Long Range Plan 2003 - 2007 : Institution Libraries 

In the last century, Massachusetts maintained a wide network of publicly funded mental health hospitals to provide a safe haven and humane treatment for the seriously mentally ill. By the end of the 20th century, this group of institutions had fallen into disrepair and was not providing adequate service for patients. Over the past few years, patients were removed from institutions and placed in community settings where services were locally administered. By the late 1990's, the numbers of those institutionalized in state mental hospitals had dwindled to about 2,500. Currently no patient library service is provided and there is limited library service available for staff and caregivers in a few institutions.

The Department of Public Health maintains a system of four multi-specialty hospitals that provide acute and chronic hospital medical care to individuals for whom community facilities are not available or where access to health care is restricted. They provide ambulatory and inpatient services around issues of mental health and substance abuse. Library services for institutionalized populations in public health hospitals have been phased out over the past ten years.

The Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC) is responsible for care and custody of inmates who have been criminally charged or who are in custody. Within the past five years, the state has gradually assumed more responsibility over the County Houses of Correction (HOC), which generally maintain inmates serving shorter sentences. The state takeover of county facilities is still in a transition phase. Several House of Correction facilities have general and law libraries that are staffed by trained librarians.

According to the latest DOC annual report, in the year 2000, the jurisdiction population was 10,712 and the custody population was 9,962 male and female inmates housed in 22 facilities across the state. The median age of the jurisdiction population is 30.4 years for males and 33.2 for females. Sixty-four percent of males were incarcerated for a violent offence while 36 percent of females were incarcerated for a drug offence.

The DOC maintains library services staffed with a professional librarian in ten of its institutions. Library Services include both law and general library services. A Manager of Library Services provides guidance to the librarians and ensures that DOC policy is carried out. The general library is an information center for the institution, supporting, broadening and strengthening the institution's programs by providing materials for recreational and educational purposes. Some libraries offer programs in literacy and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) or teach Able Minds, a literature-based program designed to help inmates rethink how they make choices. Within the inmate population, 56% of inmates tested below the ninth grade reading level. Many inmates have an identified or suspected reading disability. This figure is significantly higher than that found among the general public. Inmate needs include requests for material in languages other than English and appropriate for lower literacy levels. Librarians are requested to select print and non-print materials to for a population that is increasingly culturally, linguistically and educationally diverse.

Institutional library budgets are extremely uneven. While inmate access to the courts guarantees the institution library maintain an up-to-date law collection, there is often little or no support for the general library. Budgets for the general library are poor or non-existent. Support through the Regional Library System has been especially helpful to those librarians who depend upon interlibrary loan and the delivery service to secure materials from public or other libraries. Institution library staffs have also benefited from the connection to the region and the ability of staff to take advantage of continuing education programs.