By: Kirsten Wurmann – Librarian, Legal Information for Incarcerated Manitobans Initiative
“Prison libraries play a fundamental role in guaranteeing rights, not only providing
inmates with access to information about their legal rights as incarcerated persons
but also by providing the tools necessary to exercise these rights.”1
The Legal Information for Incarcerated Manitobans Initiative is a project of the Manitoba Law
Library (MLL) and the Manitoba Library Association-Prison Libraries Committee. The
Initiative looks at the unmet legal information needs of incarcerated Manitobans and at ways
to better serve and meet those needs. Prison libraries are often overlooked as an integral
part of corrections, and indeed there are no formal libraries or library programming in any of
the provincial correctional centres in Manitoba.
Since April 2023, the Initiative has researched, conducted surveys, and created a list of
books and resources that should be found in every provincial prison. We have purchased
books and made copies of online materials that are now housed in our pilot project location,
Milner Ridge Correctional Centre. The collection can be found online in the MLL catalog. We
have partnered with the University of Manitoba Rights Clinic, and other community
organizations like the Community Legal Education Association (CLEA), and John Howard
and Elizabeth Fry, to identify key resources and areas of legal information needed. In the
case of the Rights Clinic, we have also begun to create content, like FAQs, to help address
the most pressing legal information needs as identified in surveys that were distributed to the
Manitoba prison population.
In Manitoba there are no provincially mandated or legislated directives, like Commission
Directive 720 that requires federal institutions to have prison libraries, and that specifically
identify which legal reference materials and information must be accessible to those
incarcerated inside that prison. Without a similar legislated requirement for provincial
institutions for library access to books and materials, incarcerated persons lack recreational,
cultural, educational, and legal reading materials. Additionally, as more legal information is
placed online, incarcerated persons are being excluded from simple access to the law.
Manitoba is not alone, and the Initiative is pleased to partner with other provincial
organizations and stakeholders in collaborating and creating awareness of this issue. To that
end, the Initiative has organized a Special Session at the annual conference of the Canadian
Association of Law Libraries on Tuesday, June 25. We will be joined by Senator Kim Pate,
two incarcerated people who will share their lived experiences from Section 81 housing in
Edmonton, a colleague from the Law Society of Saskatchewan library, and a prison library
researcher from Quebec.
Initially funded as a proof-of-concept until December 31, 2023 by MLL, the Initiative has
received a 3-year funding grant from the Manitoba Law Foundation to continue this important
work and to expand the project and scope to include all provincial correctional centres and to
begin exploring legal programming options that could be offered at the prisons.
“What happens behind prison walls is a reflection of the health and vitality of
Canadian society.”2
- The Canadian Federation of Library Associations. Prison Libraries Network: The Right to Read ↩︎
- Howard Sapers. Annual Report of the Officer of the Correctional Investigator 2012-2013 ↩︎
The views expressed in these blogs do not necessarily reflect the views of the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba and should not be construed as legal advice or endorsement.