Sad news for some, harsh justice for others, I’m sure. “What good can reading do anyone?! Our business here isn’t to entertain!  At the very least, we’re engaged in human storage. If we can, we hope to bore them straight!”

The people who run the jail took Darlene’s room away from her a while ago; she found this out, not from jail officials, but from a maintenance man who told her she would have to move the prison library into a glorified broom closet, perhaps 6 metres long and a mere 100 centimetres wide. Darlene is claustrophobic.

Officials eventually said they wanted to use the library room to store protective vests. Guards tried to intervene; they offered a variety of alternatives, and asked to be present when the issue was discussed in management meetings. They were ignored.

Darlene said there is an empty room built for the use of prison psychologists; it was never used and remains unused.

She quit.

On a side note, whenever I see those big, usually orange, windowless buildings that read “SELF STORAGE” on the side, I always imagine a guy standing in a broom closet with his his arms at his sides, sighing occasionally.