How Libraries Enable Reentry Post-Incarceration and Tend to Public Health Needs

Co-authored by Alan Inouye, American Library Association, and
Emily Mooney, R Street Institute

With COVID-19 impacting prison communities from Philadelphia to California, the Biden-Harris administration should focus on the reentry of just some of the two million people currently behind bars. Enabling the reentry of individuals from prisons and jails and back into society is paramount, not only because of the health risks associated with the pandemic but because of the high economic costs associated with incarceration and reincarceration.

Policymakers don’t have to look outside of their local community for at least one resource to combat the personal, community and…