Reading Materials and Reading Trends of Youth Incarcerated in Mississippi’s State-Run Training School

摘要

While MS Code 43-21-321(5)(i) requires juvenile detention centers to make reading materials available to delinquents, it fails to define specifics about the types of reading materials to which youth are to have access. Likewise, while the Robertson and Dunaway (2006) report identified facilities that provided materials and levels of access, it fell short of providing specific information on the reading materials available in the juvenile detention centers because it was not within the scope of the report. Thus, there is no clear picture of what materials delinquents have access to or read when they are placed in a juvenile correctional facility in Mississippi. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the circulation records at one facility, OYDC, to determine the types of reading materials that it provides or makes available to the juveniles it houses and to determine the reading preferences of delinquents during their incarceration.