Click to Listen
The Sample Reading was taken from The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright and published by Shadow Mountain. The reading begins on page one of the book where the Coopers, an older couple in their 70s, are retiring for the evening with their various ailments. She has a heart condition and he is dying of a brain tumor. They own a B&B in Virginia. That evening, they both die sudden, but natural, deaths. The title comes from the discovery by their three children that Mr. Cooper had written a letter to his wife every Wednesday for decades. As the children read those letters, they discover new, even shocking, things about their parents and themselves.
Reading For The Blind (RFB)
The Reading For the Blind (RFB) program at Utah State Prison is part of a larger organization, the Program for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, of the Utah State Library Division. This agency served more than 18,000 patrons in 2006 in its direct area of responsibility, and serves more than 70,000 patrons nationally. Utah serves patrons in 20 states.
History of RFB at the Prison
RFB started at the Prison in 1988. It moved to the Oquirrh facility in 1993 and remained there until August 2006. The program is currently located in the Wasatch VT area. The facility has six reading rooms, four editing areas, tape duplication equipment and repair facilities for cassette players and on-site equipment. The Reading For the Blind program read 327 books last year that were added to the library's collection, and repaired nearly 2,000 pieces of equipment.
Employees
There are between 16 and 18 Reading For the Blind inmate employees. That includes readers, editors, repair, duplication, and quality control. The average wage for an inmate is $0.45/hr that is paid by the Department of Corrections. The State Library for the Blind estimates the average salary to do the same job on the streets to be $18.50/hr, saving the state approximately $52,000 per month.
Digital Recording Program
The Library of Congress, National Library Service began recording their books in a digital format. Their goal is to have a new player ready by 2008 to play books in the digital format. In order for the Utah State Library to be in step with the national program, recording rooms at the library as well as at the prison have been updated to record books in the digital format. In May 2006, inmates in the Reading For the Blind program produced the first two books digitally.