. From windows and flooring to cabinets and landscaping and much more.

The show runs now through Sunday, February 10, 2013. Tickets are $14 for adults but you can save $3 if you purchase yours online at www.greatbighomeandgarden.com.

 

DIY Flower Bouquet

Even more ideas to inspire your Valentine’s Day! We welcomed Kelly Powers and Holly Wolfe, Floral Associate’s from Heinen’s. They suggest using everyday products like martini glasses, wine bottles, or pitchers to make your arrangement unique. For Valentine’s Day, use candy hearts around your display to add some festive fun!

www.heinens.com

 

Romantic Candles

Our theme continued with Meghan Gallagher from Root Candles in Medina! Check out our video clip for the newest Spring scents and some tips for Valentine’s Day.

www.rootcandles.com

 

Bruno’s Ristorante

This may be one of the best kept secrets in Cleveland…until now! If you’re looking for a new Italian Restaurant to visit, head to Bruno’s for some authentic cuisine.

www.brunosristorante.org

 

The Irish Times – Wednesday, February 6, 2013

A developer unlawfully diverted over $13 million for his own benefit and “lavish lifestyle” out of some $50 million intended for the development of a luxury resort in the Caribbean, it has been claimed before the High Court.

Pádraig O’Halloran used some of the money to buy properties, a private jet, a grand piano for his girlfriend and also paid €120,000 to Weddings by Franc, the wedding organiser featured on TV.

Referring to the 2009 purchase of a jet, Paul Gallagher SC, for the plaintiffs, said Mr O’Halloran (42) was swept up “in the feeling of the times” and got ideas “wholly unsuitable” for what he was engaged in. It is alleged various payments were made by a company of Mr O’Halloran’s, Shippool, Innishannon, Co Cork, to Irish bank accounts.

Harlequin Property Ltd and Harlequin Hotels and Resorts Ltd, owners and operators of a luxury resort in Buccament Bay, St Vincent and the Grenadines, have also claimed Mr O’Halloran used their money to buy a property in Ireland; properties and businesses in the Caribbean; a $1.5 million private jet, a grand piano, dental work and other items of personal expenditure.

Caribbean development 

In proceedings that opened yesterday before Mr Justice Brian McGovern, Harlequin is claiming restitution, damages and compensation for alleged breach of fiduciary duty over the alleged Irish payments and transfers into Irish accounts.

In 2008 Harlequin engaged Mr O’Halloran and his construction company, the ICE Group, to complete construction of a multimillion dollar tourist development in Buccament Bay, including villas, a restaurant and swimming pool, by July 2010.

It is claimed Mr O’Halloran had a duty to act honestly and in good faith and not to defraud Harlequin or make a secret profit. It is claimed he falsely represented the entire construction project would be complete and open for business on July 1st, 2010, when he knew the ICE Group could not complete the project.

Mr O’Halloran, it is alleged, was intent upon embarking on a fraudulent scheme to divert project funds to his own personal benefit.

It is claimed about $13.3 million paid by Harlequin was unlawfully diverted by Mr O’Halloran for his personal benefit, including payments of $1.6 million to Mr O’Halloran’s bank accounts in Ireland and some $358,000 to his father’s Irish bank. It is also alleged that from November 2009 to March 2010, there were $72,000 and €120,000 payments to Weddings by Franc and €20,000 to Adare Manor.

Mr O’Halloran, it is claimed, purchased a house at Shippool, Innishannon, funded directly or indirectly from the payments. That purchase, the Caribbean purchases and the Irish payments were part of a systematic and deliberate fraud, it is alleged.

Mr O’Halloran has denied the claims and says the payments in relation to the Caribbean were all appropriate.

The proceedings are also against his father, retired businessman Donal O’Halloran, Ballinaspig, Cork, who, it is claimed, ought to have known alleged payments made to him was money to which he had no lawful entitlement.

Fraudulent representations 

Opening the case, Mr Gallagher said Pádraig O’Halloran engaged in deliberate and serious fraud and made fraudulent representations to Harlequin to extract substantial sums of money to complete phase one of the development when he knew he could not do so by the agreed deadline.

Greater and greater sums of money were demanded with no prospect of the work being completed, he said. When Harlequin inspected the development in July 2010, some parts had complete landscaping but it was like a “film set”. The drains were not installed for the villas and the sewage from the toilets went straight into the ground, he said.

Mr Gallagher said there was an “extraordinary informal arrangement” for such a significant contract in which a total $51 million was paid out by Harlequin. The weekly payments rose from $125,000 to $450,000 and later $1 million in 2010.

The case is listed to last four weeks.

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HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – For sale to the highest bidder: 25 acres of prime city-owned land at one of Huntsville’s busiest corners.

Last week, city officials issued a request for proposals from developers interested in buying a slice of John Hunt Park near the Memorial Parkway-Airport Road intersection. Deep pockets are a must, as Mayor Tommy Battle has set a minimum price of $7,623,000.

“This is a great opportunity to create a signature development in one of the nation’s most vibrant communities,” Battle said in a news release. “We are looking for a developer to create a distinctive and sustainable retail commercial development with buildings in keeping with the importance of this site and location.”

The land being sold is home to several government buildings, including Huntsville Fire Rescue Station 6, a firefighter training facility and city employee medical clinic. The city says it would build a replacement fire station about a mile away on Drake Avenue.

Battle envisions 372-acre John Hunt Park becoming the Rocket City’s version of New York’s Central Park, and the land sale would give the city a pot of money to begin bringing that vision to life.

An updated master plan for the old airport property calls for ripping up runways last used in the 1960s to make room for a 4,000-seat indoor sports arena and lakeside concert amphitheater. The Benton H. Wilcoxon Ice Complex would get a third rink and arena seating for about 1,200, allowing it to host larger hockey and figure skating competitions. The old Jaycees Building would be replaced by a “multi-purpose community activities” facility, and two more championship-caliber soccer fields would be added near the park’s main entrance.

The improvements would continue on the south side of Airport Road with a new splash fountain, picnic areas, at least eight new tennis courts at the city tennis complex, and miles of tree-lined jogging trails.

According to the bid document, the city will only consider selling the 25 acres to developers who commit to building “high quality” retail space with sufficient parking and heavy landscaping. Whatever is built will border the popular Kids Space playground.

Developers have until April 1 to submit their design ideas and top price for the land. The city hopes to select the winning firm and complete all negotiations by Sept. 1 with the goal of closing on the sale in early November.

ABLE MINDS In facilities (l.– r.) from Rikers Island in New York City to the Garner Correctional Institution
in Connecticut to Hennepin County, MN, librarians are helping inmates prepare.
Top photo by Stephn M. Lilienthal; bottom left photos by Darren Wagner Photography

It’s a Thursday in early June as a cart laden with books is pushed down the corridors of the George R. Vierno Center (GRVC), one of the correctional facilities on New York’s Rikers Island.

The library may consist only of a small storeroom of books and a cart, attended by Nicholas Higgins, supervising librarian of the New York Public Library’s (NYPL) Correctional Services Program (CSP); Luis Torres, a NYPL information assistant; and several volunteers, but library service to the inmates of GRVC is definitely welcome.

The CSP cart visits two units in GRVC, 17A and 17B. As the B side inmates are served first, an inmate in A admonishes B to hurry up. As B takes its time, the A side’s calls become more insistent.

After the rounds, as the cart nears the small storage room that holds CSP’s books and magazines, an inmate declares, “Y’all don’t come to my house. This is the only place I can catch you.” The inmate looks forward to obtaining National Geographic.

In Higgins’s view, providing library service to inmates and those returning from prison is fulfilling the democratic mission of the public library because it allows “a wholly segregated group of people” access to information that most Americans take for granted.

“There are definitely people there who want to better themselves but have not had the opportunity,” Torres says later. He notes that Rikers does contain inmates who are interested in doing little more than waiting for their day at trial or waiting out a short sentence (Rikers houses some ten separate jails but does not hold longer-term prisoners). However, many inmates, he thinks, have not spent much time in libraries, and CSP’s service provides a chance to start learning what the library can offer.

CSP can only reach a limited number of inmates, but Higgins says Rikers’s leadership is cooperative. Acknowledging the need for public safety, he and CSP make it a point to be “as flexible as possible” in working with corrections officials.

Since that day in June, Higgins has become associate director for community outreach for NYPL. Credited with expanding CSP’s service, he wants to move services to prisoners and returning inmates from the “margins” to being an integral part of public library service. Now, he oversees outreach to hospitals, nursing homes, and homeless shelters. He sees an opportunity to reach ex-offenders in shelters, noting the correlation that often exists between homelessness and having been incarcerated.

Forging public-prison cooperation

Nearly 1.6 million people were in federal or state prisons in 2011, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. City and county jails are also full of people. Though there are increasingly vocal calls to reevaluate stiff sentencing for less serious crimes, this is unlikely to cause a dramatic decline in prisoners anytime soon. Meanwhile, each day, thousands return to their communities from some form of incarceration.

What is changing is a growing realization that more public, prison, and jail libraries can better identify and serve the often significant needs of inmates or those prisoners who are returning to their communities. Not only are some libraries providing books, they are providing innovative programs and services, helping inmates and returnees to learn about work and employment opportunities, the arts (see sidebar, “Arts on the Inside“), and to develop job-seeking skills.

In the view of Daniel Marcou, correctional librarian, Hennepin County Library (HCL), MN, public and prison libraries should be striving to ease the reentry of inmates returning to their communities. “From a community safety perspective, helping people [who are or who had been in prison] make positive changes is important,” Marcou insists.

FREEDOM TICKET Top: Hennepin County prisoners (l.) get assistance with job skills and literacy from librarian
Daniel Marcou, while Nicholas Higgins (inset) supervises the library program at Rikers Island (bottom).
Hennepin photos courtesy of Hennepin County Library; Rikers photos by Stephen M. Lilienthal

Hennepin County’s Freedom Ticket

Hennepin, like NYPL’s CSP and many prison libraries, has programs to instruct and help encourage inmates who are parents to read to their children. One goal here is to help prevent the children from following in the footsteps of their parents.

Likewise, Marcou believes it is important to address employment issues of returning inmates since being able to obtain and hold jobs is a crucial factor in achieving successful reentry, and helping former prisoners improve their literacy and job search skills is crucial to helping them get work.

A telling aspect of HCL’s program is Marcou’s branding of it as a “freedom ticket.” In part, he based the name on an anecdote in William Miller’s children’s book Richard Wright and the Library Card (1999). Wright, growing up in the segregated South, considered books to be “a ticket to freedom.” But there is more to the selection of the name, Marcou explains: “Freedom is probably the most valued word inside a corrections facility. I wanted to convey to the residents that reading and information can help to free us all from our past or places where we might not want to be in life. And the ticket, of course, is a library card so that you can use the library.”

This led to Marcou’s initiation of the Freedom Ticket blog, which showcases organizations and services offered by governmental agencies and nonprofits that can help returned inmates. Residents of Hennepin County’s correctional facilities receive a print version of The Freedom Ticket newsletter quarterly.

A welcoming library

An online orientation video (also available on DVD) assures returning offenders that they will be “treated with dignity and respect” by library staff. Taking advantage of HCL’s resources and services dealing with education, employment, and health can help returning inmates to “make positive changes” in their lives. A foldout map-like “Going Home” guide lists HCL locations and resources “people leaving corrections facilities” can access to obtain assistance with employment, education, housing, health, and family matters.

HCL in partnership with Goodwill Easter Seals also offers a program called “World of Work” at its North Regional Library to help ex-offenders with job searches, training location, résumés, and interview skills.

However, Marcou knows that many people who return from incarceration are interested in developing their own businesses, such as landscaping or cleaning, and raises this issue at the job workshops he delivers at the county and state corrections facilities. He has invited a community librarian to deliver a talk on self-employment resources and programs to residents of the county’s Adult Corrections Facility (ACF).

Marcou advises prisoners and those who’ve returned from prison to have a steady “day job,” if possible, but suggests that developing self-employment to provide several income sources makes sense in case of a layoff. He also considers self-employment to be “an enormously self-empowering option. Most folks who have hustled on street corners have strong transferable skills in terms of legitimate work and self-employment.”

Every week, Marcou and his coworker Renée Hasse visit the Hennepin County ACF to provide inmates with requested information and books and magazines as well as manage the collection at the on-site library facilities.

ACF reentry and education staff and volunteers assist facility residents with the use of the resource room to search for education- or employment-related information. The computers are connected to the library’s network, and filters have been adjusted to create safe Internet access to appropriate websites for reentry information needs. One of the many benefits is the direct exposure to the HCL website and increased awareness for the facility residents of all the online resources it has. HCL plans to provide more digital literacy instruction at the facility in the future.

San Diego reintegration

Hildie Kraus, branch manager of the Bonita-Sunnyside branch of the San Diego County Library (SDCL), shares Marcou’s concern about helping inmates and former inmates sharpen their job skills.

California’s overcrowded prisons are seeking to reduce their populations, which makes “rehabilitation, reentry, and reintegration” of the utmost importance, according to Kraus.

“A major component of all of these is getting a job,” she explained in a presentation to California librarians about her “Welcome Back: Ex-Offenders Rejoin the Workforce” training sessions held in summer 2011.

Kraus was working in SDCL’s El Cajon branch when a heavily tattooed man who’d been “inside” admitted he was unable to use a computer to obtain a library card. Inspired in part by that incident, Kraus started attending monthly Parole and Community Team (PACT) meetings sponsored by the California Department of Corrections to inform recent parolees about community services and resources.

Kraus’s own surveys of PACT attendees showed that they were eager to develop their job search, computer, and interview skills. Obtaining an in-kind contribution from SDCL, a $5,000 Library Services Technology Act (LSTA) grant, and smaller grants from the library friends and the SDCL administration, Kraus established two month-long training sessions in July and August 2011.

The funds covered payments for flash drives, substitute staffing for Kraus and her assistant instructor, job-readiness trainers, and literature on reentry, résumés, and interview skills.

Still, the program remains something of a niche service. Expecting over 20 participants, only one person showed up for the first class. Eventually, between four to six people were participating regularly. A total of 22 people attended, some graduating from the first session, then returning for classes during the second session.

“Most were eager to learn,” says Kraus. “Many were consistent in attendance.”

Yet many participants would come when they could and Kraus, taking into account their different needs and skill levels, would provide the instruction they needed rather than falling back on her initial, more structured lesson plans. Kraus says “being flexible” in instruction is important.

Two job-readiness trainers spent hours coaching participants in how to be effective in a job interview. A high school intern videotaped the participants, who found it useful to see their body language and their responses to issues such as gaps in their résumés.

Participants in post-program surveys showed they all knew more about computers, had developed résumés, and had applied for jobs online. They felt more confident about going employment. Kraus notes the program cost only $11,000; maintaining a single person in a California prison costs nearly $50,000 annually. “So if one person from this program doesn’t go back to prison—you do the math,” she said, closing her ­presentation.

REENTRY, REENTRY, REENTRY The Colorado State Library’s prison program is all about reintegrating prisoners into society and was cited in Corrections Today for “groundbreaking” initiatives. Photos courtesy of Colorado State Library

Preparing to measure success

“It’s all about reentry, reentry, reentry—that’s why we do what we do.” insists Diane Walden, coordinator of institutional library development (ILD) for the Colorado State Library.

Walden credits Diana Reese, her recently retired predecessor, with focusing on improving quality during her tenure as coordinator of prison libraries. (See also sidebar “Colorado Standards.”)

Colorado’s prison library program is a unique collaboration between the Colorado Department of Education (CDE), which includes the state library, and the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC), which administers libraries in state correctional institutions. ILD’s coordinator and the two regional librarians who advise state prisons must be trained in CDOC procedures and are actually housed at state prisons and expected to participate in facility operations, such as lockdowns.

ILD continuously audits prison libraries, whereas the American Correctional Association (ACA) audits the state’s prisons every three years as part of its accreditation process. ILD makes sure CDOC’s librarians are trained to carry out the policies, and its regular presence in prison libraries helps to provide prisons with well-designed libraries and to advance innovation. Adrienne Breznau, CDOC librarian at Denver Women’s Correctional Facility (DWCF), describes the relationship between CDOC librarians and ILD this way: “I’m the boss of the library, and they are the boss of policy.”

Colorado’s ILD was credited recently in Corrections Today, the magazine of the ACA, with launching “ground-breaking initiatives” such as intranet training of prison library staff and an online library management system, which provides inmates with access to an online catalog but which is customized to prevent inmates from using features such as email.

Reese suggests Colorado’s state prison libraries are notable in part for using a “public library model.” (ILD is not involved with the prison law libraries.) As Breznau says, “Our patrons have the same information needs as patrons in public libraries.”

Walden recalls a review of prison libraries that showed a lack of reentry-related materials such as those addressing job search issues, improving family relations, increasing financial literacy, dealing with addictions—all things that help to curb recidivism. The response designed to meet these needs was branded as “Out for Life.”

While formal classes at CDOC prisons stress reentry issues, the Colorado State Library’s Walden notes not every prisoner likes or seeks out classroom learning opportunities, but they will use the library and can be reached that way.

Prison libraries, says Walden, are in a “unique position” to reach inmates through reentry materials and programming.

Equipping tools for financial literacy

Alongside the self-improvement tools and preparation these programs offer, there is an important self-protection element as well. DWCF librarian Breznau says many inmates can fall prey to online get-rich-quick scams. “My job is to turn them away from information sources from people trying to scam them.”

A positive solution is to provide financial literacy programs as Renée Robbins and Janice Chiaro decided to do a few years ago when brainstorming ideas for potential programs at Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility (CTCF).

They arranged for a guest speaker from Wells Fargo Bank to address the inmates. Robbins added the Wells Fargo CD-ROM on financial literacy, called “Hands on Banking,” to the library computer loaded with reference and skill-building ­software.

At least 30 inmates started the program; approximately half were able to complete it. Inmates averaging 80 percent on all modules received certificates for completing the program. Robbins says some lost interest, but many inmates considered the program valuable.

“There were offenders who rarely used the library but who came to complete the program because they saw it as something they needed,” Robbins recalls. That provided an opening for library staff to demonstrate how the prison library could help them obtain information that would be useful to prepare for their release. “At every opportunity,” says Robbins, “we encouraged [the inmates] to use their public libraries” upon returning to their communities.

Robbins insists that a program such as the one implemented on financial literacy at CTCF is a boon to inmates. The prison library, she says, is the best place to offer such sessions because it is “open for anyone to use” and inmates realize their staffs “want to help their patrons succeed” once they leave prison.

Denver reaching out

Back in 2008, the Colorado State Library’s Walden had delivered a talk with then-ILD staff member Erica MacCreaigh and two others at a Colorado Association of Libraries conference on “Life After 20-to-Life” that urged greater public library programming aimed at people returned from prison. Melanie Colletti, a student in library science at the University of Denver, heard the presentation and found herself “amazed” at the scarcity of library services available to ex-offenders. She helped to create a resource guide for inmates returning to their communities to find services of use to them.

Working at the Community Technology Center (CTC) at the Denver Public Library, Colletti and a former supervisor, Megan Kinney, now director of library services at Community College of Aurora who shared the interest in outreach to ex-offenders, developed the “Free To Learn” (FTL) program. The program provides free space for former inmates who are often residents in transitional houses and helps them to learn computer and Internet skills that often are not taught in prisons. The program is staged just for returning inmates in part because some halfway houses require verification of the location of their charges. In such cases, FTL will call the halfway houses to let them know who is attending.

Colletti, who now oversees CTC, collaborates with librarians at the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility, delivering regular talks there about the Free To Learn program and other DPL offerings. She visits half-way houses to meet with residents and staff. One participant said, “I’m not comfortable in groups of people.” Colleti tells prison and half-way house residents to ask for her by name to help put them at ease.

“When I see people face-to-face and tell them it is okay to come to the library and ask for me, that helps to defuse some of that embarrassment.” says Colletti.

Colletti’s statistics from FTL’s first year show 78 percent of the women completed job applications during their sessions.

Breznau of DWCF stresses the need for partnerships between prison and public libraries. When inmates are free, she insists, they should be able to obtain “the same quality of help” for their unique information needs from public libraries that they receive from prison libraries and staffs.

New challenge for libraries

The Pew Center on the States’ 2011 report, “State of Recidivism: The Revolving Door of America’s Prisons,” notes that at least 95 percent of prisoners ultimately will be returning to their communities after incarceration. Policymakers are increasingly aware that “aggressive recidivism reduction is a smarter approach to curbing corrections costs and protecting public safety.” It cautions that besides a prison record, people returning from prison often have great needs stemming from poor education and lack of effective life skills.

Stronger efforts by prison and public libraries to help prisoners and people returning from prison to their communities can help them start to narrow those gaps. Glennor Shirley, retired coordinator for Maryland’s prison libraries, hopes public libraries and prison administrations and their libraries will work in partnership more. More librarians share Shirley’s views. Rhode Island Department of Corrections librarian Loretta M. Cimini in a presentation last year to the Rhode Island Library Association expressed hope that public libraries will better serve one of the most “under the radar” groups—released inmates.

Shirley declares, “Very few [public libraries] have proactively done outreach or programming in prisons. This is a lost opportunity to help inmates to reenter society successfully. Working in partnership, prison and public libraries can have a positive impact on prisoners, their families, and public safety and help to build stronger communities.”

Arts on the Inside

Most librarians know that Hamlet avenges the death of his father, the king, by killing his uncle, Claudius. However, thanks to some surprising interventions, Claudius sometimes avoids this patricidal fate.

When Laura Bates, professor of English literature at Indiana University, started a program called “Shakespeare in Shackles” for inmates placed in segregation at the state-run Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, she created a small circulating library devoted to the Bard’s works. Prisoners in segregation—because of their violent behavior—have few privileges, according to Bates, including access to general library services.

Bates details how one inmate in solitary, Larry Newton, benefitted from participating in her classes exploring Shakespeare in a forthcoming book, Shakespeare Saved My Life: Ten Years in Solitary with the Bard (Sourcebooks, Apr. 2013).

ARTS INSPIRATION Top: Professor Laura Bates conducts her “Shakespeare in Shackles” class with Wabash Valley Correctional Facility inmates in “supermax” (i.e., long-term solitary confinement), who participate through the cell doors. Bottom left: At Garner Correctional Institution, Mark Aldrich directs the Garner Players.
Bottom right: In Massachusetts, inmates make use of the library at Bay State Correctional Center. Bates photo courtesy of Wabash Valley Correctional Facility; Aldrich photo courtesy of Garner Correctional Institution;
Bay State photo courtesy of Massachusetts Department of Correction

Prisoners read and discuss the plays. Inmates, many of whom lack strong academic records, often warm up to the challenge of learning the plays written by the intellectually demanding playwright. More than that, Bates asserts, many prisoners discover, sometimes to their surprise, that the questions posed by Shakespeare’s centuries-old plays may be more relevant than many would assume. Newton is quoted in Shakespeare Saved My Life: “The more insight you get into Shakespeare’s characters, the more insight you get into your own character.”

Frequently, inmates will rewrite the plays to reflect their own changing perspectives. For example, Hamlet may spare Claudius’s life as prisoners reconsider their own thirst for ­vengeance.

Not every prisoner can be changed via humanities intervention, but Bates has met those who say they have not killed thanks in large part to exposure to works like Shakespeare’s plays. She says there should be a place for arts and literature programs in prisons and jails and their libraries.

Mark Aldrich, a librarian at Connecticut’s Garner Correctional Institution, a state-run high-security prison, concurs.

Aldrich coteaches playwriting and performance classes for inmates. When a class ends, inmates write and produce their own plays before audiences that have included the staff of a local literary magazine, prison and school officials, and businesspeople. Plays written by students in Aldrich’s writing classes include one dealing with a discussion between a father who had been incarcerated and his estranged son and another with a job interview between a just-released inmate and a recovering alcoholic.

As a master’s degree candidate in applied theater at the City University of New York (CUNY), Aldrich also brings fellow classmates to help with the prison theater group, the Garner Players. One session conducted by fellow classmates had inmates consider how maleness should be defined in prison. The games and exercises that occurred led to the inmates improvising short scenes that would later move on to the development of full plays.

Aldrich delivered a talk on “The Rehabilitation Potential of Applied Theatre” at a conference held earlier this year by ­CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

In a paper, Aldrich asserted that simply participating in plays or visiting the library will not curb recidivism. “But what I am suggesting,” he wrote, “is that a consistent, steady commitment to a physically and emotionally safe place with institutional support in which individuals are treated fairly and with respect, and are given an opportunity to participate in their own education, is a start.” That applies to his work in Garner’s library and with his playwriting and performance classes.

Massachusetts’s Department of Correction created a program called Able Minds (Altering Behaviors Through Literary Exploration and Moderated Inquiry-based Discussion Sessions) back in the mid-1990s that is now administered by its prison libraries. State prison librarians in Massachusetts offer all kinds of programming, ranging from poetry groups to regular book discussions. Able Minds is notable for attempting to use literature to inspire inmates to consider making long-term behavioral changes through a ten-step process called Think First that starts by asking participants to assess their situation and ends by having them take action to accomplish self-identified goals.

Inmates, often judged to be high-risk, read books and plays such as Ben Joravsky’s Hoop Dreams, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, and Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire. Able Minds discussions take place in an eight-week consecutive course. The first seven sessions are one-hour chats. One book is read per week, and librarians link those books with the Think First steps, promoting personal reflection. The eighth week is two hours long, and inmates receive certificates for completing the program and review what they’ve learned.

Ally Dowds, librarian at Massachusetts’s Bay State Correctional Center, explains that she chooses books based on a balance of readability, literary quality, and content. Often, selections feature “a seriously flawed character” or events and decisions likely to provoke discussion.

“This often ends in the group taking sides, but it also encourages inmates to demonstrate empathy,” explains Dowds. As with Bates’s program, inmates are often pleasantly surprised to learn they are able to read challenging material.

Dowds insists on the beneficial effects of the process. Inmates are able to “break down the walls” of the seriously flawed character and then “break down the walls” regarding their own “faults and failures.” Participating in Able Minds can force inmates to realize the destructive choices they made, their toll on themselves and others, and consider making positive changes.

In an email, Aldrich added that arts and literature programs aimed at inmates can help them to rethink their past lives and what kind of damage they inflicted on their own communities. Arts and literature programming for inmates and those who are reentering the community can create “a connection to community that makes this possible.”

Colorado Standards

Diane Walden, coordinator of institutional library development (ILD) for the Colorado State Library, and Diana Reese before her have been interested in ushering Colorado beyond statistical standards measuring output—such as the numbers of inmates participating in the Read to the Children (RTC) program or staff members attending training—to ones measuring outcomes that are more qualitative and partially focused beyond prison walls.

It matters. ILD’s FY10 report to the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) claims that half the inmates released to the community will return to state prisons within three years. Yet, every prisoner who avoids prison saves Colorado taxpayers over $32,000 a year.

“We want to know whether the library helped inmates to obtain their GED or bachelor’s degree. We want to know whether the RTC program is helping to improve the relationship [among] the offender, caregiver, and the offender’s child. (RTC tapes parents who are inmates reading children’s books, and those tapes are then sent to their child and caregiver.) We want to know whether it has helped offenders to achieve their goals,” Walden stresses.

ILD’s report to IMLS notes that 70 percent of caregivers participating in RTC had improved their own relationship with the inmate, an important factor in curbing recidivism. Also, two-thirds of caregivers believed the reading ability of the children in their care had improved.

Walden is intent on developing quantitative research-based, less anecdotal surveys of ex-inmates a few years after their release to determine how the library helped them and if the ex-inmate has avoided reincarceration.

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Stephen M. Lilienthal is a freelance writer living in Washington, DC

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